Justice for Ann Menasche: Statement of Solidarity -- Organizations

JUSTICE FOR ANN MENASCHE

Statement of Solidarity from Organizations

We, the undersigned organizations, express our solidarity with the campaign for justice for Ann Menasche, a lesbian and feminist who was fired in May of 2022 without warning from her job of 20 years as a Civil Rights Attorney at Disability Rights California (DRC) following her assertion that abortion bans harm women as a sex, and her complaint about sex and sexual orientation-based harassment. Ms. Menasche was also investigated and targeted for her outside feminist political activity.

DRC is wrong in insisting that asserting the existence of biological sex constitutes bigotry against people who identify as transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming. These views have nothing to do with hate. Moreover, employers do not have a right to control the thoughts, political beliefs, and outside political activities of their employees.

This ideologically motivated termination is reminiscent of the repression and blacklisting of the darkest periods of U.S. history, including the “red scare” of the 1950’s. In the words Senator Joseph Welch directed at Joseph McCarthy in 1954, we must ask DRC, “Have you no sense of decency?”