“Not True,” Says Staffers After Anti-Trans Group Brags About Meetings With Dems
WoLF is mostly known for its anti-trans campaigns and its more-than-friendly relationships with far-right extremist groups such as The Heritage Foundation and the Alliance Defending Freedom.
On May 14, The Hill reporter Brooke Migdon posted something that raised some eyebrows. It appeared to be a screenshot of an email from the anti-transgender organization Women’s Liberation Front, aka WoLF, celebrating members for an upcoming lobbying trip with 19 lawmakers—including over a dozen Democrats in the House and Senate.
But staffers for many of the lawmakers told Erin in the Morning that the claims are false.
“WoLF’s characterization is not true,” said a spokesperson for Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who was named in the email, even though the Maryland Democrat is not meeting with the group.
A spokesperson for Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said, “We have nothing scheduled with this group, and are not aware of any request to meet with anyone associated with them either.”
A representative for Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) wrote, “The Senator is not taking a meeting with this group and was never scheduled to.”
Indeed, when Erin in the Morning asked Democratic lawmakers about the list, every single office that responded came back in the negative—Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Ca.), Rep. Deborah Ross (D-Nc.), Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Az.), and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.).
Five senators did not reply to a request for comment from Erin in the Morning: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-Ny.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-Ny.), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Ca.), Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).
Erin in the Morning did not reach out to the Republican legislators named.
WoLF is mostly known for its anti-trans campaigns and its more-than-friendly relationships with far-right extremist groups such as The Heritage Foundation and The Alliance Defending Freedom—chief architects of Project 2025.
WoLF did not respond to a request for comment at this time, but in a prior correspondence with Erin in the Morning, the group described itself as “non-partisan” and rejected the characterization that it was hateful or extremist.
As for its ties to far-right groups, WoLF’s executive director Sharon Byrne told Erin in the Morning that WoLF was invited to a panel discussion hosted by The Heritage Foundation back in 2019 but that there is “no other collaboration” between those two groups. Byrne also said that the ADF “has given us small grant reimbursements for legal work we'd already performed.”
A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center described it a bit differently. It found that in 2016, WoLF “received a donation from Alliance Defending Freedom to support its lawsuit against the Obama administration’s Title IX guidance advancing transgender rights in education.” And In 2021, the “ADF’s largess had grown to $50,000, funding WoLF’s work related to ‘religious liberty.’”
Even more, the SPLC said, WoLF was created to promote trans-exclusionary radical feminism (also known as TERFism). The SPLC found that WoLF “had employed a media firm associated with the anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion group Focus on the Family.”
Meanwhile, multiple anti-trans amicus briefs were filed with the Supreme Court on behalf of WoLF by Andrea L. Shaw—an “Allied Attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom.” This means Shaw takes pro bono referrals through the ADF, and aligns with the group’s “broader Alliance of like-minded corporations, churches, and ministries.”
While meeting with a group does not equal an endorsement of a group, lawmakers generally exercise caution when allotting time to meet with an organization. Who they agree to meet with can signal a legislator’s policy goals and priorities, and this is true on both sides of the political aisle. It could be seen as legitimizing political groups, which are constantly vying for a spotlight in the mainstream.
Editor’s update: WoLF has shared emails on their personal newsletter from Raskin, Schiff, and Fetterman staffers arranging a meeting. It does not seem, though, that the meeting will actually happen after the congresspeople learned about the organization.
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Just lobbied at the hill yesterday urging our elected officials to vote no on the reconciliation bill, which would be detrimental to all trans folks. Good to hear that staffers didn’t give the terfs good feedback. Disappointed but not surprised that NY didn’t respond. Ty for the updates Erin!
Just a bunch of rotten, bigoted garbage dressed up as feminism. That this group has a connection to a bunch of rabidly bigoted christian supremacists comes as no surprise.