TRAging - WDI Courthouse Protest, 05/12/22
If you’re a feminist with any amount of experience, newly peaked or activist veteran, you’ve most likely heard the name Dana Rivers before. Born as David Warfield, he was a transgender-identified man who first gained notoriety after he was fired from his teaching position at Center High School in Sacramento. He was reportedly let go for being a transsexual, though he later sued the school district and was reinstated. He would later go on to protest the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and their “womyn-born womyn” policy as a member of the notorious Camp Trans.
On 11th November 2016, police in Oakland, CA received a 911 call reporting gunshots, and arrived at the scene to find Rivers running from a house, covered in blood. He was armed with knives and ammunition, and had set part of the house on fire, likely in an attempt to destroy evidence. Inside the house were the bodies of his three victims: wives Patricia Wright and Charlotte Reed, who had been stabbed and shot multiple times, and their son, Benny Diambu-Wright, who was also shot. According to the LA Times, Rivers “began to make spontaneous statements about her [sic] involvement in the murders”.
Although Rivers’ trial was supposed to be held in 2019, it was delayed several times until November 2022, when he was found guilty of three counts of first degree murder, as well as arson of an inhabited dwelling. However, he was still scheduled to appear in several other court hearings throughout November and December, one of which was set to occur on 5th December 2022.
A little while before this trial was set to occur, Kara Dansky, the president of the United States chapter of Women’s Declaration International, announced that WDI would be demonstrating outside the courthouse on that date. There were fears that Rivers would be sentenced to a women’s correctional facility in accordance with SB 132. The bill, which came into effect in early 2021, dictates that inmates who identify as transgender, nonbinary, or intersex shall be “housed at a correctional facility designated for men or women based on the individual’s preference”. This meant that Rivers, and any man, regardless of the nature of his crimes, could serve his sentence in a women’s prison if he pleased.
Transgender activists had taken note of Dansky’s announcement, though. Indybay, an “Independent Media Center” out of the Bay Area, called for a protest against her, claiming that “‘Women's Rights’ protests like this are the same bullshit as ‘Straight Pride’ rallies”, and said they were akin to white supremacists. Now-suspended Twitter account “It’s Going Down” amplified this, claiming that the Women’s Liberation Front, which was also involved in the demonstration, had ties to the alt-right.
This didn’t seem to deter the event from going forward. By 10 AM on 5th December, about ten attendees had gathered on the steps of the Alameda County Superior Courthouse, where they read out speeches in a short livestream. While mostly in solidarity with Rivers’ victims and incarcerated women who were living in fear of men in their prisons, a moment of silence was held for many murder victims of trans-identifying men. The École Polytechnique massacre carried out by Marc Lépine was also noted, as the next day was its 33rd anniversary.
Throughout the livestream, there was no sign of the transactivist protestors, only one person who passed the group to inform them that “transwomen are women”. Some time later, the women moved down to the Lake Merritt Amphitheater, where they stood alongside a walking/cycling path with their banners.
A video filmed by one of the women shows one of them talking with a dog walker who had inquired about their banners. As she begins to walk away, a group of black-clad men jog in from the path, one of them unfurling an umbrella. He and the other men rush to grab the banners, pulling the women forward as they cling to them. A struggle for the banners ensues, but another man comes at them on a bicycle from the opposite direction, hitting one of the women. The men ran off with both of the banners, while the bystander they had just been talking to expressed shock.
Reduxx, a women’s news outlet, shared a shorter clip to their Twitter account. The woman filming was hit by the man on the bicycle as his companions pulled the banners away. This video reveals that a couple of women had been pied, with cream on their shirts and faces, and pie tins on the ground. Kara Dansky also revealed that she had a raw egg thrown at her head. The attack lasted just under 20 seconds.
Directly after the attack, a few of the women in attendance recounted what had just happened in a recording. Minor injuries were reported, though thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt. Reduxx broke the story only a couple of hours later, and news of what had happened began to spread like wildfire, likely aided by the high-profile nature of Dana Rivers’ case.
Kara Dansky penned a recap of what had happened, and The Post Millennial wrote their own article. Meanwhile, the transactivists involved with the attack posted an article to the Indybay website celebrating their success, posing with one of the banners as it burned. A couple of people online took the opportunity to mock the women, including one person who cracked a multitude of egg-related puns.
Unfortunately, women’s fears were confirmed during Dana Rivers’ sentencing six months later. He’s currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in the Central California Women’s Facility. While he will never walk as a free man again, there’s no doubt that there are women incarcerated with him who are absolutely terrified of him.