Holly Hart is a Danger to Our Community

Portland may be a great place to be an out queer or trans person. Activists in Portland have been fighting for the rights of LGBTQ individuals for decades. However, some of the same people who fought to have gay and lesbian people seen as equals by our society, have now taken up the role of oppressor themselves. Holly Hart is one of those people.

Holly Hart, along with colleague John Wilkinson, created the Portland Gay Liberation Front in 1970. Since then, Holly has been an active member of the Portland LGB community. (https://www.glapn.org/6048HollyHartInterview.html) Many other people may know her as the owner of the now-defunct restaurant Old Wives’ Tales for 34 years. There is no denying the impact that Holly has made in Portland.

In recent times, Holly has found a new passion — fighting against the rights of trans people. Take this post, a picture of two people at a night club, with a caption that says, “When you slip a Viagra into her drink because you have a funny feeling she’s not being honest with you…”

This person, who is still considered by many a leader in the LGB community, posting a joke about drugging someone publicly. Or take this, Holly playing off of the oft-cited myth that trans women are actually pedophiles in disguise (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/04/28/transgender-bathroom-bills-discrimination/32594395/). [Image description: screenshot of a news article posted by Holly with the headline, “Man Hides Past as Child Rapist by Becoming Transgender, Changing Name | Women Are Human”]

Holly has been continued to be active in the Portland LGB community to this day. In fact, as a slap in the face to the bravery of Martha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, sat on a panel discussing the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riot (https://www.glapn.org/6059StookeyHistoryPub20190624.html). She also is active in the American offshoot of anti-trans hate group based out of the UK, LGB Alliance (https://twitter.com/LGBAlliance_USA). As well as Womens’ Liberation Front (WoLF), also a known anti-trans hate group (https://www.womensliberationfront.org/).

We cannot allow Holly to be in any community space that is considered open and inclusive. According to a survey done by the National Center for Transgender Equality, “[the] survey, which included more than 28,000 respondents, nearly half (47%) of all Black respondents reported being denied equal treatment, verbally harassed, and/or physically attacked in the previous year because of being transgender.” (https://transequality.org/blog/murders-of-transgender-people-in-2020-surpasses-total-for-last-year-in-just-seven-months)

This violent rhetoric used by Holly and other TERF activists play a large role in why trans folks, specifically Black trans women, experience violence as a result of their identity. By allowing them into our community spaces, trans people will continue to be harassed and even killed by those who fall for the hateful speech. We must push back against her and stop allowing her in our spaces to protect all of our LGBTQ+ community.