Pickets Lines, Facebook Feuds Over Canceled LaunchPad Event

This article was written by Megan Riesz.

Two radical feminists of the environmental group Deep Green Resistance were scheduled to speak at LaunchPad Sunday night – until the community arts space canceled the program, sparking a contentious protest. 

Rachel Collins and Lexy Johnson’s “Resistance Rewritten” tour, which has raised $1,100 on gofundme.com, focuses on historical examples of social justice and environmentalism.

But according to Launchpad’s Facebook page, the tour “had triggered a divisive debate” between Deep Green and the transgender community.

“It’s a debate between two different philosophies,” said Zane van Dusen of LaunchPad’s Board of Directors. “I think they can’t agree with each other. We’re about inclusion and this seemed like a very exclusionary debate.”

Van Dusen said LaunchPad’s Facebook page became a battlefield for radical feminists and the transgender community to hash out their differing viewpoints about gender. Deep Green sees gender “socially and politically very real and very deadly,” according to the group’s website, whereas transgender groups and individuals can be accepting of gender identification.

Johnson said they don’t know where LaunchPad perceived the idea that the transgender community was upset with the content of their presentation.

“Both of us, as well as other radical feminists around the world, have been getting this kind of just blacklisting anytime we go anywhere to speak on anything,” she said. “From what I have seen and can tell, it has been folks who coordinate efforts on the Internet who have posed as members of certain local communities to try and get our tour dates canceled.”

In response to the event’s cancelation, Deep Green members picketed LaunchPad on Sunday with signs reading “Gender is Sexism.” 

“This is wrong and it is cowardly,” said a pamphlet handed out at the protest. “We need to demand more from our community spaces and from our community at large. If we allow bullies to silence women, who will those bullies go after next?”

Johnson said she and her fellow activists encountered LaunchPad director Michael Kunitzky during the protest. Kunitzky allegedly called the police after having a heated debate with demonstrators.

“He continually shouted over the women, never letting them speak and was extremely aggressive during the entire interaction,” Johnson said. “I think that entire interaction only proved our points and the community members we talked to could see that clearly.”

Van Dusen, on the other hand, said the interaction between Kunitzky and Deep Green further solidified their decision to cancel Johnson and Collins’ presentation.

“It became clear that this was an organization that we shouldn’t be dealing with,” he said. “We felt very comfortable with the decision due to the way they were treating us.”

LaunchPad has invited representatives from both sides of the argument to participate in a discussion on August 11, according to the organization’s Facebook page.