People in charge of an event called Modern Witches Confluence 2018 wrote a poisonous Facebook post today congratulating themselves on having banished and shunned the feminist historian Max Dashu, who was scheduled to be on a panel. No prizes for guessing why.

Dear Community,

We sincerely apologize for involving Max Dashu in our workshop line-up. Since your community concerns have been raised regarding Dashu’s trans-exclusionary views, we have removed Max Dashu from our teaching line-up, and she will no longer be an influence on the Modern Witches Confluence. We appreciate you voicing your concerns, and we apologize for not responding to them sooner.

We should have done our research before asking Dashu to join us for our event, and after this incident, we know to do our due-diligence. We do not support or endorse those who shame, oppress, or exclude others. The success of our gathering will be built on a shared vision of inclusion, and the collective desire to liberate ourselves from societal rigidity, hatred, and separatist categorization.

We hope that by righting this wrong, the LGBTQ community and beyond will feel safe and welcomed to join us for our event in October. Please keep letting us know how we can do better. This is a community of many diverse voices, and we will need to keep voicing concerns, and listening, in order to grow and evolve.

Contact us at: info@witchesconfluence.org

with Love,

MWC

For what it’s worth, Max doesn’t even have “trans-exclusionary views.” She wrote a Facebook post critical of violence aimed at lesbians at the San Francisco Pride march recently, but that’s hardly “exclusionary.” She is a respected scholar in the field – but hey, somebody somewhere claims she has “trans-exclusionary views” so that’s the end of it. Shun her.

If Putin isn’t contributing trolls and bots to this “movement” he’s missed a trick, because they’re doing a fabulous job of dividing the left.