On October 3, 2022, WoLF submitted a response to the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Equitable Data, which had requested input related to the collection of “sexual orientation, gender identity, and variations in sex characteristics (SOGI) data.” Unsurprisingly, this subcommittee conflated sexual orientation and “gender identity,” and combined lesbians, bisexual women, gay men, bisexual men, trans-identified females, trans-identified males, females with DSDs, and males with DSDs into one category. 

The NSTC Subcommittee was tasked with creating the Biden administration’s Federal Evidence Agenda on LGBTQI+ Equity, with the goal of “improv[ing] the Federal government's ability to make data-informed policy decisions that advance equity for the LGBTQI+ community.” The subcommittee is one of many groups that were formed in relationship to the Biden administration’s Executive Order 14075, which purported to “advance equality” for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals. Of course, the fact that Biden’s Executive Order assumed that this extremely diverse group of people should all be lumped together into one group indicated that the administration was either oblivious or intentionally ignoring the ways that trans-identified males have been encroaching into women-only spaces and sexually assaulting lesbians. 

WoLF saw this invitation to submit a response as an opportunity to educate government administrators and leaders about several profoundly important issues related to women’s rights and the treatment of lesbians. WoLF is gravely concerned about how lesbians have been harmed by gender ideology, including – but not limited to – social encouragement for lesbians to physically harm their bodies through drugs, hormones, and surgeries, and sexual violence committed by trans-identified males against lesbians. 

Many of WoLF’s members and supporters are lesbians, and WoLF has engaged in a wide variety of public education projects and political advocacy to protect and defend lesbians from social stigma and violence. In 2019, WoLF featured four lesbian activists in Washington DC, as part of its advocacy to protect women’s sex-based rights. In 2018, WoLF reported on the proceedings of a Baltimore LGBTQ committee meeting that tried to expel a lesbian member because she opposed trans-identified males being placed in women’s prisons. Previously, WoLF has supported accurate data collection and analysis. In 2021, WoLF joined 42 other groups to issue a joint statement to the United Nations calling for an end to the international promotion of gender ideology. This statement included an explanation about why “gender identity” should not be conflated with sex or sexual orientation when collecting and analyzing data. 

In its response to NSTC, WoLF addressed a wide range of concerns related to current data collection and analysis of demographic information and life experiences for lesbians, bisexual women, and other people who are frequently lumped together as “LGBTQI+.” WoLF argued that sexual orientation and “gender identity” are distinct and unrelated concepts, and should not be merged together under an umbrella term.

A common theme throughout WoLF’s response was the notion that federal statistics and data are “increasingly impaired over time with regards to disparities faced by lesbians.” WoLF specifically mentioned the challenges that “gender identity” policies have caused for women in prison, noting that a large number of incarcerated women are lesbians or bisexual women.

WoLF used this response as an opportunity to alert government leaders that mainstream advocacy organizations that purportedly advocate for lesbians – such as GLAAD, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the ACLU – support and promote the concept of “gender identity.” These agencies strongly promote the notions that males can be women and that males can be lesbians, and their data collection strategies promote gender ideology. Such political beliefs, of course, skew data collection and analysis; the federal government cannot rely on research studies that are clearly influenced by gender ideology.  

In summary, WoLF used this opportunity to submit a response to NSTC as a way to advocate in defense of lesbians, who are frequently and aggressively targeted and maligned by many gender ideology activists. Over the past few years, lesbians have been increasingly ridiculed, harassed, threatened, and physically assaulted by trans-identified males and their allies when they speak out in defense of same-sex attraction and relationships. In professional settings, lesbians are now forced to endure “diversity and inclusion” trainings that implicitly or even explicitly redefine lesbianism to include female attraction to male bodies. Lesbians in a wide range of occupations fear ostracism or discrimination in their workplaces when they speak out in defense of same-sex attraction. In social settings, lesbians are targeted, harassed, and ostracized by their community members and even so-called friends when they express their beliefs in science and the fact that the human species only has two sexes. In higher education, lesbian students “go back in the closet” or never even come out because their campuses promote gender ideology, providing intense social pressure on these young lesbians to “transition into men.”

WoLF has many lesbian members and supporters, and it was proud to submit this response to NSTC in the hopes that the federal government will reconsider the various harms that have been caused by previous attempts at data collection and analysis. The federal government must have a firm commitment to data collection and analysis that is based on scientific concepts rather than political ideology. Federal research studies must carefully distinguish between sexual orientation and “gender identity.” 

Additionally, WoLF is extremely grateful to a concerned member of the public, Elizabeth A. Jensen, PhD, PE, CSP. Dr. Jensen alerted WoLF to this opportunity to submit a response to NSTC, and she submitted a response as well.

And as always, WoLF is grateful to Lauren Bone of Jackson Bone LLP; Ms. Bone wrote the NSTC response on behalf of WoLF.