Most people probably are not familiar with what’s called a “TERF,” not to be confused with a “Smurf.”
But know this: They are/were not wanted at the Art Coop store at Urbana’s Lincoln Square. The art-supply store has/had a window sign that reads “NO TERFS.”
That led to Urbana’s Nina Paley filing a discrimination complaint with Urbana’s Human Relations Commission. Because of that complaint, the sign will be/has been removed.
“They are taking the correct action,” said Paley, referring to store owners Anna Peters and Hillary Pope.
What is a TERF? It stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” and constitutes “a movement that opposes what it refers to as ‘gender ideology.’”
Confused? Let’s try again.
That’s the “concept of gender identity and transgender rights, especially gender self-determination.” Members of the gender-critical movement believe that “biological sex cannot be changed.”
Paley, a local cartoonist and daughter of former Urbana Mayor Hiram Paley, is known to critics as a TERF. Her complaint alleges the sign violated Urbana’s human-rights ordinance because it is “creed” discrimination.
Paley said the sign is a “warning to women to stay silent” on gender issues. She said women who share her opinion would be “speaking up if they weren’t terrified” of anti-TERF discrimination.
That might strike some as an issue out of their realm of experience, or perhaps another example of Urbana being Urbana.
But it’s hot stuff in the feminist circles, complete with its own lexicon that includes name-calling and threats.
Paley’s comment that “if you have a penis, you’re a man” is characterized as “transphobic” by the “transeratti,” the “glitteratti” of the LGBTQ world.
The website terfisaslur.com is filled with suggestions of violence, including “literally kill all TERFS.”
Contacted this week, Peters said she and Pope were aware of the complaint and “talking with our lawyer” about how to proceed.
“I’d rather not talk about it,” she said.
But the owners’ actions spoke louder than words.
This is not Paley’s first skirmish with anti-TERFers. In 2018, her critics sought to ban her film “Seder-Masochism,” a spoof of the Passover Seder story.
Under pressure, the now-defunct Art Theater canceled a scheduled showing. But Paley supporters raised roughly $4,000 needed to rent the Virginia Theatre and show the film.
Paley filed her complaint along with an acquaintance, Corrina Cohn of Indianapolis. Cohn wrote in her complaint that, while shopping at the Art Coop, she raised the issue of the sign that reads “NO TERFS.”
“One owner said that my money spends the same, but the other owner suggested that if I didn’t like the sign that I should instead shop at Hobby Lobby,” Cohn wrote.
Cohn said she advised the Art Coop owners that the store should be open to “everyone,” but “one of the owners said that they had polled their staff and that they had voted to retain” the sign.
Paley said she’ll be “withdrawing my complaint” once the city has completed its settlement agreement with the Art Coop.
“Then we’re going to go in and buy something,” Paley said of herself and Cohn.
The settlement saves the city considerable time and effort. Carla Boyd, Urbana’s human-rights and equity director, was conducting a “preliminary inquiry” to determine whether there was reason to proceed.
If the complaint was substantive and settlement efforts failed, the dispute would have gone to the city’s human-rights commission for a public hearing.
