Lilith Fair charity campaign includes anti-choice orgs

Looks like this year’s revival of Lilith Fair could follow in the footsteps of Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival as another for-profit music event marketed to feminists but with some very anti-feminist politics.
Lilith Fair’s Facebook page is running a “Choose Your Charity” campaign – fans in every city that will host Lilith Fair events can vote for local charities and the winners will receive $1 for every ticket sold in that city. However, as the Chicago Reader reports, anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are included in the list of charities folks can vote to fund. CPCs misinform and outright lie to women with the aim of keeping them from accessing contraception and abortion. Not exactly my definition of pro-woman charities.
It sounds from the Chicago Reader article like Lilith Fair did not do the necessary work at the local level to make sure the charities included were actually pro-woman. Nettwerk CEO and Lilith cofounder Terry McBride claims the list was generated by searching online for organizations that are woman-focused and have federal tax ID numbers. If this is the case I hope organizers will act swiftly to remove anti-choice organizations from the running. However, voting went down on the Lilith Fair Facebook page recently, and when it relaunched a vague statement was released and the CPCs were still on the list of charities.
In the meantime you can join the Facebook group Lilith Fair: No money for crisis pregnancy centers! and contact Lilith Fair to let them know anti-choice CPCs are not feminist or pro-woman charities.

Boston, MA

Jos Truitt is Executive Director of Development at Feministing. She joined the team in July 2009, became an Editor in August 2011, and Executive Director in September 2013. She writes about a range of topics including transgender issues, abortion access, and media representation. Jos first got involved with organizing when she led a walk out against the Iraq war at her high school, the Boston Arts Academy. She was introduced to the reproductive justice movement while at Hampshire College, where she organized the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program’s annual reproductive justice conference. She has worked on the National Abortion Federation’s hotline, was a Field Organizer at Choice USA, and has volunteered as a Pro-Choice Clinic Escort. Jos has written for publications including The Guardian, Bilerico, RH Reality Check, Metro Weekly, and the Columbia Journalism Review. She has spoken and trained at numerous national conferences and college campuses about trans issues, reproductive justice, blogging, feminism, and grassroots organizing. Jos completed her MFA in Printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute in Spring 2013. In her "spare time" she likes to bake and work on projects about mermaids.

Jos Truitt is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Development.

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