Lierre Keith
{{Short description|American feminist and environmentalist activist}}
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| name = Lierre Keith
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| image = Lierre Keith.png
| caption = Keith (May 2011)
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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1964}}{{cite book |last3=Jensen |first3=Derrick |last2=Keith |first2=Lierre |last1=McBay |first1=Aric |date=2011 |title=Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet |url= |location= |publisher=Seven Stories Press |page=104 |quote=Direct action, even nonviolent direct action, has also been derailed by liberalism. I was born the same year as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Twenty-five years later, I watched on TV as the people of Berlin pulled down that wall. Nonviolence is a form of resistance that works but it needs to be understood if it's to be used effectively. |isbn=978-1-58322-929-3}}
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| nationality = American
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| education = Brookline High School
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| organization = {{hlist|Women's Liberation Front|Deep Green Resistance}}
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| notable_works = The Vegetarian Myth
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| movement = Radical environmentalism, radical feminism, trans-exclusionary radical feminism
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| website = {{URL|http://www.lierrekeith.com/}}
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Lierre Keith ({{IPAc-en|l|i|ˈ|ɛər}}; born 1964) is an American writer, radical feminist, food activist, and radical environmentalist.
Biography
She began her public involvement in the feminist movement as the founding editor of Vanessa and Iris: A Journal for Young Feminists (1983–1985).[http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss478.html Periodicals Collection, 1784- (ongoing)], Sophia Smith Collection, Five College Archives & Manuscript Collections, Asteria.[http://www.lierrekeith.com/CV.htm Lierre Keith CV] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100403043218/http://www.lierrekeith.com/CV.htm |date=2010-04-03 }}, Lierre Keith official website During this same period, she also volunteered with a group called Women Against Violence Against Women in Cambridge, where she participated in educational events and protest campaigns. In 1984, she was a founding member of Minor Disturbance, a protest group against militarism from a feminist perspective. In 1986, she was a founding member of Feminists Against Pornography in Northampton, Massachusetts. She is a founding editor of Rain and Thunder, a radical feminist journal in Northampton.[http://www.rainandthunder.org/about.html Rain and Thunder], About
As a radical feminist, and, more recently, as a radical environmentalist, Keith has had many appearances, interviews, and speeches around the U.S. and Canada.[http://www.lierrekeith.com/appearances.htm Lierre Keith appearance] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118034237/http://www.lierrekeith.com/Appearances.htm |date=2012-11-18 }}, contains many external links to radio and press interviews
Keith was an early public advocate of the U.S. local food movement. In a 2006 Boston Globe human interest story, she said, "I like knowing that I'm supporting the local economy, and not corporate America."[http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2006/07/26/movement_toward_more_sustainable_food_systems_is_growing "Movement toward more sustainable food systems is growing"], By Emily Shartin, Boston Globe Staff, July 26, 2006
Her views have attracted negative attention from some vegetarians, what one journalist has called a "Vegan War".{{cite web |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_vegan-wars_1350094 |title=Vegan Wars |work=Daily News and Analysis |author=Uttarika Kumaran |date=February 20, 2010 |accessdate=April 20, 2017}} Illustrative of the heated political debate, protesters hit Keith with chili pepper-laced pies during a presentation of her book The Vegetarian Myth at the 2010 Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair.[http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Pies-in-face-attack-roils-anarchist-vegan-world-3196299.php "Pies-in-face attack roils anarchist-vegan world"], Demian Bulwa, San Francisco Chronicle Staff, March 17, 2010 She has been called the Northanger of the environmentalist movement.
''The Vegetarian Myth''
Keith's 2009 book The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability is a controversial examination of the ecological effects of agriculture and vegetarianism. In The Vegetarian Myth, she offers evidence of agriculture destroying entire eco-systems, such as the North American prairie. She also argues in favour of animal agriculture over plant agriculture, citing that the latter destroys topsoil, while animal farming rebuilds it.
''Deep Green Resistance''
File:JensenKeithOccupyOakland2011.png (right) with Deep Green Resistance at Occupy Oakland in 2011]]
Keith is associated with the Deep Green Resistance movement, and together with Aric McBay and Derrick Jensen, she co-wrote Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet, published in May 2011.Aric McBay, Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith. [http://www.sevenstories.com/book/?GCOI=58322100590170 Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100818031247/http://www.sevenstories.com/book/?GCOI=58322100590170|date=2010-08-18}}. Seven Stories Press, May 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-58322-929-3}}. Last accessed May 29, 2011. The book describes itself as a "manual on how to build a resistance movement that will bring down industrial civilization and save the planet", and "evaluates strategic options for resistance, from non-violence to guerrilla warfare, and the conditions required for those options to be successful".
After the publication of this book, the authors co-founded an organization by the same name. McBay left the organization in early 2012, saying he disagreed with Jensen and Keith's cancellation of a transgender-inclusive policy.Aric McBay, [http://www.aricmcbay.org/2013/05/14/dgr-and-transphobia/ "DGR and Transphobia"], May 14, 2013. Deep Green Resistance has disputed this account, saying that the women's safe space policy was one issue among many, and that the decision to restrict women's spaces was made by the women of DGR, and not by Jensen or Keith.{{cite web |url= https://deepgreenresistance.blogspot.com/2013/05/response-to-aric-mcbay-deep-green-resistance-transphobia.html |title=Response to Aric McBay |work=deepgreenresistance.org |year=2013 |accessdate=10 June 2013}}
Women's Liberation Front
{{main|Women's Liberation Front}}
Keith is a founder of the Women's Liberation Front, and, {{as of|lc=yes|2021}}, serves as its chair.{{cite web|url=https://www.womensliberationfront.org/staff-and-board|title=Staff and Board|website=Women's Liberation Front|accessdate=June 16, 2021}} Women's Liberation Front is an American legal advocacy organization that primarily litigates on transgender topics, and also supports abortion rights, and favors action to combat violence against women and the introduction of the Nordic model approach to prostitution.{{cite web |url=https://womensliberationfront.org/our-work |title=Our Work|date=7 June 2024}} Women's Liberation Front has been accused of being a hate group by the University of Wisconsin Law School QLaw student organization{{cite web |last=Kolowrat |first=Hayden |date=2021-02-01 |title=UPDATED: QLaw opposes Women's Liberation Front's involvement in UW Law interview program |url=https://badgerherald.com/news/2021/02/01/qlaw-opposes-womens-liberation-fronts-involvement-in-uw-law-interview-program/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240926233050/https://badgerherald.com/news/2021/02/01/qlaw-opposes-womens-liberation-fronts-involvement-in-uw-law-interview-program/ |archive-date=2024-09-26 |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=The Badger Herald}}{{cite web |last=Lee |first=Mia |date=2021-02-24 |title=Inclusion of anti-trans group in UW employment fair sparks controversy |url=https://badgerherald.com/news/2021/02/24/print-2-23-inclusion-of-anti-trans-group-in-uw-employment-fair-sparks-controversy/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240926233141/https://badgerherald.com/news/2021/02/24/print-2-23-inclusion-of-anti-trans-group-in-uw-employment-fair-sparks-controversy/ |archive-date=2024-09-26 |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=The Badger Herald}} and the Gender Justice League.{{cite web |last=Sun |first=Deedee |date=2019-12-11 |title=Event at Seattle Public Library causes firestorm, group accused of being 'hate group' |url=https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/controversial-hate-group-event-seattle-public-library-causes-firestorm/SHZT7665XZAYRNCV3FT5OM5IWA/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240926232848/https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/controversial-hate-group-event-seattle-public-library-causes-firestorm/SHZT7665XZAYRNCV3FT5OM5IWA/ |archive-date=2024-09-26 |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=KIRO 7}}
Works
- ''"Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It" by Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Max Wilbert (Monkfish Book Publishing Company). 2021.
- Earth at Risk: Building a Resistance Movement to Save the Planet (edited by L.K. and Derrick Jensen), PM Press, 2012, {{ISBN|978-1-60486-674-2}}
- [https://deepgreenresistance.net/ Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet] (written by L.K., Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay), Seven Stories Press, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-58322-929-3}}
- The Vegetarian Myth, PM Press, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-60486-080-1}}
- Skyler Gabriel, Fighting Words Pr, 1995, {{ISBN|978-0-9632660-2-6}}
- Conditions of War, Fighting Words Pr, 1993, {{ISBN|978-0-9632660-1-9}}
Notes
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- [http://lierrekeith.com Official website]
- [http://www.lierrekeith.com/aric_mcbayinterview.htm Interview with Lierre Keith], by Aric McBay, InTheWake, ca. 2005. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20050507183334/http://www.inthewake.org/keith1.html original archive copy])
- [http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/why-vegetarianism-will-not-save-the-world/ Interview with Lierre Keith ] by Ian McKenzie, on Why Agriculture is Destroying the Planet
{{Radical feminism|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keith, Lierre}}
Category:American women founders
Category:American women environmentalists
Category:American non-fiction environmental writers
Category:Anti-pornography feminists
Category:Anti-prostitution feminists