www.politico.com Open in urlscan Pro
2606:4700::6812:10ca  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

GET q

<form class="slide-search__form" action="q" method="get">
  <input class="slide-search__input" type="search" name="q" id="searchTerm" aria-label="Search for any story" placeholder="Enter search term...">
  <button class="slide-search__run" type="submit" aria-label="Start search"><b class="bt-icon bt-icon--search"></b><span class="icon-text">Search</span></button>
  <button class="slide-search__close" id="search-close" type="button"><b class="bt-icon bt-icon--close" aria-label="Close Search"></b></button>
</form>

Text Content

POLITICO POLITICO LOGO

 * Magazine
 * Pro
 * E&E News
 * Search
   Search


SECTIONS

 * Congress
 * White House
 * Magazine
 * The Agenda
 * Video
 * Podcasts
 * Congress Minutes


ELECTIONS

 * News
 * All Election Results


SERIES

 * The Fifty
 * The First 100 Days
 * Recovery Lab
 * The Vaccine Race
 * Women Rule


THE EXCHANGE

 * Women Rule


NEWSLETTERS

 * Playbook
 * Playbook PM
 * POLITICO Nightly
 * West Wing Playbook
 * The Recast
 * Huddle
 * All Newsletters


POLITICO LIVE

 * Live Home
 * Upcoming Events
 * Previous Events
 * About POLITICO Live


COLUMNS & CARTOONS

 * Rich Lowry
 * Jack Shafer
 * Matt Wuerker
 * Cartoon Carousel


POLICY

 * Agriculture
 * Cannabis
 * Cybersecurity
 * Defense
 * Education
 * eHealth
 * Employment & Immigration
 * Energy & Environment
 * Finance & Tax
 * Health Care
 * Space
 * Sustainability
 * Technology
 * Trade
 * Transportation


EDITIONS

 * California
 * Canada
 * Europe
 * Florida
 * New Jersey
 * New York
 * Pro


FOLLOW US

 * Twitter
 * Instagram
 * Facebook

 * My Account
 * Log In Log Out



E&E News


HOW A FIGHT OVER TRANSGENDER RIGHTS DERAILED ENVIRONMENTALISTS IN NEVADA

Some activists fighting a massive lithium mine project are angry over the
involvement of an environmental group they say espouses discriminatory views
about transgender people.



Activist Max Wilbert at the Thacker Pass lithium mine site in Nevada in early
December 2021. A sign with the words “Lithium Lies” in red can be seen behind
him. | Francis Chung/E&E News

By Jael Holzman

02/06/2022 07:00 AM EST

 * 
 * 

 * * Link Copied
 * * 
   * 
   * 

OROVADA, Nev. — Max Wilbert, standing on a hill overlooking a wide plain of
brush and farmland, walks over to a black banner that’s grabbed a lot of media
attention.

In blood-red letters, the banner reads, “Lithium Lies.”



Here in Nevada, activists like Wilbert are fighting against the largest lithium
mine set for development in the United States. The mine is in the final stages
of permits, and the lithium pulled from the ground here could fuel batteries for
electric vehicles sold in the United States.

But the grassroots movement against the project has been torn apart over an
unrelated but volatile issue: transgender rights.



Two of the lead activists — Wilbert and fellow protester Will Falk — are part of
a self-described “radical environmental” group, Deep Green Resistance, whose
goal is to dismantle industrial civilization to save the planet.

But beyond its environmental agenda, Deep Green Resistance also identifies as a
“radical feminist organization.” This means, for example, that members oppose
opening up women-only spaces like bathrooms to transgender women, whom the
group’s website refers to as “people born male.”

The anti-transgender stance has blown up the grassroots alliances that once
stood together against the Nevada mine project, known as Thacker Pass.
Environmental and Indigenous activists from the region say DGR’s positions on
transgender and nonbinary people are discriminatory, and they distanced
themselves from Wilbert and Falk.

People of Red Mountain, an Indigenous group challenging the mine in court,
recently severed its relationship with Falk, who was acting as its attorney. A
spokesperson for the group specifically cited Deep Green Resistance’s views on
transgender people as the reason for parting ways.

Deep Green Resistance’s anti-trans positions put the group in direct opposition
to mainstream environmental nonprofits, which in recent years have increasingly
focused on promoting inclusivity within their ranks alongside their
environmental work. Now its views on gender identity has left a group of
Indigenous activists without a voice in the legal battle about an open-pit mine
on land they say is sacred to their people.

Ian Bigley, an environmental activist and organizer in Nevada, said he’s heard
from potential donors who would otherwise give money to help oppose the mine,
but who are worried about being associated with Deep Green Resistance.

“The fact that we’re trying to tie ourselves into knots around this speaks to
the real cost of having them involved,” said Kelly Fuller, energy and mining
campaign director for Idaho-based environmental group Western Watersheds
Project, part of a coalition of green groups that has legally challenged the
mine.

The fight over mining at Thacker Pass is one that is playing out across the
country as communities weigh the potential benefits and pitfalls that could come
with mining metals vital to the green energy revolution in their backyards.
These local debates are just heating up, with activists in Maine — home to one
of the most restrictive mining laws in the nation — and Minnesota notching early
victories against expanded mining. But western states like Nevada, historically
home to gold mining, could prove more welcoming to this new minerals frontier.




The mining project in northern Nevada planned by Lithium Americas, a company
based in Canada, has drawn the ire of environmental groups and a rancher — all
questioning in federal court whether mining will forever drain, or pollute, the
nearby groundwater.

Some Indigenous opponents say the future mine also would destroy a site they
hold sacred because their ancestors were massacred there in 1865 by the U.S.
Cavalry.

The Santa Rosa Mountains near the Thacker Pass mine site in northern Nevada. |
Francis Chung/E&E News

Lithium Americas has maintained that Thacker Pass will not have significant
negative environmental impacts, and it has asserted that it is acting
responsibly to manage any tribal artifacts it may uncover during construction
and operation of the mine.

For Wilbert, a writer and organizer who has become one of the most quoted
opponents of the mine, Thacker Pass is also a chance to make an argument at the
core of Deep Green Resistance’s philosophy: that clean energy is a myth.

“I grew up in Seattle in an environmentally-conscious family,” Wilbert said
while giving a tour of the proposed mine site in early December. “I thought
solar, wind, electric cars were a solution. I thought that [it] was going to
save the planet and save the world.”

But he changed his mind while he was in his 20s. “In the long term, they lead to
more suffering, more toxicity, more habitat destruction,” Wilbert said. Along
the way, he began working with Derrick Jensen and Lierre Keith, two co-founders
of Deep Green Resistance.

By the trio’s own telling, the widespread media coverage Wilbert has received at
Thacker Pass — from the The New York Times to CNN — was a return from exile for
him and DGR.

In October 2019, Wilbert, Jensen and Keith penned an essay on the Canadian
website Feminist Current bemoaning that they couldn’t get their environmental
message out to the public, as a book they had written was being rejected by a
publisher demanding that they “explain our ‘transphobia.’”

“Okay, hands up everyone who predicted that when Big Brother arrived, he’d be
wearing a dress, hauling anyone who refuses to wax his ladyballs before a human
rights tribunal, and bellowing ‘It’s Ma’am!’” the essay began.

The book, “Bright Green Lies,” was ultimately published last March, two months
after Wilbert and Falk set up a protest camp at Thacker Pass. In the book, the
authors argue that the environmental movement is wrongly focused on preserving
civilization through new technologies, instead of the preservation of the
natural world.


CAMPING OUT AT THACKER PASS

A tent at the protest camp at the planned Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern
Nevada. | Francis Chung/E&E News

On Jan. 15, 2021, the Bureau of Land Management approved the mine.

That same day, Wilbert and Falk headed out to Thacker Pass and erected a
collection of tents.

Wilbert said that he came across Thacker Pass while researching “Bright Green
Lies.” The night of his first visit to the area, Wilbert recalled, he slept
among the nearby cliffs and had an “incredibly powerful dream.”


MOST READ


 1. HOW TO LOSE A SUPREME COURT NOMINEE IN 24 DAYS


 2. LEFT SPLITS OVER SUPREME COURT PICK PUSHED BY TOP BIDEN ALLY


 3. HOUSE PASSES BILL TO EASE POSTAL SERVICE FINANCIAL WOES


 4. ‘MALICIOUS POISON’: GOP SENATOR SLAMS BIDEN'S ANTISEMITISM ENVOY PICK FOR
    CRITICIZING HIS JAN. 6 RHETORIC


 5. SPY WORLD WARY AS BIDEN TEAM KEEPS LEAKING RUSSIA INTEL



“In the dream, we set up a camp to defend this place,” he said.

Others involved in the fight against Thacker Pass said they also see the value
of defending the mountainous land, covered in sagebrush, where the mine would be
built.

But they said they felt betrayed by Wilbert and Falk’s failure to acknowledge
Deep Green Resistance’s involvement as they approached local activists about
joining forces.

Bigley, like other advocates who would wind up distancing themselves from
Wilbert and Falk, said he discovered the truth about the two men online.

When the men first arrived at the mine site, he recalled, they said they were
separate from Deep Green Resistance and were operating under an organization
called Protect Thacker Pass.

But when Bigley looked at a fundraising website for Protect Thacker Pass, he saw
that it was created by Deep Green Resistance. It was clear to him, he said, that
the “connection [was] real, even though it [was] being marketed as not there.”

“I personally felt misled,” he said. “It takes a lot to stop a mining
corporation, and that’s not something that I’m interested in derailing.”

Lithium Americas declined to comment about the camp. But a public relations
adviser working with the company did suggest investigating the duo.

“Have you looked into them and their group — Deep Green Resistance?” wrote Zack
Roday of P2 Public Affairs, the adviser for Lithium Americas in an email. “Max
Wilbert is a traveling protestor who will do anything to advance the mission of
his organization to ‘deindustrialize and depopulate society’ — their words.”

Claudine Hellmuth/E&E News (graphic); Datawrapper (base map)

Gary McKinney Jr., a spokesperson for People of Red Mountain, said that Wilbert
and Falk put the group “between a rock and a hard place” by not disclosing their
connections to Deep Green Resistance before forming a partnership with them in
the lawsuit.

“And it was over transphobia. That’s the first time I’ve heard that word,”
McKinney said.

“I feel that DGR took the wind out of our sails because it was serious between
DGR and that community, and that wasn’t our fight, so we were left out in the
open.”




Falk countered that he and Wilbert were “always open and transparent.”

“We did not hide our involvement with DGR,” he said, “and statements to the
contrary, to the best of my knowledge, are false.”

At the mine site in December, Wilbert declined to comment on the financial
relationship between his work against the mine and Deep Green Resistance.

“I don’t really know that that is something that I want to discuss with a
journalist,” Wilbert said, “or that that’s something we need to have in a
story.”

In a separate interview, Keith said DGR operated as a “fiscal umbrella” for the
protest camp, raising money and doling it out to the protesters through grants.
The group received nonprofit status from the IRS in 2020, allowing DGR to raise
tax-free donations.

Wilbert in a subsequent email statement declined to answer specific questions
about claims environmental and Indigenous activists made about the way he and
Falk represented themselves when they set up camp.

He said that he has been “publicly associated with DGR for many years,” and
added his work with the organization “is a source of pride, not something that I
hide.”

“Anyone who calls me a liar is simply trying to discredit me and undermine my
work. This is a manipulative and cynical political technique, and it’s shameful
that it’s even considered newsworthy when there are far more substantive issues
to cover,” he stated.

Wilbert and Falk both declined to discuss their individual views on transgender
people.


‘A WORLD WITHOUT INDUSTRIAL CIVILIZATION’

Jensen, one of the co-founders of Deep Green Resistance, said in a December
interview with Keith that he always thought the thing that would get him in
trouble was calling for dams to be blown up.

But suggesting the world needs to dismantle infrastructure on a continental
scale has caused him far less reputational damage in the environmental
community, Jensen said, than the statements he and his group have made about
transgender people.

“It’s frustrating to me. I want to talk about the murder of the planet,” Jensen
said.

Before starting Deep Green Resistance, Jensen was an author who primarily wrote
books about the environment. Co-founder Keith was a feminist activist and an
early champion of the local food movement.

In 2011, the pair launched Deep Green Resistance, a volunteer-based group that
advocates radical activism, including civil disobedience and nonviolent illegal
activity.

The group, according to its website, believes the environmental movement must
return society to a state in which “biodiversity is rising, dead zones are
shrinking, and land-based cultures grounded in human rights and a sustainable
relationship with the planet arise and flourish.”

“In short: a world without industrial civilization,” the website states.

DGR members attracted law enforcement scrutiny in 2013 and 2014 when the FBI
zeroed in on environmental activists during the height of protests against the
Keystone XL pipeline, The Guardian reported in an article that raised questions
about the probe’s constitutionality. But public records examined by The Guardian
showed that the FBI found no evidence that the people under investigation had
engaged in criminal activity.




It’s the group’s position on transgender people that has turned off fellow
activists over the years, including drawing counterprotests at its events.

“This is what you can expect if you do something that is ‘unwoke.’ You will be
canceled. You will have your life destroyed,” Keith said. “Even J.K. Rowling,
it’s endless, my God.”

On its website, Deep Green Resistance explains that being a radical feminist
organization means its members “seek to liberate all women from oppression” and
“side with women resisting male violence in all its forms.”

The group also defends the practical implications of its positions for
transgender women. “We have been called transphobic because the women of DGR do
not want men — people born male and socialized into masculinity — in women-only
spaces,” the website reads. “DGR stands with women in that decision.”

The views espoused by Deep Green Resistance about gender run counter to the
well-established scientific consensus surrounding the health benefits of
treating gender dysphoria, said Heron Greenesmith, a senior research analyst for
LGBTQI+ issues at Political Research Associates, a progressive think tank.

Gender dysphoria, according to the Mayo Clinic, is the feeling of discomfort or
distress that can occur in people whose gender identity — an internal sense of
one’s gender — is different from the sex they were assigned at birth, or their
sex-related physical characteristics.

Among trans people, gender-affirming care and social transition can dramatically
reduce suicide rates and prevent substance abuse problems, according to the
American Medical Association.

The association also states that excluding transgender people from
gender-specific places like restrooms can “undermine well-established treatment
protocols” for treating gender dysphoria.

Early on in its existence, Deep Green Resistance’s positions on trans people led
to rifts within the organization. After media coverage of this stance, Aric
McBay, who helped found DGR with Jensen and Keith, said he had split from the
group, decrying in a 2013 blog post the “transphobic attitude” of those in
charge.

“[I]t bothers me a lot to have any past association with people promoting
transphobia,” McBay, who could not be reached for comment, stated in the blog
post.

Despite the blowback, Deep Green Resistance and its founders remained committed
to their radical feminism.

In an interview, Keith compared the people who “want to violate the basic
boundaries of women” to the people who have “violated the boundaries of forests
and rivers and prairies.”

Jensen and Keith said these beliefs are purely ideological and don’t come up in
the environmental advocacy work done by Deep Green Resistance.

The group’s YouTube channel does host conversations between Jensen and other
figures specifically focused on gender, with subjects ranging from the “trans
grooming of children & society” to the “money & power behind [the] trans lobby.”


LAWSUIT REPERCUSSIONS

If the protest camp at Thacker Pass provided Wilbert and Falk with a platform to
talk about their environmental ideals, that period could be over.

The pair dismantled their initial camp after BLM in September fined the two men
nearly $50,000 for trespassing and building latrines at the site, Wilbert said.

Daranda Hinkey, a Paiute-Shoshone tribal member and activist with People of Red
Mountain, sitting in a house on the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation. | Francis
Chung/E&E News

“We took that camp down,” he said.

For a spell, he said they were using a separate encampment put up by the People
of Red Mountain. But that camp also was recently taken down, McKinney said in
late January.

Daranda Hinkey, a member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe and
secretary of People of Red Mountain, lives a 50-mile drive away from the
campsite.




During an interview in December, Hinkey stressed how personal this issue is to
her. She and others in her community say they are direct descendants of Ox Sam,
believed to be one of the few survivors of the 1865 massacre at the place they
call Peehee Mu’huh, or “rotten moon.”

Her organization, People of Red Mountain, partnered with Wilbert and Falk after
they arrived in the northern Nevada to have a better shot at taking on the mine.

Falk volunteered to represent People of Red Mountain in their legal case.

In November, the federal judge presiding over the case ruled that insufficient
evidence had been presented that the 1865 massacre had occurred at the mine site
to stop a required archeological dig. Last month, a tribe involved in the
lawsuit appealed the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

But setting aside whether her group wins or loses the case, the lawsuit also
created a new conflict in Hinkey’s community.

Until recently, nobody in the group knew Falk was a member of Deep Green
Resistance, Hinkey said, nor did they know the potential baggage linked to the
group.

Hinkey said that she believes her group would not have brought Falk on as an
attorney in the case had its members known his association with a group with
views she considers “anti-trans.”

“It’s not right,” she said. “Before all of this fell out, before we all really
knew anything … we sat in ceremony with them. We prayed for these people.”

Earlier this month, Falk and his co-counsel filed to withdraw as the attorneys
for People of Red Mountain, citing “irreconcilable differences.”

In a phone interview, Falk said he still represents the Reno-Sparks Indian
Colony in the suit.

Falk declined to comment on stepping away from representing People of Red
Mountain. He denied that his affiliation with Deep Green Resistance was related.

“I can’t explain those reasons. They have to explain those reasons,” he said.

McKinney, the People of Red Mountain spokesperson, said at the time of the split
the People of Red Mountain had not found a new attorney.

Then, last month, People of Red Mountain announced they had taken down their
protest camp.

“Any events, other camps, or property at Peehee Mu’huh [are] not sanctioned by
the People of Red Mountain until further notice,” the group stated in an
Instagram post.

“People of Red Mountain have been doing well and are working on organizing in
new ways.”

A version of this report first ran in E&E News' Greenwire. Get access to more
comprehensive and in-depth reporting on the energy transition, natural
resources, climate change and more in E&E News.


 * Filed under:
 * Environment,
 * Nevada,
 * Bureau Of Land Management,
 * Advocacy Groups,
 * Transgender


POLITICO
 * 
 * 

 * * Link Copied
 * * 
   * 
   * 


SPONSORED CONTENT
 * 
   „Bauchfett kann mit diesem Hormon-Test gelöst werden" Apotheken Kompass
 * 
   So bekommen junge Männer diskret Potenzpillen ohne Arztbesuch ( Urologen
   erklären ) Apomeds.com
 * 
   Arthrose: Ein einfacher Tipp, um Schmerzen einfach zu lindern Nutrivia
 * 
   We Will Guess Your Education Level in 20 Questions Parentsdome Galleries
 * 
   Ärzte verblüfft: Ein einfacher Tipp gegen Nagelpilze (Heute Abend testen)
   Pilze Research

 * 
   Jobless in Germany? This is how to become a UX designer in just 5 months for
   free CareerFoundry
 * 
   Lust auf Urlaub? Genießen Sie All Inclusive mit Costa Kreuzfahrten!
   costakreuzfahrten.at
 * 
   Mut zur Lücke war gestern – kostenloser Zahnersatz Pro Verbraucher
 * 
   [Fotos] Sie war eine Ikone, schauen Sie sich Michaela Schaffrath an, mit 50
   Jahren https://cidergossip.com/
 * 
   So einfach war der Heizungswechsel noch nie Thermondo

By

 * About Us
 * Advertising
 * Breaking News Alerts
 * Careers
 * Credit Card Payments
 * Digital Edition
 * FAQ
 * Feedback
 * Headlines
 * Photos
 * POWERJobs
 * Press
 * Print Subscriptions
 * Write For Us
 * RSS
 * Site Map

 * Terms of Service
 * Privacy Policy
 * Do not sell my info
 * Notice to California Residents

© 2022 POLITICO LLC




ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY




YOUR PRIVACY

YOUR PRIVACY

We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the
delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our
website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent and
legitimate interest. You may exercise your right to consent or object to a
legitimate interest, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in
the link under each purpose. These choices will be signaled to our vendors
participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
More information

List of IAB Vendors‎


 * STRICTLY NECESSARY COOKIES
   
   STRICTLY NECESSARY COOKIES
   
   Always Active
   Strictly Necessary Cookies
   
   These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be
   switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions
   made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your
   privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser
   to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will
   not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable
   information.
   
   Cookies Details‎


 * PERFORMANCE COOKIES
   
   PERFORMANCE COOKIES
   
   Performance Cookies
   
   These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure
   and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are
   the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All
   information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If
   you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our
   site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
   
   Cookies Details‎


 * FUNCTIONAL COOKIES
   
   FUNCTIONAL COOKIES
   
   Functional Cookies
   
   These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and
   personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose
   services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then
   some or all of these services may not function properly.
   
   Cookies Details‎


 * TARGETING COOKIES
   
   TARGETING COOKIES
   
   Targeting Cookies
   
   These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They
   may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show
   you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal
   information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet
   device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted
   advertising.
   
   Cookies Details‎


 * GOOGLE
   
   GOOGLE
   
   Google
   
   Allowing third-party ad tracking and third-party ad serving through Google
   and other vendors to occur. Please see more information on Google Ads here.
   
    * STORE AND/OR ACCESS INFORMATION ON A DEVICE
      
      Targeting Cookies
      
      Cookies, device identifiers, or other information can be stored or
      accessed on your device for the purposes presented to you.
   
    * SELECT PERSONALISED ADS
      
      Targeting Cookies
      
      Personalised ads can be shown to you based on a profile about you.
      
      Object to Legitimate Interests Remove Objection
   
    * SELECT BASIC ADS
      
      Targeting Cookies
      
      Ads can be shown to you based on the content you’re viewing, the app
      you’re using, your approximate location, or your device type.
      
      Object to Legitimate Interests Remove Objection
   
    * MEASURE AD PERFORMANCE
      
      Targeting Cookies
      
      The performance and effectiveness of ads that you see or interact with can
      be measured.
      
      Object to Legitimate Interests Remove Objection
   
    * APPLY MARKET RESEARCH TO GENERATE AUDIENCE INSIGHTS
      
      Targeting Cookies
      
      Market research can be used to learn more about the audiences who visit
      sites/apps and view ads.
      
      Object to Legitimate Interests Remove Objection
   
    * DEVELOP AND IMPROVE PRODUCTS
      
      Targeting Cookies
      
      Your data can be used to improve existing systems and software, and to
      develop new products
      
      Object to Legitimate Interests Remove Objection
   
    * CREATE A PERSONALISED ADS PROFILE
      
      Targeting Cookies
      
      A profile can be built about you and your interests to show you
      personalised ads that are relevant to you.
      
      Object to Legitimate Interests Remove Objection
   
   List of IAB Vendors‎ | View Full Legal Text Opens in a new Tab

Back Button


ADVERTISING COOKIES

Filter Button
Consent Leg.Interest
Select All Vendors
Select All Vendors
Select All Hosts

Select All

 * REPLACE-WITH-DYANMIC-HOST-ID
   
   
   
   View Third Party Cookies
   
    * Name
      cookie name



Clear Filters

Information storage and access
Apply
Confirm My Choices Allow All



WE CARE ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY

We and our partners store and/or access information on a device, such as unique
IDs in cookies to process personal data. You may accept or manage your choices
by clicking below, including your right to object where legitimate interest is
used, or at any time in the privacy policy page. These choices will be signaled
to our partners and will not affect browsing data.


WE AND OUR PARTNERS PROCESS DATA TO PROVIDE:

Store and/or access information on a device. Select personalised ads. Select
basic ads. Measure ad performance. Apply market research to generate audience
insights. Develop and improve products. Create a personalised ads profile. List
of Partners (vendors)

I Accept
Show Purposes