Lierre Keith
Born1964 (age 59–60)[1]
NationalityAmerican
EducationBrookline High School
Organizations
Notable workThe Vegetarian Myth
MovementRadical environmentalism, radical feminism, trans-exclusionary radical feminism
Websitewww.lierrekeith.com

Lierre Keith (/liˈɛər/; born 1964) is an American writer, radical feminist, food activist, and radical environmentalist.

Biography

Keith attended Brookline High School in Massachusetts. She began her public involvement in the feminist movement as the founding editor of Vanessa and Iris: A Journal for Young Feminists (1983–1985).[2][3] 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.[3] In 1984, she was a founding member of Minor Disturbance, a protest group against militarism from a feminist perspective.[3] In 1986, she was a founding member of Feminists Against Pornography in Northampton, Massachusetts.[3] She is a founding editor of Rain and Thunder, a radical feminist journal in Northampton.[3][4]

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.[5]

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."[6]

Her views have attracted negative attention from some vegetarians, what one journalist has called a "Vegan War".[7] 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.[8]

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,[7] while animal farming rebuilds it.

Deep Green Resistance

Lierre Keith (left) and Derrick Jensen (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.[9] 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".[9]

After the publication of this book, the authors co-founded an organization by the same name. Aric McBay left the organization at the beginning of 2012, however, attributing his departure to the cancellation of a transgender-inclusive policy by Derrick Jensen and Lierre Keith.[10] 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.[11]

Women's Liberation Front

Keith is a founder of the Women's Liberation Front, and, as of 2021, serves as its chair.[12] Women's Liberation Front has been accused of being a hate group by the University of Wisconsin Law School QLaw student organization[13][14] and the Gender Justice League[15]

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
  • Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet, 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

  1. ↑ McBay, Aric; Keith, Lierre; Jensen, Derrick (2011). Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet. Seven Stories Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-58322-929-3. 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.
  2. ↑ Periodicals Collection, 1784- (ongoing), Sophia Smith Collection, Five College Archives & Manuscript Collections, Asteria.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Lierre Keith CV Archived 2010-04-03 at the Wayback Machine, Lierre Keith official website
  4. ↑ Rain and Thunder, About
  5. ↑ Lierre Keith appearance Archived 2012-11-18 at the Wayback Machine, contains many external links to radio and press interviews
  6. ↑ "Movement toward more sustainable food systems is growing", By Emily Shartin, Boston Globe Staff, July 26, 2006
  7. 1 2 Uttarika Kumaran (February 20, 2010). "Vegan Wars". Daily News and Analysis. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Pies-in-face attack roils anarchist-vegan world", Demian Bulwa, San Francisco Chronicle Staff, March 17, 2010
  9. 1 2 Aric McBay, Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith. Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet Archived 2010-08-18 at the Wayback Machine. Seven Stories Press, May 2011. ISBN 978-1-58322-929-3. Last accessed May 29, 2011.
  10. ↑ Aric McBay, "DGR and Transphobia", May 14, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Response to Aric McBay". deepgreenresistance.org. 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  12. ↑ "Staff and Board". Women's Liberation Front. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
  13. ↑ "UPDATED: QLaw opposes Women's Liberation Front's involvement in UW Law interview program". February 2021.
  14. ↑ "Inclusion of anti-trans group in UW employment fair sparks controversy". 24 February 2021.
  15. ↑ "Event at Seattle Public Library causes firestorm, group accused of being 'hate group'". 11 December 2019.
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