Athens community members protest Artifacts Gallery owner Amy Mangano
All photos courtesy of Claire Del Vita.
Athens community members and Ohio University students gathered in front of Artifacts Gallery on W. State Street Saturday morning to protest owner Amy Mangano.
What began as a small group quickly grew as protestors filtered in with signs and banners. The protest was scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., but organizers started to show up before then. Protestors passed out flyers and pamphlets that described their reasons for protesting to participants and onlookers alike. One pamphlet urged readers to “BOYCOTT ARTIFACTS” and included tweets and blog quotes from Mangano that featured transphobic rhetoric.
Protestors included male-identifying, female-identifying and nonbinary individuals as well as members of Ohio U Student Senate and a few young children with their parents. Some of their posters read “No TERFs on our turf”, “No hate in our community,” “Trans rights are human rights” and “Support your sisters, not just your cis-ters.”
TERF stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminism. It has often been used to describe Mangano and others with similar views, like author J.K. Rowling. According to Dictionary.com, TERFs consider themselves feminists but do not believe that transgender individuals' gender identity is legitimate and that they should be excluded from the movement.
Dino Scott, a sophomore theatre major at Ohio U held up a cardboard sign with Athens City Municipal Code 3.07.62 (b) written on it. The code states that discrimination on the basis of “race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin or ancestry, marital or familial status, religious belief, age, or disability” in public accommodations is unlawful.
“This type of hate causes hurt and makes trans people feel like they don’t have any basic humanity,” Scott said. “More and more everyday trans people are kicked out of their homes, they’re being abused. Suicide rates have gone up. We need to stand up against hate, because if we don’t people are going to continue to suffer.”
Artifacts has been a favorite local business for many Ohio U students and Athenians with its array of both local and outsourced artwork, clothing and jewelry until Mangano began posting anti-trans signs on the store’s door and windows. Her most recent addition was a white sign that reads, “Are women’s sex-based rights hateful?”
Mangano could be seen taking pictures and recording videos of protestors from inside her store, while two protesters held up a black cloth to conceal her. According to Mangano’s Twitter, the protest was to be streamed by the American chapter of the Women’s Declaration International (WDI) on Facebook.
The WDI, an organization focused on women’s “sex-based” rights, wrote the declaration hung up on Artifacts’ door. The declaration has nine articles, including “Women’s rights are based on their sex,”“Motherhood is an exclusively female status” and “Protection of the rights of the child.”
When the crowd grew too large to be contained on the sidewalk, the group moved to the Athens County Courthouse. As they walked, protestors chanted words that echoed those written on their signs. Protestors’ chants included “Boycott Artifacts,” “When trans rights are under attack, what do you do? Stand up, fight back!” and “Transphobes have got to go, going against the municipal code.” Scott was one of the few protestors who chose to stay outside Artifacts and silently held his sign up for passersby to see.
Scott urged those in support of the protest to contact local government and business bureaus about the situation, take time to educate themselves on LGBT history and issues and listen to transgender voices.
“When we contact people in power and make them aware of what is occurring, that’s when real change can occur,” Scott said.
The protest continued for several more hours, while Artifacts opened for its usual store hours at 11 a.m.
Clay Lewis, Ohio U Student Senate University Life commissioner, was present and reported being assaulted at the protest, according to an Athens Police Department report. Details of the assault were not released, but Lewis’s alleged assaulters were identified and their information was passed on to the police, according to an Instagram post.
