In November of 2014, Thistle Pettersen, long-time environmental and social justice activist based out of Madison, Wisconsin, interviewed lesbian feminist scholar, Sheila Jeffreys on Madison's community radio station, WORT, 89.9 FM . Ms. Pettersen was banned from the premises a year later in early 2016 after airing a one-hour radio documentary of the last Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. Gender identity activists complained to the station, threatening the station with economic boycotts if Ms. Pettersen was granted permission to air her feminist news programming. One year after Ms. Pettersen was banned from the community radio station, she held up signs at the international women's march on January 21st, 2017 in Madison and posted pictures of the signs to social media.

Starting on January 26th, 2017, Ms. Pettersen was made aware that neighbors and local community members were launching campaigns to get her fired from her day job in addition to de-platformed at local music venues she and her band were booked to perform. She also learned of neighbors stalking her in her neighborhood and taking pictures of her without permission or her knowledge and posting them to public social media forums where multiple neighbors have participated in making violent & hateful statements aimed at stirring up disgust for Ms. Pettersen around town.

On February 3rd, Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice board members released a defaming statement that resulted in hundreds of comments and private messages aimed at harming Ms. Pettersen's reputation and sense of well-being as a community member, as well as denouncing her participation at an environmentalist event that she was a key organizer for. You can view that statement here: http://www.wnpj.org/node/10608

Many are concerned about the hate speech, violence, and vitriol aimed at Ms. Pettersen. We wish to demonstrate that Ms. Pettersen is a valuable member of our community and movements and should be allowed to participate fully without fear of harassment and defamation as we all should be. To achieve this safety, Ms. Pettersen will hire a lawyer to file a defamation lawsuit against WNPJ.

As you probably know, hiring a lawyer is very expensive. Ms. Pettersen is considering hiring Anne Plichta , a supportive and seasoned lawyer. Ms. Plichta requires a $5,000 retainer fee.

Through shopping around the Wisconsin legal community, Ms.Pettersen has found the $5000 retainer to be very reasonable for the work required to bring forth her legal action. She cannot, however, afford this on her own which is why community monetary support is needed.

The funds will be held in trust and any amount her lawyer does not use will be returned to Ms. Pettersen. From there, based on the percentage of the total raised that you personally contributed, Ms. Pettersen will return any unused funds. Please consider donating! This is a great chance for feminists and feminist allies to give material support to another unwavering feminist.


Feminists on March 8th in Melbourne, Australia. Renee Gerlich holding up the same sign Ms. Pettersen held up at the International Women's march in Madison on January 21st in a gesture of solidarity.

(This fundraiser has been organized by Ms. Pettersen's friend, Will Falk. Mr. Falk lives in Utah. Ms. Pettersen has exclusive access to the funds and can withdraw them through GoFundMe's process.)