In May, the Struggle for Socialism Party (SSP) Los Angeles branch discussed the new book, “Against fascism: reclaiming populism’s legacy for today’s class struggle,” compiled by Louisiana socialist Gregory Williams. 

Following is the first presentation of the final class on the trans struggle. Melinda Butterfield gave the second presentation. 

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Maggie Vascassenno: Today is our fourth in the four-part series on the book, “Against fascism: reclaiming populism’s legacy for today’s class struggle” by Gregory Williams.

And we have Gregory here, along with Melinda Butterfield. Melinda led the first national mobilization against this current wave of trans hate, taking place in one of the states at the epicenter of the attacks, Florida. And that was Oct. 7, 2023, so it kind of got lost in the shuffle a little bit.

We weren’t able to expand on it a lot then, but this is definitely a struggle that is really the focus of much of this fascist presidency. And Melinda organized a trip to Cuba of LGBTQ folk that learned there about how Cuba has advanced on the trans question and other LGBTQ+ questions, and really the question of families in general – family law.

So out of that came the book that Gregory put out called “Love is the Law: Cuba’s queer rights revolution.” I’ll turn this over to Gregory. 

Gregory Williams: Since this is the final class, I’ll start with a summary of the book and where we’ve been. Then I want to open up some questions about the current trans struggle. Melinda will tell us more. 

The book started with me writing about what was going on with governors like Ron DeSantis in Florida and Jeff Landry in Louisiana, in retrospect, leading up to Trump’s re-election.

I tried to expose what they’re really trying to do when they attack trans people or immigrants. Who do they really represent? And we tried to show in the book that they represent the rich ruling class and what they’re doing is fundamentally against the interests of the vast majority.

We looked at the question “what is populism?” because that word is used a lot. Almost every time I see a political commentary, somebody uses this word. And there’s no explanation usually. You have to really go out of your way to find any explanation of what the hell populism was historically.

They call people like Donald Trump a populist. And then they turn around and call somebody like Bernie Sanders a populist. Or even somebody who’s doing grassroots work for the people. So how could that be the same thing? How could somebody like Trump, who’s so clearly part of the ruling class and for the ruling class, how could that be the same as somebody who’s progressive, like the real movement organizers?

The original populist movement happened in the late 1800s, largely centered around farmers. And there was a large Black populist movement as well. It wasn’t just a white thing. The movement was overall anti-racist, and they were taking on the big monopolies developing at that time, as well as rich Southern landowners. They fought the big bank monopolies, the big industrialists, the people that farmers were indebted to, and so on.

They also tried to link up with organized labor, which was developing at that time. However, it was before the wave of socialist revolution that came to a head in 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution and spread, not immediately, but through the anti-colonial, often socialist-oriented movements during and after World War II. 

The populist movement was before that social wave. But later on, by the 1950s, some historians began using the word populism without any reference to this original historical progressive movement, and they would call fascism populism.

And words change, but it’s a very political change because with this confusion, they take away that history of struggle. We can’t understand that history because it’s been distorted, and we’re trying to correct some of that through the book.

And I analyzed a pamphlet written in the 1970s by Vince Copeland, one of the founders of our political tendency. It’s called “Black Labor and Southern Populism” and is included in the book. He was looking at these same questions because, in the early ‘70s, the media was calling the racist governor, George Wallace, a populist, and he was running for president.

They also called George McGovern a populist, and he was the centrist Democrat running against Wallace. 

To me, “Black Labor” was really eye-opening. Copeland clearly spells out the interests of the rich, exposing why they make the attacks that they do.

Why trans panic? 

How did the trans struggle come into the book? Because I was assembling a section on contemporary Southern governors and their attacks. We had just participated in this trans youth march in Orlando that Melinda helped initiate. She did a lot of pioneering work, just sounding the alarm about what was happening with this rising crescendo of trans panic.

What was happening in Florida really was sort of the snake’s head. A lot of it was centered around what DeSantis was doing. So that action, I think, was really important, and we included a lot of the speeches from it in the book.

But a lot’s transpired since then. It’s gotten much worse. The trans panic has become a center of the fascist onslaught, and not just in the U.S. It’s happening in Italy and Brazil and other places. The far right is leading it but “liberal” politicians like California Governor Gavin Newsome have taken it up, too. The same Democratic governor who’s viciously attacked unhoused people..

Why are trans people such a target right now? Why is this so resonant for the right? Why is it working for them like this?

Oppressed people advance, and claws come out

I’ve started to make connections to other parts of the book. There’s a lengthy section about how populism was defeated in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898. At that time, Wilmington was still bucking the trend against Jim Crow by having Black and white people in the government together.

Black people were also relatively prosperous there. They were in skilled trades. They had a Black-owned newspaper. The city was governed by a coalition between the populist People’s Party and the Republican Party, which was still associated with the anti-slavery cause and had a strong Black base.

Wilmington was a beacon holding out against this onslaught of Jim Crow. The Democrats were still associated with the pro-slavery cause and were the party of the rich white ruling class in the South. They ultimately beat populism in Wilmington by organizing a White Supremacy Campaign. That’s actually what they called it.

They used all the media of the time, organizing groups throughout the state, arming Klan-type militias. They spent a lot of money, and it led to a massacre and a coup in Wilmington. That’s how they took over the reins again and installed an all-white, totally racist, fascistic government.

Sexist dimension of fascist hysteria

But also, there was a big sexual dimension to it, because what precipitated the massacre – what was especially potent – were these speakers and the newspaper editorials whipping up hysteria about Black men sexually seducing or assaulting white women.

Of course, these patriarchal racists weren’t concerned about women’s consent. The idea was like, “Black men are taking our women.” That’s the idea. But doesn’t this sound familiar? Because really, as far as I can tell, every fascist hysteria has this dimension to it.

The right wing says that queer and trans people are grooming children, seducing them into gender and sexual anarchy, so society must be protected.

In Britain right now, there is conspiratorial hysteria about immigrant “groomer gangs.” Not to mention the retro “Satanic Panic” fantasies of Q Anon, centering around ritualised child abuse. 

In India, the Hindu nationalists say Muslim men are seducing Hindu women, depleting the stock of the pure Hindu nation. And Trump and Musk are obsessed with fertility rates – white fertility rates. 

So there’s always a weird sex thing, as far as I can tell. And remember Comrade Gloria’s presentation in this class series about lynchings and the murder of Emmett Till. They claimed that this 14-year-old flirted with a white woman. And why is that so explosive? Just the idea of that in a racist, capitalist society.

Class society requires policing identities

The Marxist tradition coming out of Frederick Engels’ work in the late 1800s says that gender and sexual oppression come from the imposition of class society, which developed after the development of agriculture, in what is for us pre-history.

Once there was a surplus of food and goods, these conditions allowed some people to hoard the surplus and deny it to others. And this was the beginning of private property. Women’s oppression grew out of that.

Because an earlier egalitarian, communistic society gave way to a patriarchal, very hierarchical one, men became dominant in this scenario. And when there was property to pass down, they had to determine paternity, which wasn’t a factor before. They developed elaborate ways to control women and their sexuality.

I’m glad Bob McCubbin is on this Zoom call because he did pioneering work on this, writing about it back in the 1970s. So did Dorothy Ballan. That’s what I’m drawing from.

I think that with systems of private property and that type of hierarchy, there’s always going to be policing of identity. You have to know who you are, and you have to be able to put other people in a category.

When you have a society structured by racial oppression, you get anxiety about racial identity. You know, it’s totally absurd, really, that people in the Jim Crow South were worried about who used what water fountain or what bathroom.

It’s so ridiculous. But under that system, from the point of view of the ruling class, it made sense. Because when you’re policing people and keeping them down, the dominant group is afraid all the time. And they say, “What if my daughter falls in love with a Black man and has a baby?”

It’s this kind of status anxiety, fear of losing your status and falling down the rungs. I mean, not to mention the white slave-owning men – it’s all sort of projection, isn’t it? The white slave-owning men basically had harems and were committing all these sexual atrocities. So it’s all fine for them to do. But they’re paranoid that somebody’s going to do the same thing to them.

So by that same token, people say, “what if my child is trans? Then what? What does that mean for me? What does that do to my identity?” And the right-wing media plays this up seven days a week. Look at Elon Musk’s rejection of his trans daughter, Vivian, because he wants a son made in his own narcissistic vision as an heir. And Vivian has even stated that Musk used in vitro fertilization specifically to get boy children.

General crisis of gender and the family 

So, I want to pose these general questions about gender and sexuality in our moment.

Because the trans panic is obviously very useful for the capitalists and the fascist politicians, and now the liberal ones emulating them. And to some extent, it doesn’t really matter who they target. Any scapegoat, theoretically, can get the job done. You find a scapegoat, and you distract people from the real problems caused by capitalism.

On the other hand, why is targeting certain groups so effective in a particular period? The anti-trans people are totally obsessed. Like, they must wake up in the morning thinking about trans people. Get a life!

In part, yeah, that could be explained just in terms of the propaganda and grift-disinformation machine, the algorithms are pushing it, all the right-wing influencers say the same things, using the same buzzwords. 

But as Marxists, we tend to look for answers deeper in social structures. And I wonder if the current obsession with trans people is not an accident. Trans people have made advances, becoming visible in society. We saw the same dynamic in the populist period. Black people had made advances. And the rich ruling class tried to claw everything back.

And I also think that, right now, there’s a general crisis of gender and the family. That’s part of the crisis of capitalism. I think that’s part of this moment. And cisgender women – women who are not trans – they’re intensely under attack. So, what’s happening is all very gendered.

They’re trying to roll back everything that women have won through struggle, like with the abortion bans. Take the “trad wife” influencers and all this stuff that the right-wing is pushing. [These are social media accounts promoting “traditional” housewife roles, really “a world that only ever existed in 1950s vacuum cleaner commercials,” as a commenter said under one of their posts.] 

And I think trans panic is tied up with the policing of women’s gender expressions, women in general. Just look at how they treated Algerian boxer, Iman Khalif. The transphobic writer, JK Rowling, recently tweeted, and this is really rich, “I’ve never attacked any woman for not being woman enough. That’s a concept that I don’t recognize.”

Then an X user named Thomas Willett responded, “You literally launched a campaign of abuse and hate against the female boxer, Iman Khalif.” Transphobia is deeply tied up with misogyny.

Men and boys socially alienated

And I think there’s a crisis of masculine identity in society too. Cis-men and boys are suffering from, for example, body dysmorphia like never before, seeing unattainable images of steroid-powered superheroes, and all these models with good lighting on Instagram.

And they’re also alienated and socially isolated. And the algorithms push them to “manosphere” influencers like the sex trafficker, Andrew Tate. This is what’s being offered to them to deal with their alienation and the deep anxiety they feel. And this goes all the way up to mass shooters.

So that’s happening, and I think it has to do with capitalism making life so unlivable. People can’t afford to own a home anymore. So the old nuclear family model that existed, maybe in the 1950s, for some people, even that is becoming unattainable. People don’t know what family life is supposed to be.

And it’s capitalism that’s doing this. We as revolutionaries aren’t saying you can’t have the kind of family you want, or you’re bad if your family looks more like the nuclear model, or you’re bad because your family doesn’t look like that. 

Capitalism is making it hard for families to exist. And I think people are experiencing a lot of anxiety about what their role is. They don’t see a future for themselves. Then, coming out of that, there’s something very potent happening when these fascist influencers say, “I have an answer for you. The problem is feminism. The problem is trans people who are destroying the family.”

And if people don’t have an alternative from the left, then they are vulnerable to being pulled in that direction. They need to see an organized left that’s fighting, winning victories, and talking about a different kind of society, and explaining these things.

[. …]

Melinda Butterfield: I just wanna comment on what Gregory raised about why trans people are the targets right now, or how it’s happening. And I think he really hit on it with the focus on how they use the threat to children as a big way to influence people who wouldn’t otherwise necessarily be hostile or even care about the issue so much, if they didn’t have trans people in their own daily life.

But by making us into this bogey of corrupting children or stealing their children or something like that. Well, they did that also, particularly with gay men in an earlier period. And that fed a lot into the AIDS epidemic and how it was ignored by the official bodies and allowed to run rampant.

It also had to do with the scapegoating of Jewish people before the Holocaust. And also, as we talked about earlier, the lynching logic targeting Black men or people perceived as men having relations with white women, especially young white women and the daughters of the white supremacist class.

And this is a tactic that fascists use repeatedly when they’re targeting. And this was true 30 or 40 years ago of gay men and it’s true of trans people now is that, but when a movement pushes forward, that’s breaking a lot of the boundaries of what’s acceptable in society and pushing forward and winning people over and giving an example to people, that threatens the system. 

You know, bodily autonomy is an issue that’s shared by cisgender women, trans men, trans women, and non-binary people as well. Whether we’re talking about reproductive rights or our right to alter our bodies and our sex and our gender. These are all things that are considered a threat to the patriarchal class basis of capitalism, which still relies on what Gregory talked about, this idea of passing on wealth through the father from generation to generation.

And you can see that with Trump and Elon Musk and the rest of these scumbags, how focused they are on that. And so, people who break that cycle, who show how rotten-ripe the capitalist family structure is, how ready it is to be undone and replaced with something better and more beautiful and more inclusive. That also makes us an easier target for scapegoating.

Last weekend, here in the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico, thousands of people took to the streets to protest the criminal policies of the local government. While this new administration is taking many actions against the interests of the people, two focal points of aggression have sparked outrage among our people. One, the massive attack against immigrants, and the other, the attempt to destroy our environment to further the interests of foreign millionaires.

In the northeast of the country, we gathered in front of Fortaleza, the governor’s palace in Old San Juan, to demand that Governor Jeniffer González not comply with President Trump’s directives to detain and deport immigrants. But despite the people’s demands, anti-immigrant raids have increased. Federal agents go to the immigration offices where people legally process their residency permits and detain all the immigrants who were summoned that day. This is extremely outrageous and shameful.

The other massive demonstration was on the southwest tip of the island, where privatizers are developing a luxury residential project called Esencia, which includes an airport, schools, golf courses, million-dollar homes, and everything else the residents need so they do not have to leave this surreal enclave. It’s a city within a city where foreign millionaires, who move to Puerto Rico to benefit from the odious laws that exempt them from paying taxes, can enjoy our tropical paradise without having to interact with the Puerto Rican people.

And to build this idyllic Escencia, they are altering the coastal terrain, destroying ecosystems and even archaeological structures of the Indigenous Taíno people, in addition to disrupting the region’s scarce water sources.

But the people continue to organize and oppose these inhumane policies. There’s nothing left but to fight to win.

From Puerto Rico, speaking to Radio Clarín of Colombia, Berta Joubert-Ceci

U.S. bombing of Iran sets the stage for wider war

June 22 — On Saturday, June 21, the U.S. military carried out a direct act of war on the people of Iran. According to Trump’s Truth Social, “A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, #Fordow.”  Missile strikes were also launched on Natanz and Esfahan.

It’s reported that the U.S. military dropped 14 of its new GBU-57 “bunker buster bombs,” each weighing 30,000 lbs. This is the first time this bomb has been used, and it is the successor to the “Mother of All Bombs,” the GBU-43, which was used in Afghanistan in 2017.

The deployment of massive “bunker buster” bombs, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and the mobilization of U.S. naval fleets, air squadrons, and ground forces in the region is not just a war buildup — it’s a deliberate act of imperialist intimidation. Washington’s message is clear: Any people in West Asia who dare to take control of their own resources or chart an independent path will face the full wrath of the U.S. war machine. This is the iron fist of the military-industrial complex, reminding the oppressed that empire — not self-determination — rules.

Representatives of the Iranian government and its military have correctly pointed out that the U.S. has acted illegally and that the Iranian people have a right to defend themselves against both U.S. and Israeli acts of war.  

As we said in earlier articles, this war has nothing to do with so-called nuclear weapons. Like the pretext for war on Iraq, there are no “weapons of mass destruction.” It is about regime change in Iran as part of a strategy of imperialist world domination aimed at thwarting the development of the Global South and containing Russia and China.

We can expect the Pentagon to continue down this road until it is stopped. It has already targeted military and political leaders, along with scientists inside Iran, and it has trumpeted the real possibility of attempts to murder Iran’s religious leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.    

Trump & Netanyahu: Genocidal War Criminals

That this war has been launched in the midst of an active genocide of the Palestinian people cannot be ignored. Gaza health authorities report at least 202 Palestinians killed and 1,037 injured in Gaza in the last 48 hours due to ongoing Israeli actions. Since October 2023, they confirm 55,908 Palestinian fatalities and 131,138 injuries, primarily women and children.  Not included in this account is the destruction of Syria, Lebanon or the catastrophic war on the people of Yemen.

Generals over the White House

The decaying, malignant racist, anti-worker, anti-poor, anti-woman, transphobic and at times buffoonish cabal at the helm of the White House is in essence a product and reflection of the U.S. capitalist system which cannot provide quality of life for its own workers.

Instead of investment into health care, education, housing and all of the other things that the population desperately needs, including addressing the climate crisis, the vast wealth built on exploitation of the working class is being funneled into the war machine.  

President Trump, standing at the podium with Vice President Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at his side at last night’s announcement of the bombing of Iran, was meant to project a quasi form of legality to actions that were clearly in violation of the War Powers Act. 

Trump was presenting himself as commander in chief (with full Pentagon backing), pushing aside Constitutional legalities, not even consulting with Congress — the only authority empowered to launch a war. Some have called Trump’s move a coup, putting the military in charge of war policy.

The actual power resides with the Pentagon generals, executing the will of U.S. finance capital to shape war policy. Though appearances may shift, their core strategy has stayed unchanged, regardless of who sits in the White House.

Widening war and increased repression at home

Just before launching a war in West Asia, Trump deployed approximately 700 Marines alongside thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to protests against ICE raids and kidnappings, putting the country’s second-largest city under military occupation. 

The assault extends beyond protesters to prominent labor leaders. David Huerta, President of the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West, was assaulted and violently detained by ICE.  He was exercising his right to observe a raid at the Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles. Huerta was charged with felony conspiracy to impede an officer, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison, and was hospitalized for injuries sustained during his arrest.

The Trump administration has arrested members of Congress and other public officials, including Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan. The escalation of violence against elected officials reached a new level when U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-California) was physically shoved, forced to the ground, and handcuffed by FBI agents during a Department of Homeland Security news conference with Secretary Kristi Noem at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles.

Workers and the world’s oppressed masses must stop the war

We do not assert that military supremacy, either its technology or its destructive powers, is of no consequence or importance. But perhaps the U.S. and Western capitalists have forgotten the power that the masses are capable of wielding.  

It should worry them that their immediate plans through proxy Israel on June 13, 2025, when they assassinated military leaders, scientists and civilians, did not result in regime change, but instead united the Iranian people. It appears that the U.S. military and its establishment have forgotten the lessons of the Vietnam War (and the many U.S. wars since then).

It was Huey P. Newton, Defense Minister of the Black Panther Party, who coined the slogan, “The spirit of the people is greater than the man’s technology.”

Just over a week ago, six million people took to the streets all across the country for the “No Kings” marches. Now, it’s time for the working class in the U.S. to mobilize and remain in the streets until the Pentagon is stopped.

Marx revealed the truth: Workers are the engine of history. As capitalism morphed into imperialism, Lenin expanded this vision, rallying the world’s workers and oppressed peoples to unite.

Baltimore says NO WAR ON IRAN! Money for people’s needs, not the U.S. war machine!

Justice for BJ Abdullah means reparations and shut down the food deserts! No more money for war, genocide, and racist police terror!

Noise demonstration & rally
Monday June 23, 2025
7 pm @ N. Howard & MLK Blvd
Baltimore MD 21201

GPS address:
201 W. Preston St Baltimore MD 21201

Bring instruments, noisemakers, etc

#NoWarOnIran #Iran
#JusticeforBJ #JusticeForBilalAbdullah #BlackLivesMatter #BlackHistoryMatters #HonorFreddieGray #HonorGeorgeFloyd #baltimore #baltimorecity #amazon #freepalestine #baltimorestandswithpalestine #Maryland

Shaka Sankofa was executed 25 years ago on June 22, 2000. Texas governor and future president, George W. Bush, ordered the legal lynching in Huntsville.

Sankofa spent half his life on death row. He was only 17 years old when he arrived there in 1981. Then known as Gary Graham, he was framed for the murder of Bobby Lambert, a drug dealer and police informer.

Lambert was killed next to a Houston supermarket. Six thousand dollars was found on his body. Obviously, this was a contract killing, not a robbery.

So why did the cops and district attorney pin the rap on Sankofa, a convicted robber? Was it just convenient? Or was it part of a cover-up?

Six eyewitnesses said Sankofa wasn’t the shooter. Four people who said they were with him at the time of Lambert’s murder passed lie detector tests.

Two workers at the supermarket who got a good look at the killer said Sankofa wasn’t the shooter. These witnesses were never interviewed by Sankofa’s court-appointed attorney. Nor were they called to testify.

Bernadine Skillern was the main witness to identify Shaka Sankofa as the shooter of Bobby Lambert. She claimed to have seen Sankofa’s face for a few seconds through her car windshield at a distance of 30 to 40 feet.

That was enough for a jury to send the Black teenager to his death. Three of these jurors later signed affidavits saying they would have voted differently if they had known all the evidence.

Executed to get Bush elected

The hustler Malcolm Little entered Walpole State Prison in Massachusetts and left as Malcolm X. Gary Graham went to death row in Texas and died as the revolutionary Shaka Sankofa.

After changing his life and educating himself, Gary Graham took the name of the African military genius Shaka Zulu.

Even Pope John Paul II pleaded with Texas Gov. George W. Bush not to execute Sankofa. So did the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Congressional Black Caucus.

Bush went ahead and murdered him. Sankofa’s execution was part of Bush’s election campaign for president.

This war criminal killed hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan while he was in the White House.

The U.S. Supreme Court would later outlaw the execution of those who had been minors when they allegedly committed murder. The 2005 ruling came too late for Shaka Sankofa and 21 other inmates who had been sent to death row as teenagers and executed between 1985 and 2003.

As he lay strapped to a gurney, with poison about to flow through his veins, Sankofa remained defiant. “They know I’m innocent,” he said. “Keep marching, Black people. They are killing me tonight. They are murdering me tonight.”

Around the world, millions of people are marching against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the looming war against Iran. The fight against racism and police murders in the United States is part of the same struggle.

Among those moved by Shaka Sankofa’s courage was a white cheerleader from the prison town of Huntsville. This young woman joined the protest against the execution after finishing practice.

Texas is filled with poor and working people — Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and white. They will avenge Shaka Sankofa.

No War on Iran! Trump is a War Criminal!

JOIN THE RALLY IN NYC AT 2PM IN TIMES SQUARE!

On June 18, the Supreme Court issued a devastating 6-3 ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, upholding Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors and delivering a major blow to transgender rights. The case raised foundational constitutional questions: whether transgender people constitute a class triggering higher constitutional scrutiny, whether laws targeting them violate equal protection, and whether the Constitution guarantees their right to access medically necessary treatment. The Court sidestepped nearly all of those questions, instead issuing a narrower opinion that carves out an exception permitting medical discrimination based on “gender dysphoria”—a distinction it bizarrely treats as separate from discrimination against transgender people. The ruling effectively greenlights medical care bans across the country and may pave the way for broader restrictions, including for adults, while leaving lower court rulings on bathrooms, schools, sports, and employment remain intact—for now.

In its ruling, the majority opinion of the Supreme Court states that it does not need to address whether or not discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination because the Tennessee law banning gender affirming healthcare for trans youth is based on “gender dysphoria.” Similarly, the majority argues that it does not have to address whether or not transgender people represent a class that triggers heightened scrutiny, a higher level of scrutiny for constitutional review that has resulted in anti-trans laws being struck down by lower courts. The court states in its majority opinion:

“The plaintiffs argue that SB1 warrants heightened scrutiny because it relies on sex-based classifications. But neither of the above classifications turns on sex. Rather, SB1 prohibits healthcare providers from administering puberty blockers or hormones to minors for certain medical uses, regardless of a minor’s sex… By the same token, SB1 does not exclude any individual from medical treatments on the basis of transgender status. Rather, it removes one set of diagnoses—gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder, and gender incongruence—from the range of treatable conditions.”

In issuing such a ruling, the Court asserts that discrimination based on “gender dysphoria” is somehow distinct from discrimination on the basis of transgender status or sex—creating a loophole wide enough to drive a truck through. In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor calls out the contradiction directly, noting the majority’s logic would permit states to target transgender people while avoiding constitutional scrutiny simply by reframing the language of their laws:

“In addition to discriminating against transgender adolescents, who by definition ‘identify with’ an identity “inconsistent” with their sex, that law conditions the availability of medications on a patient’s sex. Male (but not female) adolescents can receive medicines that help them look like boys, and female (but not male) adolescents can receive medicines that help them look like girls.

Tennessee’s law expressly classifies on the basis of sex and transgender status, so the Constitution and settled precedent require the Court to subject it to intermediate scrutiny. The majority contorts logic and precedent to say otherwise, inexplicably declaring it must uphold Tennessee’s categorical ban on lifesaving medical treatment so long as “‘any reasonably conceivable state of facts’” might justify it. Ante, at 21. Thus, the majority subjects a law that plainly discriminates on the basis of sex to mere rational-basis review. By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the Court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims. In sadness, I dissent.”

The Tennessee law, Justice Sotomayor and the dissent argue, explicitly classifies on the basis of sex—so overtly that the majority’s attempt to sidestep that reality reads as disingenuous. The statute itself declares that one purpose of the ban is to “encourage minors to appreciate their sex,” and yet the majority still concludes it does not constitute sex-based classification. Sotomayor dismantles that claim with precision in her dissent, exposing the logical inconsistency at the heart of the Court’s reasoning:

“Consider the mother who contacts a Tennessee doctor, concerned that her adolescent child has begun growing unwanted facial hair. This hair growth, the mother reports, has spurred significant distress because it makes her child look unduly masculine. The doctor’s next step depends on the adolescent’s sex. If the patient was identified as female at birth, SB1 allows the physician to alleviate her distress with testosterone suppressants. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 266a (describing such treatments); App. 100 (same). What if the adolescent was identified male at birth, however? SB1 precludes the patient from receiving the same medicine.”

One of the more strained justifications in the majority opinion mirrors arguments once used to deny rights to same-sex and interracial couples: that the law does not discriminate against transgender people, but instead bars both cisgender and transgender people from receiving medication to treat gender dysphoria. It’s a tortured rationale—functionally absurd given that transgender people will need the medical treatment for gender dysphoria, not cisgender people.

Sotomayor compares this rationale to that used in Loving v. Virginia, a ruling which struck down laws against interracial marriage:

“But nearly every discriminatory law is susceptible to a similarly race- or sex-neutral characterization. A prohibition on interracial marriage, for example, allows no person to marry someone outside of her race, while allowing persons of any race to marry within their race….

In a passage that sounds hauntingly familiar to readers of Tennessee’s brief, Virginia argued in Loving that, should this Court intervene, it would find itself in a “bog of conflicting scientific opinion upon the effects of interracial marriage, and the desirability of preventing such alliances, from the physical, biological, genetic, anthropological, cultural, psychological, and sociological point of view.” … “In such a situation,” Virginia continued, “it is the exclusive province of the Legislature of each State to make the determination for its citizens as to the desirability of a policy of permitting or preventing such [interracial] alliances—a province which the judiciary may not constitutionally invade.” Id., at 7–8.

While the ruling is sweeping in its implications for transgender medical care—and could easily be used to justify future restrictions on adult care—the majority sidestepped key constitutional questions. The Court declined to answer whether discrimination against transgender people constitutes sex discrimination, whether transgender people qualify as a protected class warranting heightened scrutiny, or whether the Bostock decision applies beyond the Title VII employment context. A ruling on any of these issues could have turned an already devastating outcome into a catastrophic one, potentially overturning dozens of lower court decisions on bathroom access, forced outing in schools, and participation in sports. Though the majority avoided that outcome, three justices—Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Amy Coney Barrett—wrote separately to express that they would have gone further, explicitly denying transgender people equal protection under the law.

Several rulings in recent months will remain unaffected by the Court’s decision. Just yesterday, a federal judge certified a class of transgender people in a lawsuit challenging a passport ban and opened the door for gender marker updates. Similarly, rulings blocking the government from stripping funding from organizations that mention transgender issues or gender identity are expected to remain intact, as are decisions involving school bathroom access and participation in sports. As a result, the impact of this ruling is likely to remain confined to the medical context—for now. Still, the decision provides a blueprint for future legislation targeting “gender dysphoria” as a proxy for discriminating against transgender people without explicitly naming transgender status or sex.

“Today’s ruling is a devastating loss for transgender people, our families, and everyone who cares about the Constitution,” said Chase Strangio, Co-Director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “Though this is a painful setback, it does not mean that transgender people and our allies are left with no options to defend our freedom, our health care, or our lives. The Court left undisturbed Supreme Court and lower court precedent that other examples of discrimination against transgender people are unlawful. We are as determined as ever to fight for the dignity and equality of every transgender person and we will continue to do so with defiant strength, a restless resolve, and a lasting commitment to our families, our communities, and the freedom we all deserve.”

The decision will send shockwaves through the transgender community. By embedding discrimination into Supreme Court precedent, the justices have ensured that transgender Americans will likely spend a generation clawing back rights now imperiled. And yet, the ruling leaves cracks in the foundation—enough space, for now, to regroup and keep fighting. Protective laws in many states remain on the books. Key court victories still stand. It is in those openings, however narrow, that hope persists—and where the fight continues.

Source: Erin In The Morning

19 June marked the seventh day of Israeli strikes against Iran, with developments appearing to diverge from White House expectations.

Following targeted attacks on senior military commanders and nuclear scientists, along with strikes on nuclear and military facilities, Iran has regained operational control. The country launched its ‘True Promise 3’ operation without delay.

After initial disruption in the opening hours, Iran appointed replacement commanders and enhanced the effectiveness of its air defence systems. Iranian authorities also implemented security measures to identify suspected infiltrators who had allegedly used drones and other small aircraft to conduct covert operations within the country.

US and Israeli authorities likely did not anticipate an immediate collapse of the Iranian government through airstrikes alone. While both governments have made strategic miscalculations, it would be surprising if they genuinely believed a state could be toppled solely through aerial bombardment.

The apparent strategy seemed to rely on triggering civil unrest among opposition groups following the initial government disruption. This would have potentially created openings for trained mercenaries to initiate a secondary phase of operations. However, this scenario failed to materialise.

Instead, the majority of Iranians, particularly after reports emerged of civilian casualties from the attacks, responded with anger and solidarity. The civilian losses appear to have awakened a sense of national unity and patriotism among the population.

Trump’s contradictory statements can be understood within this context of strategic miscalculation, alongside pressure from the Zionist authorities, as evidenced in social media posts and public commentary.

Trump’s messaging has been inconsistent: one day stating he has no plans for US involvement in the conflict, the next threatening to consider declaring war against Iran unless it accepts ‘unconditional surrender’.

On the other side, the televised message from Iran’s Supreme Leader was clear and definitive: ‘We do not accept imposed “peace”, just as we did not accept imposed war, as we demonstrated during the Iraqi Ba’ath regime’s invasion of Iran’.

This stance is reflected in the Iranian armed forces’ retaliation and the positions taken by senior political officials.

Perhaps this explains why International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi acknowledged that they have ‘no proof of Iran’s active plan to build nuclear weapons’.

Notably, Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, had previously made similar statements, though Trump recently indicated he dismisses them, saying he doesn’t care about ‘what she said’. This echoes the pretext used to invade Iraq: claims of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that proved to be unfounded, similar to the discredited Nayirah testimony that became a scandal for the George W. Bush administration.

We could debate for hours about the reasons behind the current situation and the timing of direct attacks on Iran: external factors, internal catalysts, international dynamics, and more.

However, three points are clear:

First, Israel is not operating independently. The Israeli state functions as a settler colonial entity representing Western imperial interests in West Asia.

Second, the United States disregards international law, evidence, and public opinion when it calculates that the benefits of military action outweigh the costs.

Third, and most importantly in my view, this is not a religious or regional conflict between two competing powers. This represents a new phase of the ‘New Middle East’ plan, as reflected in the cover of a recent Time magazine issue. And the fragmentation of Iran is a main part of this plan. It builds upon earlier strategic frameworks, including the Yinon Plan (1980s) and ‘A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm’ (1990s), with backing from the Western bloc.

From this perspective, this constitutes a full-scale confrontation between the Global North and Global South, with Iran positioned on the front lines of Western imperialist aggression against national liberation movements throughout the Global South.

Based on this analysis, all revolutionary forces must unite behind this slogan: ‘Hands Off Iran!’

And a message to our friends around the world: Iran resists, to the last person, the last bullet, the last breath.

Ali Abutalebi has been the executive director of Mazmoon Books since 2005. He founded the Iranian Campaign for Solidarity with Cuba, has worked as publication director at House of Latin America (HOLA), and authored several articles for the Iranian press and political websites, mostly focused on Latin American progressive movements. Ali published a book on Cuba titled Rest in Peace Ernesto.

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

El fin de semana pasado, salieron a las calles de esta colonia, miles de personas en rechazo a las políticas criminales del gobierno local. Y si bien son muchas las acciones que esta nueva administración está cometiendo en contra de los intereses del pueblo, fueron particularmente dos los ejes protagónicos agresivos que han despertando mucha indignación en nuestro pueblo. Uno, la gran arremetida en contra de las y los inmigrantes, y el otro, el intento de destruir nuestro medioambiente para favorecer los intereses de millonarios extranjeros.

En el noreste del país nos reunimos frente a Fortaleza, el palacio de la gobernación en el Viejo San Juan, para exigir a la gobernadora Jeniffer González que no acate las directivas del presidente Trump de detener y deportar a las personas inmigrantes. Pero pese a los reclamos del pueblo, las redadas antiinmigrantes han aumentado. Los agentes federales van hasta las oficinas de inmigración donde las personas procesan legalmente sus permisos de residencia, y detienen a todos los inmigrantes que fueron sido citados ese día. Algo extremadamente indignante y vergonzoso.

La otra manifestación masiva fue en el extremo suroeste de la isla donde los privatizadores están desarrollando un proyecto residencial de lujo llamado Esencia que incluye aeropuerto, escuelas, campos de golf, viviendas millonarias, y todo lo necesario para no tener que salir de ese entorno surreal. Es una ciudad dentro de la ciudad donde millonarios extranjeros, que se mudan a Puerto Rico para beneficiarse de las odiosas leyes que les libran de pagar impuestos, vivan disfrutando de nuestro paraíso tropical sin tener que relacionarse con el pueblo boricua.

Y para la construcción de esta idílica Esencia, están alterando el terreno costero, destruyendo ecosistemas y hasta estructuras arqueológicas taínas, además de alterar las fuentes acuíferas que son escasas en esa región. 

Pero el pueblo continúa organizándose y oponiéndose a estas políticas inhumanas. No queda más que luchar para vencer.

Desde Puerto Rico, para Radio Clarín de Colombia, les habló Berta Joubert-Ceci

New York, June 18 — At least a thousand people came to the steps of the great reference library on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue this evening to stop the war on Iran. The emergency mobilization was part of a national day of action that saw dozens of protests from coast to coast.

Speakers at the rally included members of the Iranian community; the Palestinian Youth Movement; Nodutdol for Korean Community Development; The People’s Forum; ANSWER Coalition; and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. They denounced the continuing genocide in Gaza and pointed out the lies being used by Trump and Netanyahu to justify their attacks on the 90 million people of Iran. 

The United States is the only country in history to use nuclear weapons. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including over 30,000 Korean slave laborers.

The Zionist apartheid regime occupying Palestine has already murdered hundreds of Iranians, including many children, by their unprovoked missile attacks. So-called Israel has an estimated arsenal of 80 nuclear weapons.

People marched through the posh East Midtown section of Manhattan carrying Palestinian and Iranian flags as well as signs and banners. Police barricaded Second Avenue to prevent marchers from confronting the Zionist mission to the United Nations. Friendly bystanders waved and took pictures of the protesters.

The demonstration ended up at Times Square, where a brief rally was held. Hands off Iran!