The Socialist Unity Party/Partido de Socialismo Unido and Struggle-La Lucha newspaper salute the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and two-spirit community as we mark the 53rd anniversary of the heroic Stonewall Rebellion. The spirit of fightback exhibited at Stonewall is needed today as much as ever.

First of all, we offer our solidarity to the Black community of Buffalo, New York, where a white supremacist massacred 10 African American people on May 14. And we extend our hand to the Latinx community of Uvalde, Texas, where the grief from the tragic May 24 school shooting is compounded by Gov. Greg Abbott’s attempt to exploit it for his anti-immigrant crusade.

As we enter Pride Month 2022, the United States is in the grip of a “trans panic.” Like the “gay panics” that have come before, this is an attempt to divide workers and oppressed people at a time when the capitalist system is in crisis. 

The anti-trans campaign is fueled by the rich and powerful, who are desperate to keep us divided by scapegoating the most vulnerable, by convincing those lacking in class consciousness that transgender, non-binary and gender-nonconforming people are the root of their problems – not the profit system that exploits us all. 

Among them are “enlightened” oligarchs and companies like Elon Musk and Netflix, Jeff Bezos and Starbucks. They fear the movement of workers to unionize and communities to hold their empires accountable. Queer people play an important role in these struggles.

Trans panic = more violence

State legislatures across the country have taken up more than 300 anti-LGBTQ2S bills so far this year, most of them targeting trans people and especially trans children and youth. 

Bodily autonomy, at the heart of trans people’s ability to live under this system, is at stake, as courts and legislatures seek to turn back the clock to reinforce patriarchal capitalist norms that treat the bodies of women, children, people of color and LGBTQ2S people as the property of rich white cis men.

When Texas Gov. Abbott failed to get a law passed to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans kids, he issued an executive order to open criminal investigations against parents, healthcare providers, teachers and anyone else who supports trans youth. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law to forcibly out and detransition trans children. 

In Florida, the “Don’t Say Gay” law championed by Gov. Rick DeSantis bans discussion of LGBTQ2S existence in state classrooms. Other states have banned trans youth from participating in sports or using school restrooms. Teachers may be forced to report trans students to their parents or are allowed to misgender and deadname them.

This has led to increased threats and violence against trans people across the U.S., from public transit to social media. In 2021, at least 57 transgender or gender non-conforming people were fatally shot or killed by other violent means, and 2022 is already on track to top that horrific number. The great majority of victims of deadly violence are trans women of color.

Measures attacking gender-affirming care directly contradict the recommendations of medical experts. A recent University of Washington study found that trans youth who got gender-affirming treatment experienced a 60% drop in depression risk and a 73% drop in suicidal thoughts, on average. Access to gender-affirming care saves trans youth’s lives.

Amidst this crisis, the Supreme Court lobbed another bombshell: the majority’s plan to overturn the historic Roe V. Wade decision protecting the right to abortion, and to do it in a way that opens the door to similar attacks on contraception, same-sex marriage, protection from so-called sodomy laws and other rights won through decades of hard struggle. 

Why now? The ultra-right politicians and behind them, many of the biggest banks and corporations, are using the attack on trans rights and reproductive rights to fuel the growth of a neo-fascist movement. It aims to protect private property and profits by crushing the rights of all workers. They are willing to sacrifice the lives of trans children, migrants and refugees, pregnant people, or anyone who makes a convenient target.

The only way fascist movements have ever been defeated is by people uniting and fighting back. It is not enough to rely on elections or hope that friendly politicians will save us. They won’t. The Democratic Party is tied by a million threads to the same capitalist class that demands these anti-people measures. Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi will continue to say inoffensive things beside the railroad tracks while doing nothing to stop the onrushing train.

Fight like Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson

How can we fight back? There are many recent examples of unity and struggle – especially by students and youth. 

Across North America, from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Des Moines, Iowa, to Newfoundland and Labrador, students have walked out in large numbers to protest laws and repressive measures targeting trans people.

We urgently need a mass national protest like the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, held amidst the AIDS crisis when the Reagan administration was targeting gay men, or the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation of more than one million people. 

But simply coming out in large numbers is not enough. We must learn from the example of the 2011 Wisconsin State Capitol takeover by the labor movement and community allies. The occupation to resist anti-union legislation energized workers coast-to-coast, many of whom traveled to Madison or raised money to support the protesters. 

While the occupation didn’t win in the short term, it laid the groundwork for the wave of teacher strikes that swept the country in 2018-2019 and today’s upsurge in organizing at Amazon, Starbucks and other anti-union behemoths.

Imagine the power of LGBTQ2S people and allies from the reproductive rights struggle, Black Lives Matter movement, immigrants and labor, occupying the capitol in Texas, Florida or another state targeting trans lives!

We must also recognize that reactionary U.S. wars and sanctions around the world fuel anti-LGBTQ2S attacks at home. 

Every bomb Congress sends to Ukraine, Israel and Saudi Arabia for U.S. proxy wars explodes here, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said during the Vietnam War. The more desperately needed resources are siphoned off for the expansion of the U.S. empire abroad, the more the system scapegoats us to ensure workers remain divided and powerless.

Our community cannot effectively fight the anti-trans, anti-people offensive at home while supporting U.S. aggression abroad. When people struggling against U.S. domination around the world win, our movements for rights are strengthened. When we extend our solidarity to those resisting U.S. imperialism, we open up the opportunity for greater understanding and participation by LGBTQ2S people everywhere.

Let’s embrace the legacy of ACT UP, Queer Nation and those who fought militantly against the “gay panic” of the 1980s. Let’s imbue our movement with the spirit of unity that fueled the Stonewall Rebellion – an uprising led by the most oppressed Black and Brown, working-class, revolutionary trans and queer youth.

Resist capitalism’s trans panic strategy! Fight for socialism – a system that puts people’s needs first!

In Texas and Alabama, transgender youth are facing forcible detransition. A law passed by Alabama’s legislature and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey April 8, and an executive order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in February, not only ban gender-affirming care for children, but subject their parents and health-care providers to prosecution. 

This means that even kids who have been transitioning for years, who have lived as and always been known as a girl or boy to their peers, would be forcibly “outed” and denied the care they need to grow up happy and healthy – even banned from using the restroom they choose at school.

These measures directly contradict the recommendations of medical experts, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association. 

A University of Washington Study released at the end of February found that trans youth who got gender-affirming treatment experienced a 60% drop in depression risk and a 73% drop in suicidal thoughts, on average. 

“Our study builds on what we have already seen from an already staggering amount of scientific research,” study lead author Diana Tordoff told HealthDay News. “Access to gender-affirming care saves trans youth’s lives.”

Tennessee and Arkansas already have laws banning gender-affirming care. Nearly half of U.S. states currently have similar legislation pending. 

It’s worth noting, perhaps, that about 1.5 million people in the U.S. openly identify as trans – that is, less than half of 1% of the U.S. population of 330 million.

Slander campaign

In recent weeks, a new campaign of dangerous slander has accompanied this effort, as right-wing politicians, news outlets like Fox News and social-media bigots shout about the LGBTQ2S community and its supporters as “groomers” or pedophiles for supporting gender-affirming care for youth. 

Mainstream corporate media like the Washington Post have published pieces questioning whether trans people’s right to exist has “gone too far,” demonstrating that this bigoted campaign has traction within the capitalist ruling class beyond the fascist right that now dominates the Republican Party.

This slander campaign has gone hand-in-glove with the Florida “Don’t Say Gay” law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which bans any mention of queer and trans issues from schools, and the British government’s decision to exclude trans people from the ban on so-called “conversion therapy” that forcibly seeks to change people’s sexual and gender identities.

The grotesque anti-trans campaign echoes the rhetoric of other anti-LGBTQ2S witch-hunts, like the one targeting gay men during the AIDS crisis. It is having dangerous consequences for the trans community, which already faces a high rate of murders and violence. Trans people have been harassed and threatened on trains and in the street. Death threats against trans people online have skyrocketed.

State and local protest actions and lawsuits are attempting to hold back the tide. But it’s clear that the ultra-right plans to continue riding their hate campaign into the mid-term Congressional elections this November. Democrats have shown no desire to take up the fight for trans rights, beyond the empty words “we are with you” uttered by President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address. 

In fact, Democratic politicians are rapidly moving to the right on every issue from police brutality to COVID prevention – all while leading the charge for war against Russia.

Big Lies, at home and abroad

On the other side of the planet, antifascists from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the Ukrainian antifascist underground, and troops from the Russian Federation are fighting to stem the tide of a U.S.-NATO takeover of Eastern Europe. 

The location chosen by the West for this showdown is the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, ruled by a right-wing coup regime installed by Washington in 2014. The backbone of this regime is neo-Nazi groups that have terrorized leftists, trade unionists, journalists and minority nationalities and immigrants.

The reality of the situation has been turned on its head by the propagandists of U.S. Big Business and the Pentagon. 

People in the Donbass region – Donetsk and Lugansk – have been defending themselves from a war waged by Ukraine with U.S./NATO support for eight years. Washington pushed Ukraine to launch a new, massive attack on Donbass earlier this year, hoping to draw Russia into a war. 

The people of Donetsk and Lugansk appealed for Russia’s help to defend themselves when a Ukrainian attack became inevitable. Russia’s government also saw that a complete NATO takeover of Ukraine would endanger its own sovereignty, and felt no option but to act.

And yet, their joint military campaign to denazify and demilitarize NATO’s puppet regime in Ukraine is portrayed in the U.S. as the greatest crime against humanity since World War II. (The many, many crimes committed by the U.S. war machine around the world are of course omitted from the conversation.)

Blame the victim

Does this “blame the victim” approach sound familiar? It should. It’s the exact same strategy of divide-and-conquer being used to demonize trans people here at home.

Consider these parallels:

Families of trans children are being forced to flee states that have adopted laws banning gender-affirming care and persecuting supportive parents. It’s so grave that even the U.S. Air Force has announced it will help resettle affected service members’ families from these states!

In the same way, millions of people in Donbass and Ukraine have been forced to flee their homes because of the war crisis methodically set up by Washington and its allies.

Trans people and their supporters are slandered and dehumanized every day in print, broadcast and social media and by elected officials. This creates an atmosphere that makes violent attacks inevitable. 

In the same way, social-media monopolies, corporate media and Washington officials promote neo-Nazi-spawned claims of “Russian war crimes,” suppress and deplatform alternative sources of news and analysis, and support measures that dehumanize and belittle people who live in the Donbass region and people of Russian nationality.

How interesting that many organized sports bodies are banning trans people from competing while also banning Russian athletes!

Trans people, antifascists in Eastern Europe and anti-war activists have a common enemy: U.S. imperialism. 

It might seem that geographical distance, lack of mutual understanding and the intensity of the attacks make it impossible for these struggles (and others) to unite. That’s what the imperialists are counting on.

It is the job of communists to prove them wrong, by building bridges between diverse sections of the working class at home and abroad to fight back. We need to start today.

On March 31 — the International Transgender Day of Visibility — Baltimore Safe Haven reported that their Charles Village office had been vandalized with a bigoted message that read “Fuck Pride DIE.” 

Founded in 2018, Baltimore Safe Haven is a local, trans-led nonprofit that provides the city’s at-risk TLGBQIA community — particularly Black trans women — with food, housing, health care and more. According to the organization’s website, their aim is to serve individuals “with an annual median income of less than $10,000, who are currently engaged in or have a history in sex work, who are substance users, and who are either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.” 

Key members of Safe Haven’s staff have expressed their outrage and frustration in the wake of this attack and the online harassment that has accompanied it. “We’re devastated. I’m afraid for my own safety and the safety of my staff at this moment,” remarked founder and executive director Iya Dammons. Case manager Nicole Wells was the first to notice the graffiti and shared a similar comment: “I was shaking. At this point, I don’t even want to go outside by myself.” Program Manager Ngaire Philip added, “We haven’t done anything to hurt anyone.”

Unfortunately this isn’t the first attack they’ve had to endure: last October, Safe Haven’s “Project Genesis” youth shelter in West Baltimore was burglarized and vandalized by a man who previously threatened staff and made “derogatory comments around sexuality and gender.” This time, Dammons believes the organization is being targeted due to the upcoming Baltimore Trans Pride ‘22 Block Party they are heading this June.

Despite these hardships Baltimore Safe Haven remains committed to their vision: “a world in which all transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (TLGBQ) people enjoy healthy, self-determined and -sufficient lives, liberated from the stigma, violence, and oppression they have suffered.”

“We all just had to take a breath for a second,” says Dammons, who then continued: “We’re not going to let this break us. We’re not going to bend. We’re going to do the job.” The vandalism is currently being investigated as a hate crime. 

Baltimore’s Peoples Power Assembly previously marched alongside Baltimore Safe Haven in 2021 for their 2nd annual Black Trans Lives Matter march, and will continue to support the organization’s valiant struggle to uplift the most vulnerable members of our community.

Regarding the upcoming festivities Dammons said, “This is the first time we have ever thrown a major, big Pride like this for the trans community. I would like to see people come out on June 4 and let them know that this will not happen in Baltimore City at all.”

Trans people, and especially youth, are under attack in state capitols across the U.S. And the most egregious attack so far has come in a state that is a stronghold of the neofascist takeover of the Republican Party – Texas.

On Feb. 17, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a “nonbinding opinion” that gender-affirming treatment for trans children and youth amounted to “child abuse.” Paxton’s outrageous claim came on the heels of the failure of a bill with similar language to advance in the state legislature.

The very next day, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order giving Paxton’s “opinion” the weight of law, and ordering the Department of Family and Protective Services to begin investigating families and healthcare providers of trans children on suspicion of “child abuse.” 

Abbott also ordered state employees – including teachers and health-care workers – to report any known trans children to DFPS or face firing and prosecution themselves.

Texas authorities immediately began an aggressive and very public campaign to threaten trans children’s families and health providers, including one mother who is herself an employee of the DFPS. She was placed on leave while an inquiry was opened into her 16-year-old’s case. 

A judge temporarily halted the investigations on March 11 in response to a legal challenge brought by the family of a trans teenager. Abbott immediately appealed the decision.

Meanwhile, hospitals like UT Southwestern in Dallas have moved to end all gender-affirming care for trans children and youth, in the same way many public and private clinics and hospitals have ended reproductive services for women out of fear of being prosecuted (and losing profits) under Texas’ Draconian abortion ban that went into effect last year.

What happens in Texas

Texas has become ground zero for some of the most reactionary and divisive laws in the United States: against the voting rights of Black people, against women’s right to choose, against the right to teach a shred of truth about U.S. history – and now, against trans children and their families.

What happens in Texas doesn’t stay in Texas. It becomes a template for the far-right across the country, and helps to push the entire mainstream political ecosystem to the right – since spineless Democratic Party bosses respond to the desires of Wall Street, Big Oil and the military industry, rather than the people who vote for them.

A prime example is Oklahoma, where the state legislature is poised to enact an abortion ban similar to the one imposed in Texas last year. Like Texas, the Oklahoma measure “rewards” people for turning in their neighbors and healthcare providers.

NBC News reported March 20: “State lawmakers have proposed a record 238 bills that would limit the rights of LGBTQ Americans this year — or more than three per day — with about half of them targeting transgender people specifically.”

The transparent goal of these laws, piling one upon the other, is to divide and atomize the working class so that we cannot fight back as capitalists and their political agents drive up prices and drive down wages, erode union rights and terrorize communities of color. 

To achieve their ends, these proponents of “traditional family values” are only too happy to sacrifice children and their families as they whip up hate and division.

Democrats like Joe Biden, who gave lip service to trans rights in his war-mongering State of the Union address, have proven over and over that they can’t be relied upon to do anything to protect people’s rights – just as they have done nothing serious to defend voting rights or the right to abortion.

We won’t go back!

Fortunately, people are fighting back. They’re taking to the streets, in Texas and elsewhere, to defend the rights of trans children and their families.

Hundreds of people converged on the governor’s mansion and state capitol in Austin March 13 for a protest called “Trans Children Cry for HELP!” The event was loud, colorful and militant, with families, activists, kids and elders united against Abbott’s attack.

“Kids wearing trans- and rainbow-pride flags as capes ran around under the warm afternoon sun, while adults held signs that proclaimed ‘this teacher will not comply’ and ‘Abbott is a useless clownish bully,’” the Dallas News reported.

“Tracy and Matt, a couple who declined to give their last name for fear of investigation, came to the rally from nearby Schertz to show support for their 12-year-old transgender son. ‘We came for our son, who was too scared,’ Tracy said.”

The protesters created a human wall to shield children and families from provocations by supporters of Alex Jones’ far-right “InfoWars” outfit.

Protests to defend trans children in Texas and everywhere must continue and grow. And the working-class movement must urgently take up the task of defending all the communities under attack by building a united fight-back movement that can sweep away the neo-Nazis and their enablers from Austin to Washington, D.C.

Struggle-La Lucha spoke with activist Erin Reed (she/her) about anti-trans measures currently flooding state legislatures, and how people are fighting back.

Struggle-La Lucha: Can you tell our readers a bit about who you are and your work for trans rights?

Erin Reed: I have been a longtime advocate for transgender rights, especially when it comes to accessibility of trans health care. I created the largest map of informed consent hormone therapy clinics in the United States. Informed consent is a method of obtaining hormone therapy that does not require years of expensive therapy to obtain hormones. Instead doctors tell you the risks and benefits, letting you make the choice if it is right for you. They then monitor your hormone levels and aid in your transition. This resource has been accessed over 1.6 million times.

I also have been extremely active in marginalized spaces which include transgender people. I created Maryland Equity Vaccine Hunters, which ultimately obtained nearly 10,000 vaccines for Marylanders in underprivileged communities, including transgender Marylanders and especially trans people of color.

Lastly, I openly advocate for transgender legal rights and have been tracking bills this cycle that seek to detransition trans youth, remove transgender people from public spaces like bathrooms and changing rooms, remove the ability of transgender people to update legal documents, and call those who affirm trans youth child abusers.

SLL: Can you give us an overview of the current anti-trans legislation? 

ER: As of right now, multiple trackers exist showing dozens of anti-trans bills pending. The ACLU says 79 anti-transgender bills have been filed so far in the first month of 2022. Step Up lists 65 active anti-trans bills being proposed. 

These bills all share very similar language. Many go after those who provide trans teenagers with transition-related medical care, threatening prison sentences for doctors or defining parents as child abusers. Others seek to ban changes to identification documents. Some propose banning transgender people from bathrooms. Others will ban transgender people from competing in sports, even youth sports and even for youth transitioners. 

Many of these bills have no enforcement mechanisms or outrageous enforcement mechanisms like genital inspections. They all will increase harm to the transgender community.

SLL: For you, what is most dangerous about these attacks on trans rights, especially for youth?

ER: Youth are at an enormously high risk of suicide when denied the ability to transition. Most statistics show that transgender people are at a 41% likelihood of attempting suicide at some point in their life. 

However, being able to access gender-affirming care lowers transgender youth’s chance of suicide attempts by 40%, according to an article published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in December 2021. This makes transition-related care for trans youth one of the most lifesaving treatments you can give to someone under the age of 18. 

That several states are looking to ban transition care should terrify many people. So many trans youth will be stuck in these states and withdrawn from their hormone therapy should the bills pass.

SLL: How are trans people fighting back in different states, and how can others get involved?

ER: Local organizations are best — every state usually has its own local LGBTQ organizations that mobilize when an anti-trans bill takes effect. There have been some particularly effective national organizations. Lambda Legal, Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, Transgender Law Center and the ACLU have been essential in challenging these bills and organizing advocacy. If you live in one of the states in the ACLU or Step Up’s tracker, contact your representatives about these bills and show up for the hearings. 

Sometimes trans youth as young as 11 are the ones that show up and make all the difference. Kai Shappely stood in front of Texas legislators and was essential to defeating anti-trans youth bills. She is now a finalist for Time Kid of the Year.

SLL: Reproductive rights and Black people’s voting rights are also under threat in many of the same states. Can you talk about the importance of building unity among all the communities under attack?

ER: Solidarity among all communities under attack is extremely important. Reproductive rights are intricately tied to transgender rights – anti-abortion laws are inseparable from anti-trans laws and represent an attack designed to enforce a gender heirarchy that reduces our gender and sexuality to a biological role of reproduction and control of our bodies. The same organizations that fight against abortion rights fight against trans rights and fund anti-trans organizations around the globe. 

You can’t separate either of these from attacks on the Black community. Bills targeting trans youth in sports often get brought up when Black athletes perform well, regardless of if they are trans. In 2021, three cisgender women were banned from the Olympics in some sports categories for not taking birth control to lower their natural testosterone because of trans panic: Castor Semenya, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi. 

And the latest attacks on education in the United States banning books often target “critical race theory” and “gender theory.” Both transness and Blackness are seen as dangerous and are constantly under attack by a white patriarchal society.

From Juventud Rebelde. Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

New generations are born with a willingness to excel admirably, and it is good that the fire of Olympus burns, without discriminating, in all hearts

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.
–Marilyn Monroe

If there’s one thing that distinguishes Olympic competitions, it’s their exhibitionist nature. More than to beat their rivals, whatever the sport, each athlete goes out to demonstrate how far we can go in life when we set out to break the limits that someone else set before and seemed immovable.

In that spirit, records are also broken from the stands, as evidenced by the photo of British diver Tom Daley, the new Olympic champion, knitting in concentration as his teammates compete in the Aquatics Center.

The image is iconic because it confirms another challenge overcome in these Games, historic since their inception for many reasons: Tokyo 2020 is the first Olympics in which at least 130 people with homosexual or bisexual erotic orientation, or non-binary identity, and one trans person will openly compete.

Daley declared, “I am gay and an Olympic champion,” to show that these are not incompatible qualities, as has been taboo for too long in modern sport. And the knitting thing is not just a hobby: his fame and activism on Instagram allows him to sell those pieces and donate resources to shelters for gay boys with no family of their own to give them love and respect. The gold didn’t go to his head because he already had it in his heart.

This is his third Olympics and the second time he has come openly gay, an attitude that inspires more athletes to shed the fear of showing who they are in front of the world’s cameras. One less element of stress for their competing bodies and their minds, pending also pandemic.

“When I was younger I always felt like the one who was alone and different and didn’t fit in. There was something in me that was never going to be as good as society wanted me to be,” he told the Guardian. “I hope that any young LGBT person can see that no matter how alone you feel now. You are not alone. You can achieve anything.”

Triple somersault

Tokyo 2020 is not the first step, but it is the most forceful in bringing sport out of the closet of sexual prejudice. The sports magazine Outsports states that in the London 2012 Games, 23 self-declared athletes participated outside the heteronormative canons; and in Rio 2016 there were 56.

The Japanese event almost triples the number with athletes from 25 countries. To mention the most significant: from the United States there are 30 and from the United Kingdom 15. There are 12 from the Netherlands and 11 from Canada. New Zealand and Australia had nine each, and Brazil seven. And these figures do not include the technical staff and Paralympic athletes who will come later.

They are in sports as varied as swimming, basketball, canoeing, horseback riding, field hockey, golf, fencing, judo, handball, rowing, rugby, cycling, diving, boxing, BMX freestyle, soccer, softball, tennis, athletics, taekwondo, wrestling and volleyball. At first glance, we can see figures with non-binary identities, that is, that break the typical culturally constructed expectation of feminine and masculine.

And if we are talking about challenging stereotypes, one who does so in a forceful way is New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard, 43, the first trans woman to compete in weightlifting. Registered as a male at birth, in 2013 she completed her physical and legal transition process. Her case has raised strong controversy, but her hormone levels meet the international requirements to compete with women in this sport, which is controversial for gender reasons.

Hubbard did not win a medal, but she was still happy to be in competition, and before the press she thanked the International Olympic Committee for reaffirming its commitment to the principles of Olympianism and making it clear “that sports is something for everyone, that it is inclusive and accessible”.

For now, trans people who take up sports competitively face complaints from those who believe that genes, bone weight or pubertal development give them certain biological advantages, especially if they compete with women. The curious thing is that many of these sportswomen or their predecessors faced similar resistance to breakthrough in sports that were considered very masculine, and proved that they could give an equally honorable and exciting show for the public, something that could also be said of Paralympic competitions.

As we have already said: if in any area society quickly applauds those who leave behind obsolete marks, it is in sports. The new generations are born with the physical and mental disposition to excel in an admirable way, and it is good that the fire of Olympus burns, without discrimination, in all hearts.

Bob McCubbin is a lifelong revolutionary activist, Socialist Unity Party member and author of the book, “The Social Evolution of Humanity: Marx and Engels were right!” This study of the evolution of humanity focuses on human social/sexual relations and, in particular, the changing social status of women. It offers a selection of scientific evidence that updates and augments the viewpoint expressed in Frederick Engels’ masterful work, “Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.”

McCubbin is also the author of “Roots of Lesbian and Gay Oppression: A Marxist View.” First published in 1976, during the first wave of the modern LGBTQ2S movement, McCubbin’s unparalleled achievement was to offer a historical analysis of when, where, why and how LGBTQ2S oppression developed.

This special Pride month webinar was held on June 28, 2021. Along with McCubbin, it features remarks from Socialist Unity Party activists Andre Powell, Lizz Toledo and Lars Bertling.

https://www.facebook.com/2267312009947139/videos/204792641553964

New York — Chants of “Free, free Palestine!” echoed through the corridors of lower Manhattan on Pride Sunday, June 27, at the third annual Queer Liberation March took to the streets from Bryant Park to the historic Stonewall Inn and Washington Square Park.

Coming just a month after the latest devastating U.S./Israel bombing assault on Gaza and amidst ongoing settler terrorism in Jerusalem and throughout occupied Palestine, the solidarity infusing the march of many thousands of lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer and Two-Spirit people and supporters was very significant.

Members of the NY4Palestine Coalition, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, the Socialist Unity Party and others spread the pro-Palestinian message from front to back of the thousands-strong demonstration, which stretched many blocks.

The Queer Liberation March began in 2019 on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall Rebellion. Organized by the Reclaim Pride coalition, its purpose was to put the spirit of protest back in Pride, after decades of corporate floats, capitalist politicians and police hijacking the “official” Heritage of Pride parade.

Under pressure from the QLM, the Black Lives Matter struggle and the LGBTQ2S community, Heritage of Pride this year banned uniformed cops from marching in the Pride events. For the second year, in-person activities were sharply curtailed, including the parade that usually draws millions of spectators.

‘Queer people face unemployment’

“From Stonewall to Palestine, resistance is justified,” declared a banner carried by the contingent of the Socialist Unity Party and Struggle-La Lucha newspaper. Two cars of activists from Baltimore drove to New York to join local activists in the revolutionary contingent.

Among them were Lars and Russ, two organizers of the Unemployed Workers Union that is fighting against the cutoff of federal unemployment benefits by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. 

Asked why they made the trip hundreds of miles amidst such a big struggle, Lars told Struggle-La Lucha: “Plenty of queer people are facing unemployment and issues on the job … We need to come out and show up for each other!”

“We have to be in solidarity with the queer community as well as fighting racism and many other issues to support and engage working-class people, all across the country and the world,” explained Russ. 

At the end of the march, as people celebrated in Washington Square Park, the New York Police Department once again showed that it is no friend of LGBTQ2S people.

“The NYPD did it again — violently attacking peaceful queer marchers near the WSP Arch — for absolutely no reason. Several were brutally arrested as the NYPD pepper-sprayed random bystanders,” reported the Reclaim Pride Coalition. 

A news conference about the police brutality was planned for June 29.

https://www.facebook.com/strugglelalucha/videos/338201757853806

In Los Angeles, hundreds gathered for a Pride event June 26 that began with a spirited rally at the Black Cat Tavern — the historic site of one of the earliest LGBTQ2S demonstrations against brutality by cops.

The action, “Pride & Resistance: Stonewall Means Fight Back,” was initiated by the ANSWER Coalition. Protesters took over a lane of traffic and marched behind a sound truck for miles along the famed Sunset Boulevard to Echo Park.

The Socialist Unity Party/Partido por el Socialismo Unido stands in solidarity with the Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans/Queer/Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2S) community, not only as we celebrate Pride Month, but also as queer people continue to fight back against the systemic oppression imposed on us by capitalism. 

We are encouraged by the growing number of Pride marches around the country now demanding that police not be allowed to participate due to continued arrests and harrassment of the queer community. 

The clarion call to reclaim Pride has been heard in all corners of the country. It reminds people that Stonewall was a rebellion sparked by the frustration of repeated humiliation and violence by the New York Police Department. 

That three-day rebellion grew into a movement of resistance — not just against police terror, but one that opened up the fight for respect for the queer community. It demanded an end to discriminatory firings and being kicked out of apartments, as well as out of families. The movement worked hard to show the world that “Gay is Good.”

Over the past year, the queer community has come out in large numbers as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, calling for justice for the many Black and Latinx people who have been murdered by police. There is a natural link between these communities, as both movements began as rebellions against police brutality and killings. It is well known that oppression breeds resistance.

This natural alliance defies the wishes of the capitalist class, which only seeks to break down the mutual support and solidarity which strengthens these two working-class movements. 

Liberation for Palestine and LGBTQ2S

Today the fightback against repression is strongest in those communities that have come under tremendous attack. Just as the Stonewall Rebellion was a community united against years of beatings and disrespect, so too are our Palestinian siblings united as they continue their decades-long resistance to Israeli occupation and life under apartheid conditions. 

We condemn the recent U.S.-armed-and-funded Israeli bombings in Gaza that killed at least 260 Palestinians and left thousands homeless. We condemn the actions of racist Israeli settlers evicting residents who have lived for decades in the East Jerusalem area of Sheik Jarrah. This ethnic cleansing is deplorable and a crime against humanity. 

We call on the queer community to resist the attempts at “pinkwashing” by the state of Israel, which tries to paint itself as the perfect tourist destination. This only uses the queer community as a pawn as the U.S. and Israel try to justify the theft of Palestinian land. 

We have nothing to gain in supporting Israeli atrocities committed against our Palestinian siblings. 

We stand with the Reclaim Pride Coalition marchers and other queer activists who were brutally attacked by the NYPD during the past year. It’s said that a leopard never changes its spots. While it is good that police have been banned from the NYC Heritage of Pride march, that event continues to pander to corporate interests. 

The Queer Liberation March, which is also held on the last Sunday of June, lifts up the original, radical politics of the movement that began that summer night in 1969 — for those who have forgotten or are so young they may not have been aware.

Unite to fight ongoing attacks

Although many gains have been won over the 52 years since Stonewall, the struggle is not over.  

The right wing continues to use our rights as a galvanizing tool at election time. Same-sex marriage rights are constantly under attack. There is still not a federal law prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations. 

Trump is gone, but his followers in legislatures around the country have introduced one bill after another trying to undo the gains we have made. The right-wing packed U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear cases that may grant the right to discriminate based on religious beliefs, as well denying same-sex couples the right to be foster parents or to adopt. 

But using religion as a tool of oppression is nothing new. Religion has been used by capitalism and imperialism to justify the genocide of Indigenous people. Religion has been used to justify murder, rape, pillaging, robbing our communities of resources, sexism, and now homophobia and transphobia. 

The most vulnerable segment of the queer community — transgender individuals — live with day-to-day fear of physical as well as political attacks. The number of transwomen murdered so far this year has already surpassed last year’s number. The right wing is strongly pressing for laws that deny gender-affirming healthcare to youth and allow legal molestation of transgirls in school sports by checking to see which genitals they have. 

We reject these attempts to misgender and repress our transgender sisters. We assert that transwomen are women. 

Capitalism has only misery to offer the queer community. It will take the socialist reorganization of society to ensure that LGBTQ2S people are able to live in dignity. 

Stonewall still means fightback — for our liberation, and for the entire working class!