Ian Ocx | LGBTQIA+ Commissioner of the American Party of Labor | Texas–

On March 29, President Joe Biden announced the official recognition of Transgender Day of Visibility by the government of the United States. In this announcement, Biden stated the purpose of this official recognition was to “reaffirm [the] Nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect Union — where all people are created equal and treated equally throughout their lives” and that transgender people within the US “deserve, and are entitled to, the same rights and freedoms as every other American, including the most fundamental freedom to be their true selves.”

While no principled progressive or communist force would oppose the continued struggle for equality and inclusion of transgender, gender-nonconforming, and gender-queer people it is also clearly apparent that the democratic rights of these people are mercilessly under threat as the current situation of emerging crisis within American capital continues to escalate. Even now in 2024, before the midpoint of the year has been reached, 538 anti-transgender bills have been introduced throughout 41 different US states; 15 have already passed, and 434 are still active within legislative sessions across the country. It must also be noted that the Human Rights Campaign has already begun publishing its tracking of fatal violence against transgender individuals in the United States. 

Biden continued his announcement by stating that “extremists are proposing hundreds of hateful laws that target and terrify transgender kids and their families — silencing teachers; banning books; and even threatening parents, doctors, and nurses with prison for helping parents get care for their children.  These bills attack our most basic American values:  the freedom to be yourself, the freedom to make your own health care decisions, and even the right to raise your own child.  It is no surprise that the bullying and discrimination that transgender Americans face is worsening our Nation’s mental health crisis, leading half of transgender youth to consider suicide in the past year.  At the same time, an epidemic of violence against transgender women and girls, especially women and girls of color, continues to take too many lives”

While it is good to see Biden acknowledge the massive violations of democratic and human rights that are unfolding across the country in relation to the increased legal and extralegal attacks against transgender, gender-nonconforming, and gender-queer people, the President’s statement also conveniently ignores the root causes of this increase in attacks: the exploitative and divisive social relations of capitalism and the bourgeois forces that are doing their best to defend them, of which President Biden is a member.

Biden’s push for transgender inclusion will be just that, a push for the inclusion of transgender, gender-nonconforming, and gender-queer people within the already existing capitalist framework, not a push for their total liberation from oppression and exploitation. When Biden announced the official recognition of Transgender Day of Visibility he did so by also stating that “[t]ransgender Americans are part of the fabric of our Nation. Whether serving their communities or in the military, raising families or running businesses, they help America thrive,” and that he is proud “to have ended the ban on transgender Americans serving openly in our military.”

It is clear that Biden’s primary goal here is to create an idyllic sense that the imperialist US government is actually an understanding, inclusive place that can and will make space for any marginalized group at the table; that there is no need to push for real material change within the US; that threatening the foundations of the imperialist machine is not needed in order to achieve total liberation for transgender, gender-nonconforming, and gender-queer people. Nothing could be further from reality. 

As long as the oppressive social relations of capitalism and the bourgeois institutions they create remain in place then no working-class member of the LGBTQIA+ community will ever be truly free from exploitation. The bourgeois-democratic government that Biden represents will do everything in its power to present the struggle for transgender rights as a culture war that has to be waged to advance US society instead of what it really is: an aspect of the class struggle.

Every single reform, including democratic and civil rights, that Biden is able to usher in during his administration can be stripped away by a more reactionary representative of the bourgeoisie in a future term. As long as the struggle for transgender, gender-nonconforming, and gender-queer inclusion and liberation stays within the predefined framework of the capitalist circus it will never truly be won. For a real and permanent liberation of all LGBTQIA+ people to occur we must build a new socialist world that does away with currently existing social relations of capital. Only then, when the working class — to which the majority of transgender people belong — has the power to create a society that serves our interest above all else will transgender, gender-nonconforming, and gender-queer people be truly free, and truly visible. 

Categories: Discrimination, LGBTQIA+, U.S. News