The LGBTQIA+ Commission of the American Party of Labor—

We have to do it because we can no longer stay invisible. We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are. We have to show the world that we are numerous. There are many of us out there.

Sylvia Rivera

This year, Transgender Day of Visibility falls in the midst of tremendous fear and uncertainty for the American gender non-conforming community. Beginning from the very first day of the nakedly fascist second Trump regime, a campaign of political violence has been waged against this country’s LGBTQIA+ community with a particular focus on restricting the rights of transgender and nonbinary people.

The past few months alone have seen proposed immigration rules that would require transgender travelers to disclose their assigned sex at birth on visa applications, the banning of gender affirming care within Federal Prisons (a policy which will result in deaths both from medical complications and increased suicide attempts among inmates), substituting pseudoscientific conversion “therapy” for medically valid care for transgender prisoners, all culminating in petitions by hate groups to have the FDA create a registry of all transgender women in the country with the goal of further restricting access to life saving treatments. This persistent repression, along with the unwillingness of liberal political figures to meaningfully stem its tide, has understandably left many transgender and nonbinary people enveloped by a sense of hopelessness.

But while it would be unwise to minimize the dangers being felt by our communities, it is equally important to remember that our place in history is far from hopeless. For us to regain our optimism in the face of Trumpite fascism, we must rediscover the radical heritage of queer liberation movements and restore that heritage to its rightful place. From the militant street activism of Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), to the Filipino revolutionary Ka Daisy, figures who strove for LGBTQIA+ liberation by means of the social revolution have cast a long shadow. And despite all the attempts to sanitize that history, the memory of militant queer movements remain a specter that cannot be exorcised by the reactionary policies of the fascist American government.

As the system of global monopoly capitalism continues to be rocked by the crises caused by its own intrinsic contradictions, we should expect the bourgeoisie to lash out against any and all social progress attained by exploited peoples. Attacks made against reproductive rights, barbaric ICE terrorism, attempts to clamp down on student protests, union busting, and of course, the legislative campaigns against the scant civil gains made by gender nonconforming people are but a few examples. We must understand these as the attempts of a dying class desperately trying to reassert its control over the laboring masses, and while it still remains in a position of strength, it exists on borrowed time.

Now is not the time to be overwhelmed by dread or pessimism. Now is the time to strengthen our revolutionary optimism, to remember the Compton Cafeteria Riot, the Stonewall Uprising, and the solidarity and resilience that our communities showed during the dark years of the AIDS epidemic.

Now is the time to remember that the liberation of transgender and nonbinary people is but one front in the struggle against all forms of exploitation. Our hope rests in linking our liberation movement closely with the fight to topple capitalism, and in its place build a future where all working people can exist in security and stability. Access to healthcare, housing and employment free from discrimination and precarity: How long have our communities fought for these basic rights within the limits of bourgeois politics?

While some small progress had been made in terms of legal recognition of the rights of gender non-conforming people, in reality these benefits were enjoyed only by those who were already experiencing economic security.

Even then, as soon as these gains were no longer of value to the ruling class, they were discarded and rolled back.

The liberation of transgender people cannot be obtained without the destruction of the capitalist mode of production and the construction of a new socialist society. We must therefore view the emancipation of LGBTQIA+ people as forever linked to the emancipation of all exploited people. As the repression of our communities exists downstream of the oppression of women, we must reignite our commitment to the defense of women everywhere. Likewise, the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie must include the liberation of queer people from reactionary political violence.

During this Transgender Day of Visibility, the American Party of Labor has a message for all transgender and nonbinary people languishing under the political violence of this fascist regime: you are far from without hope. Your lives are a beautiful part of the rich tapestry of human experience, and like the lives of all oppressed people, they are worth fighting for. Join us in the streets. Lend your strength to the ranks of the proletarian army as together we fulfill our historic role as the gravediggers of capitalism. Let this Transgender Day of Visibility be the day you join us in the trenches!

Categories: American Party of Labor, Discrimination, LGBTQIA+, Statements, U.S. News