by Emery Addams and Francesca Perlov
Portland, ME
As queer workers and youth face increased repression in Trump’s second term, we need to bring back real, militant organizing to the struggle for queer liberation. We can’t wait to vote in the midterms, or for Democrats to “see Trump in court.” The rights won by the queer movement were not handed to us by the Supreme Court or the Democratic Party. They were won through consistent, organized struggle, often based in working-class tactics. Since the Stonewall Uprising in 1969, when the LGBTQ community protested for five days in NYC against the police, Pride has represented the struggle against the homophobic and transphobic capitalist system.
Attacks Escalate Under Trump
Anti-trans legislation has skyrocketed in recent years, with 1,022 anti-trans bills proposed nationally last year, up from 153 in 2021. Trump has used the “Big Beautiful Bill” to slash funding for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, pushing millions of Americans off of their health insurance. Trump has also restricted what organizations qualify for Public Sector Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), which serves as a lifeline for many low-income workers in mental health, education, and healthcare sector jobs. Now, if an organization engages in “substantial illegal purpose,” which includes providing gender-affirming care to youth, its workers will no longer qualify for loan forgiveness. This has pushed hospital systems to end gender-affirming care programs, and has forced workers out of lower-paying healthcare jobs serving marginalized communities.
Across the country, right-wing politicians have put forward bills that not only block access to gender-affirming care, but also re-classify it as child abuse. In many cases, these laws would require Child Protective Services (CPS) to remove trans youth from families that are supportive of their identities and criminally charge doctors who provide gender-affirming care. All workers in healthcare, education, and child-related services are classified as “mandated reporters” who are required to report instances of child abuse to CPS. In states that view gender-affirming care as child abuse, workers could lose their licenses and livelihoods by supporting trans youth. In May, one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country in TX agreed to a settlement with the Trump administration of $10 million in fines for providing gender-affirming care, firing five of its doctors, and opening the country’s first “detransition” clinic. The corporate press has drawn national attention to school districts attempting to defend LGBTQ+ rights, which are then threatened with legal consequences and funding cuts.
Trump has tried to paint trans people as responsible for gun violence, citing the killing of Charlie Kirk as the result of “extreme transgender ideology” in the most recent US Counterterrorism Strategy publication. Trump weaponizes the idea that recent mass shooters were either secretly or openly trans, and that their gender identity radicalized them to commit mass violence. In reality, transgender shooters make up 0.1% , or 5 out of 5,748, of all mass shooters between January 1st, 2013 and September 15th, 2025 according to the Gun Violence Archive. The undue focus on trans people as perpetrators of violence minimizes and distracts from the real violence perpetrated by police and ICE on our streets, as well as in for-profit wars abroad.
Creating and weaponizing the fear of queerness in an attempt to divide and control the working class isn’t new. In the 1970s, anti-gay public figure Anita Bryant spearheaded the “Save Our Children” campaign, which mobilized an anti-gay base and lobbied politicians to push back against a rise in the legal and cultural recognition of queer people. Bryant painted queer people’s open existence as a direct challenge to the role of the nuclear family, arguing that gay rights had to be significantly restricted in order to protect children. Bryant and her right-wing funders pushed for cuts to public education and to privatize schools. This was part of a broader attempt to weaken Florida’s (and the country’s) education system which employs the largest public-sector unionized workforce.
The ruling class creates cultural fears, like the false idea that students are being ‘turned’ trans in public schools, to justify privatization and to increase the amount of profit that they can make from the education system. This lets them avoid many public service laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). They are able to deny services mandatory in public schools, pay workers less, weaken union protections, and create barriers to education.
The Democratic Party’s Betrayals
The fight for queer liberation has historically won concessions when it has connected with strong movements based in the working class. Many involved in this struggle have recognized that true queer liberation is impossible within a capitalist system that creates dividing lines, including gender and sexuality, to separate and weaken the working class. We need to continue to fight against homophobia and transphobia on a class basis, which includes immediate demands, and the larger struggle against gendered systems of control, which have been created and perpetuated by the capitalist system.
The fight for some of the original non-discrimination bills was a fight to overcome resistance from both the Republican and Democratic Parties. Some queer organizations made the mistake of lobbying and relying on Democratic Party politicians to push forward legal protections. However, the Democratic Party pushed back on many of the genuine needs of the queer community.
The Democratic Party often refuses to write, sign off on, or vote for bills that explicitly protected the trans community. This includes the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which bans gender-affirming military health insurance to those under 18. The Democrats claimed that trans rights were too radical for US voters and that they were already going out on a limb by supporting gay rights. The Democrats used the phrase “we’ll come back for you,” claiming that they would put forward protections for cis gender gay people, and would later explore protections for trans people when voters were more aware and supportive of the community. The same excuse was given about the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA), which provided legal protections against workplace discrimination for gay people. The Democratic Party, despite years of mobilization from trans rights activists, refused to broaden it to protect trans people.
The Democrats manufactured the separation of gay and trans rights, isolating the trans community and leaving them open to Trump’s current attacks. They also directly betrayed the trans community, blaming their position on trans rights for their election loss. They haven’t–and won’t–“come back” for us. We don’t need to accept these scraps and betrayals from the Democrats. The queer movement should take up the struggle to build an independent workers’ party, completely separate from the two corporate parties. This would give us a real political platform to fight for trans rights, as well as things that all workers need: a higher minimum wage, affordable housing, trans-inclusive healthcare for all, free higher education, and much more.
What Way Forward?
Some people feel that the political situation is so dire that the only way to survive the administration is through mutual aid. In a culture ravaged by capitalism and inundated with individualistic ideals, it can feel like the most immediate way to take care of our community and neighbors. However, mutual aid is a bandaid solution if the capitalist system continues. Capitalism relies on gendered oppression (as well as sexism, racism, ableism, and other forms of oppression) to divide and control the working class. While mutual aid may help individuals temporarily survive the violence of capitalism, it does not prevent this harm from continuing to hurt others. Our greatest strength comes from collective mass action. Proven tactics like work stoppages and strikes put the power back in the hands of workers to win specific demands.
In their most recent contract struggle, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) won the most comprehensive queer rights protections yet in a public school system, including codifying gender-affirming care into their healthcare plan and creating a Gender Support Coordinator position. Their contract struggle also won overall increases in pay and support for all workers across the district. This unified action forced concession from the bosses, united the workers, and established real, tangible support for queer workers and students.
CTU is an example of how militant organizing can win things that all workers need. Unions can, and should, take up political struggles outside of limited contract negotiation cycles. Education and healthcare have been heavily targeted with anti-trans policies and we can fight back in our workplaces against transphobia and for new protections.
The queer rights movement can build momentum by not just fighting to defend existing legal protections, but by going on the offensive to fight for real material improvements to the standards of living for all working-class people.
Independent Socialist Group 