Trans and queer people are under horrific attack from Trump and both political parties of the billionaire class. Working people need to go on the offensive to fight full LGBTQ+ rights — this is the best way to defend against attacks and prevent them in the first place. This fight should go hand in hand with the fight to win historic change for working people of all genders and sexualities.
Discrimination, oppression, and violence is endemic to capitalism because in order to squeeze billions of people for profit, the billionaires and corporate executives need to keep the working class divided on gender, sexual orientation, race, religion and ethnicity, and citizenship status. We need to build united mass movements of the working class against the attempts of the right wing and billionaire class to divide us in order to keep exploiting us.
Working people are being squeezed on every front trying to afford basic necessities like housing, healthcare, and even groceries. Trans people, especially trans people of color, face violence and discrimination that compound all those crises. One in five trans people have been fired or denied a job for being trans and one in eight evicted or denied housing. One in five transgender individuals have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. Workers Strike Back is supporting Kshama Sawant's independent socialist campaign for Congress because Kshama is a proven fighter and winner for working people and oppressed communities. Kshama is demanding:
Free healthcare for all, funded by taxing the rich
Free and full access to all gender affirming care, reproductive care, and LGBTQ+ counseling services
End anti-trans and all LGBTQ+ oppression! Stop the advance of anti-trans bills, and go on the offensive to fight for full LGBTQ+ rights.
The Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (including titles II, III, IV, VI, VII, and IX) to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, federally funded programs, credit, and jury service
Living-wage jobs guarantee and the right for all workers to unionize
National rent control to stop the price-gouging by corporate landlords, which forces LGBTQ+ people out of their communities by economic eviction
Create millions of affordable homes, including free emergency housing for trans and queer people fleeing abuse, funded by taxing the billionaires and the wealthiest corporations
End all military aid to Israel and cut the trillion-dollar war budget to fully fund education, transit, and other social services
AI-related regulations for safeguarding the rights of queer children and adults
