By the FRSO LGBTQ & Women’s Movement Work Team
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was created to honor Rita Hester, a black trans woman killed by an unknown attacker after being stabbed 20 times. It’s become a national holiday for the entire LGBTQ community and all who stand in solidarity with the struggle for trans liberation.
The Trump administration has unleashed a vicious assault on transgender people. The Trump admin’s attacks on all LGBTQ+ people has started with an assault on trans people. The government now “officially recognizes” two sexes. Gender affirming care for youth is being targeted and removed around the country due to the threat of losing federal funding.
Trans immigrants are being forced into work camps and treated with brutality by ICE officers. Trans women are being pushed into men’s prisons and restricted from social transitioning. Trans people’s mere existence has become an ideological threat to the Republican Party, and many Democrats have agreed or refused to seriously fight against these attacks. Transgender people are under greater attack within the United States and around the world than they’ve been in decades.
These disgusting and hideous attacks have not come without consequences for the trans community. Sam Nordquist, a trans man, was tortured to death over more than a month. Lia Smith, a transwoman swimmer, committed suicide due to the constant harrassment and mistreatment she faced as a result of a smear campaign led by 5th place swimmer transformed into reactionary political figure Riley Gaines.
None of these deaths should be seen as accidental, as isolated instances outside of human control. The responsibility for the enormous unemployment, suicide, and struggle trans individuals face lies with the United States ruling class, which benefits from political attacks on trans people that reinforce traditional gender roles rooted in the oppression of women, and helps them further exploit all LGBTQ people and women economically by using these political attacks to extract even more surplus value and wealth as the democratic rights of oppressed groups continues to erode.
Remembrance is important, but the only way to win trans liberation and end the constant attacks from the rightwing reactionaries and the Trump administration is to fight back.
Honor TDOR, but don’t simply point out the harm they’ve faced and show sympathy. Commit to raising the level of consciousness and struggle around why attacks on transgender people are increasing. Attend or hold a rally or vigil in your city and use that to connect with trans individuals and organizations in your city. Unite and bring as many organizations as possible to the event and organize people to oppose anti-trans/anti-LGBTQ bills and attacks for your city.
As revolutionaries it is our responsibility to help people understand that solidarity with LGBTQ and trans people in particular is solidarity with an oppressed minority who have a vested interest in opposing the reactionary rule of the United States. We must lead the movement for LGBTQ liberation to adopt an anti-imperialist stance and realize the United States leadership is the greatest threat to trans rights in the world.
TDOR is a vigil and a time to remember and move forward. We need to fight for a world where transgender people are fully politically and socially equal – and only a socialist revolution where the working class is put in charge can achieve that.
