Is It Winnable?

There is a lot of negative laws out there against us and the question is can we turn around the trend.

The Brooklyn Liberation March Showed Why the GOP’s Anti-Trans Crusade Will Backfire
The energy and passion of the Brooklyn Liberation March was a vital, telling corrective to the bigoted lies being told about trans youth by Republican legislators.
The Daily Beast
By Jay Michaelson
June 14, 2021


As I marched with thousands of queer and trans people and our allies yesterday at the Brooklyn Liberation March, I realized something: we’re going to win this fight.

To be sure, as the marchers said, chanted, and cried over and over again, the current assaults against trans people are awful, brutal, and murderous. The theme of the march, where attendees were asked to wear white, was “an action for trans youth,” and was focused on the many laws and bills against trans youth's access to sports and healthcare that have bloomed like toxic algae in Republican legislatures over the last few months.

The thing is we live in a blue bubble and I don’t mean police blue, I mean blue as in liberal. Here in the northeast and along with the west coast we have some of the progressive non-discrimination laws in the nation. However once you move away from the coast you are in Trump country.

And on the streets, 2021 is shaping up to be yet another record-breaking year of violence against trans people, especially trans women of color. At least 24 violent deaths of trans women of color have been recorded this year.


Needless to say, these two phenomena are interrelated: elites stigmatizing trans people under the law places the most vulnerable at even greater risk. It was rightly called a “state of emergency.” And there was plenty of rage and grief at the Liberation March.

The Republicans are using us a wedge issue to rally their base and gather campaign donation, they just don’t care about us.

None of this is to suggest that things are going great and will all work out for the best. In the meantime, trans kids and trans women in particular are being used as pawns in an outrageous right-wing chess game. It’s despicable, it’s dangerous, and it has to stop.

And there is much work to be done. As Merkur Herrera put it, “While the awareness is great, visibility will not be the savior for trans youth. Liberation, empowerment, and health care for all is what will save kids and adults alike going through the journey.”

We have a long road ahead of us, don’t expect change to happen right away it will be years to bring about change. The Supreme Court is packed with conservatives and many of the federal judges were picked because they are anti-LGBTQ+.

I think what we have to do is…

• Education – people do not know about the Standard of Care so when the Republicans say that the medical procedures on children are irreversible they don’t know it is a lie.
• Find allies – there voices carry more weight then we do. We also need other organization involved, when we passed the non-discrimination law we had union and other civic organizations speak up for us.
• Cultivate religious allies – we need them to counter the religious right. We had an Episcopal bishop come and testify for the bill along with Congregational minsters and priests who spoke for us.
• Join the Democratic party – we need to be seen at fundraisers we need to be active in local politics. When I testified for the non-discrimination bill I knew four legislators on the committee.

We need to lay the groundwork and remember “All politics are local.”