The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) gave $4.3 million to anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion organizations, including American College of Pediatricians, American Family Association, Center for Family and Human Rights, Church Militant/St. Michael’s Media, Liberty Counsel, Pacific Justice Institute and Ruth Institute.
The American Family Association, which targets not only LGBTQ people, but also women and non-Christians, received $1.4 million alone. They have 200 radio stations across the country that tout their violent and divisive ideology. The Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, which received over $600,000, was foudned and named after a demagogue who promotes child abuse.
These organizations are funded by the same capitalists, such as the Koch Brothers and the DeVos family, that are behind the anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ laws that have swept through state legislatures in the last few years. Their goal is to pit people in the working class against one another, misusing religious freedom to make religious workers and LGBTQ people blame each other for their oppression instead of the capitalists. The use of PPP loans to fund these hate groups during the pandemic while millions of workers have lost their jobs is not an accident, but the priorities of the super-rich.
These right-wing organizations should be shut down and their leaders jailed, not funded by money that should be spent supporting workers during these crises.
Workers cannot put our faith in the courts. Not only is it clear that the court system is skewed to the rich–what worker can afford to go to court against their bosses?–but the courts themselves only decide in favor of the workers when they are forced to by the struggle. The courts are designed to distract us, to draw our desperation away from the struggle and hinge our hopes on nine members of the rich, ruling class.
“Our humanity does not begin and end with the courts,” said Joseph Coco, a queer, trans essential worker. “They are a tool that’s been forced onto us by the rich ruling class. A tool that doesn’t truly belong to the people is a tool that can never grant us true liberation.”
While workers around the country celebrated the defeat of anti-abortion laws, unanimous jury verdicts, and discrimination of LGBTQ people in the courts this summer, the undemocratic, unelected Supreme Court ruled in favor of several anti-worker causes that will especially harm women and all LGBTQ people, including allowing employers to discriminate on “religious or moral grounds,” leaving the door wide open to refusing to serve LGBTQ people at businesses, denying birth control to workers, or discriminating against almost anyone for anything on a “moral” basis.
Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Title VII protecting LGBTQ rights, the Trump administration enacted a policy that shelters could refuse homeless trans people on “religious or moral grounds” as well. The court decision for Title VII means nothing to the Trump administartion’s assault on our rights, nor to the rich ruling class they serve.
They have made it clear that no court decision will stop them from using their power to divide and control workers, pitting LGBTQ workers against religious workers, limiting our ability to engage with society, and making it harder for us to survive. Only a united working class movement can force the courts to bend in our favor.
The New Orleans Workers Group calls for the withdrawal of two anti-trans bills filed in the Louisiana State Legislature. SB172/HB466, which target trans youth in sports, are designed to humiliate, isolate, and encourage bullying of trans and gender non-conforming youth. The intention of the bill is to terrorize trans people and subject children to genital and hormonal testing by government officials.
This is an attack on trans people, gender non-comforming people, and all children in Louisiana. It is intended to scare trans people back into the closet by encouraging outrage and equating being trans with being a threat to children. It is intended to distract workers from the real predators–the capitalist class–preying on our children. We call for all workers to stand against these attacks and in solidarity with trans children.
These bills and others like it across the country, from South Dakota to Florida, are backed by five national organizations: the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation, the Kelsey Coalition, and the Alliance Defending Freedom.
These organizations are funded by the Koch brothers, the Coors family (as in the beer), the DeVos family, war profiteers, the Mellon family of bankers, and other capitalists. The Family Research Council is classified as a hate group.
None of them are from Louisiana, South Dakota, Kentucky, or other states where these bills have been submitted. No one in these states has asked for laws like these to be passed.
These are the same tactics anti-LGBTQ forces have taken for decades. They know they can paint LGBTQ people as dangerous to children and pit workers against one another. They test them out, state by state, to see what will create the most division and the least fight back.
Workers across the U.S. have stopped bills like these; Louisiana workers must not let these capitalists divide us and terrorize our children. Stand with trans people! Withdraw SB172/HB466!
National union leaders and LGBTQ activists and allies at the Pride at Work Triennial Convention.
By Sally Jane Black
Whether it’s being fired for who we are or harassment over what bathroom we use, sexual assault from customers or offensive homophobic jokes from our bosses, LGBTQ workers often face hostile work environments, especially from bosses and owners. 22% of LGBTQ people face discrimination on the job, with LGBTQ people of color facing it far more often. Nearly half of all LGBTQ workers are in the closet at work because they fear discrimination.
To whom can you turn?
Laws Don’t Protect Us
Though Title VII laws were reinterpreted under Obama to allegedly protect LGBTQ workers, the current administration has rolled that back. The issue is now in the courts. There is no state-level law to protect you, and the city ordinance has no teeth (though the New Orleans Human Rights Commission has recently gained investigative powers, they still have no power to enforce the ordinance on the books). Even if there were laws to protect you, you don’t have the money to take anyone to court.
The cops won’t do anything. They’re on the side of the bosses. For most, there’s no way to fight back.
Solidarity is the Answer
In some workplaces, however, LGBTQ workers can turn to the union.
In 1988, workers in Boston organized and went on strike, taking on Harvard University. On their list of demands were raises, healthcare benefits, and protections for gay workers. The university came back with everything but the protections, and the workers refused to go back to work. After a few more days, Harvard conceded. They won the protections in their union contract.
Around the country, LGBTQ protections have become a common part of union contracts, and in union workplaces, LGBTQ workers have their contracts to protect them and the union to back them up.
“An Injury to One Is an Injury to All” is the spirit in which the organization Pride at Work fights against discrimination. Founded in 1994, Pride at Work supports LGBTQ union members around the country. The fight for workers’ rights must include ALL workers; by standing together, we win not just better wages and benefits, but protection from harassment, discrimination, and violence in the workplace. Only as organized workers standing in solidarity can we protect ourselves from homophobia and transphobia.
Nearly a year ago, a leaked memo revealed that the Trump administration was trying to reinterpret Title VII in order to allow discrimination against LGBTQ people. The flimsy policy that included LGBTQ people under “sex” in Title VII (the law that protects against job discrimination on basis of gender, race, etc.) was established under the Obama administration as an effort to buy LGBTQ votes without effecting any change. With no real protections in place, it has taken almost no effort for the current administration to reverse almost every gain LGBTQ people have made.
The unelected, notoriously bigoted Supreme Court will be deciding on three cases this October that will determine whether this legalization of discrimination will be upheld, endangering millions of people’s jobs, insurance, and well being. Trump’s Department of “Justice” has aggressively fought for the reinterpretation, often using the argument of “religious freedom” to mask their dangerous homophobia and transphobia.
“RELIGIOUS FREEDOM”
The use of “religious freedom” as justification for these policies is not an attempt to protect anyone but to divide the working class against LGBTQ people. The capitalist class knows that if they claim that this is a matter of religion, LGBTQ people and allies will blame religion for these attacks instead of the real enemy: the rich, powerful capitalists that benefit from our oppression. Meanwhile, the capitalists are pandering to workers who are religious, hoping to incite them against the cause for LGBTQ equality.
RISE IN VIOLENCE
It is no coincidence that Louisiana candidates for governor are insulting trans people in campaign ads, or that celebrities like Drew Brees are avoiding consequences for working with anti-LGBTQ hate groups like Focus on the Family; the capitalist class is funding the complete reversal of every right won by LGBTQ people. This has also served as an open call to violence against queer and trans people. Hate crimes are at a record high. So far this year, 20 trans people—almost all black trans women—have been murdered, including one killed in an ICE concentration camp. As with every marginalized group, when our rights are under attack, our safety is threatened as well.
SECOND CLASS CITIZENS
The past year has seen attacks on LGBTQ people on every front: housing, healthcare, emergency shelter, education, and more. The attack on Title VII is at the heart of this. Allowing job discrimination against queer and trans people would effectively cut us off from everything needed to survive. By legalizing job discrimination and ramping up anti-queer and anti-trans bigotry, the ruling class is making sure that unemployment remains high enough to weaken the working class.
FIGHTING BACK
Resistance is growing. Although the mainstream LGBTQ rights movement has been co-opted by corporate interests and nonprofits, in June people around the country honored the 50th anniversary of Stonewall with militant, anti-corporate, anti-cop actions at Pride events, often opposing the nonprofit boards that erased the militant politics of the original Pride marches. LGBTQ people have won victories for trans healthcare in Wisconsin, and an immigrant trans woman, Alejandra Barrera, has won her freedom from an ICE concentration camp. In September, activists in New Orleans held a march protesting the anti-trans Crimes Against Nature in Solicitation law during the corporate-funded Southern Decadence.
LGBTQ people should be protected against discrimination and violence, not forced to be second class citizens. Only militant action will win us our rights and protect us from these attacks. We must resist every attempt by the capitalist class to divide us against one another. It is only through unity and working class solidarity that we will liberate ourselves from the oppressive rule of the capitalists.
Activists in British-occupied Northern Ireland have won a major victory for reproductive and LGBTQ rights. With the passing of a new law, a ban on abortion dating back over 150 years has been overturned and same-sex marriage has been legalized. Both will go into effect next year, and those currently being persecuted for having abortions will be freed sooner. A coalition that involved activist groups, trade unions, and more fought for the new laws, bringing an end to some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. Earlier this year, the Republic of Ireland also legalized abortion and made it available for free to all people.
Take Back Pride March celebrates the revolutionary LGBTQ movement.
By Sally Jane Black
In an effort to destroy the heroic history of the Stonewall rebellion on its 50th anniversary, the city rolled out New Orleans Pride with floats sponsored by corporations like G.E. (one of the world’s largest arms dealers), Walmart (currently funding the attacks on reproductive rights), Walgreens (with a policy of allowing their pharmacists to refuse to serve LGBTQ patients), and Shell (9th largest polluter in the world). They celebrated the police and the U.S. military, rather than the fight against capitalist patriarchy that is the root of LGBTQ oppression. They partied while currently LGBTQ access to housing, education, healthcare, homeless shelters, public bathrooms, and jobs are all under attack.
“Many of the corporate sponsors of Pride, including Shell, have contributed to the destruction of traditional homelands and the ways of life of Louisiana’s coastal indigenous communities, while police have always targeted and harassed us,” said local indigenous activist George, who spoke at the protest.
“As a two-spirit indigenous person it was vital for me to march against the involvement of these groups in Pride. Queerness is an essential part of Native culture, and we should be free to celebrate that without the presence of those of who have colonized and oppressed us.”
The Take Back Pride March of LGBTQ people and allies from around the city stood up against the appropriation of the struggle. The marchers spoke out against the ongoing murders of trans women of color in and out of police and ICE custody, against the attacks on LGBTQ rights, and against the other attacks on workers in New Orleans. At the core of their demands was a reclamation of Pride from the hands of those who have turned it into nothing more than a platform for making money off the LGBTQ community. Marches to Take Back Pride from corporations and cops were held all over the south and the rest of the country.
While most participants in the parade were there to celebrate their identity, many were unaware that behind the scenes, the corporate sponsors of the parade work with the right wing forces to attack that identity.
June 28, 2019, marked the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, a rebellion by LGBTQ people fighting police violence and oppression.
So the New Orleans Workers Group sponsored a Take Back Pride March. As the New Orleans Pride parade approached, protesters, holding banners demanding cops and corporations out of Pride, stepped in the way of the massive truck carrying members of local law enforcement and Mayor Cantrell. Nearby, members of the city council were forced to wait in their cars as the parade ground to a halt. Leaflets explaining corporate ties were given out to parade goers.
As the police proved when they swarmed the protesters, their purpose at the parade was not LGBTQ liberation but to protect rich politicians and the major tourist attraction that is New Orleans Pride. They were there to protect property over people, including the white supremacist statues that are so prominent in the French Quarter.
Organizers of Take Back Pride vowed to continue this struggle.
Protesters march ahead of the corporate Pride parade to protest attacks on the LGBTQ community. New Orleans, June 9, 2018.
By Gregory William and Sally Jane Black
On June 28, 1969, the cops raided the Stonewall Inn in New York, and the mostly working class queer and trans people there fought back. For three days they fought, forcing the cops to withdraw. This was a small victory over the police, but that victory was won with blood and sacrifice. And it inspired the whole world.
Stonewall was an important moment of resistance because it brought working class LGBTQ people together to fight back, and in the wake of the rebellion, they began to organize. Within a week of Stonewall, a group known as the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) formed, naming themselves after the Vietnamese National Liberation Front. Taking cues from the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the labor movement, the resistance around the world against imperialism, and especially from those who had been fighting for LGBTQ rights before them, the GLF and other organizations like Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) fought for the rights of LGBTQ people with militant action, collective visibility, and radical anti-capitalism.
Without the radical resistance that followed, ACT UP and other groups might never have forced the pharmaceutical corporations, the FDA and other government agencies to respond to the AIDS crisis at all. Without it, homophobic anti-sodomy laws might never have been struck down. Without it, our spaces would be raided more frequently, and our love would still be hidden away. Without it, many more of us would have died in the closet.
The rebellion at Stonewall and the radical organizing that came afterward were the birth of what is now known as Pride, but Pride no longer reflects this legacy. Instead of fighting the police, Pride celebrations often include them despite their role as our oppressors. Instead of being anti-capitalist, they have corporate sponsorships. Instead of taking inspiration from anti-imperialist movements, they celebrate the U.S. military that wages murderous wars for profit around the world.
The current administration has taken away many of our rights. Last year, the Trump regime released a memo instructing federal agencies to define gender strictly based on biology, effectively erasing trans people’s legal rights, and attempting to set up a DNA database to match people to their sex chromosomes. They also instructed them to reinterpret Title VII, the law that protects against employment discrimination, so that no protections would be extended to LGBTQ people at all. Now, three similar cases are going to the Supreme Court to determine if this reinterpretation will be upheld.
At the same time, cases have made it legal for businesses and healthcare professionals to refuse to serve LGBTQ people on religious grounds, and insurance companies and Medicaid have stopped covering trans healthcare needs–if they ever did to begin with. Furthermore, bathroom bills continue to be announced, anti-sex work laws that disproportionately affect LGBTQ people are being passed, murder and suicide rates of LGBTQ people are rising, and more.
This is no time to throw a party. This is a time to fight back.
These attacks are not fueled by religion or morality, but by the capitalist class’s growing fear of a united working class. As the economy continues to head toward crisis, the capitalists know that they are vulnerable. If a crisis occurs while the ruling class is not strong enough to fight back, the capitalist class will fall. Trying to divide us, they pass these laws and policies to scapegoat and criminalize LGBTQ people (just as they do with immigrants, women, prisoners, black people, indigenous people, etc.) They’re terrified that we workers will unite in our understanding that the greedy rich are the real criminals.
We will not be liberated unless we are united. We must stand in solidarity with one another against all of their attacks. There is no race or nation that does not include us. Attacks on immigrants, women, prisoners, and sex workers are attacks on LGBTQ people. Attacks on black, brown, and indigenous people are attacks on LGBTQ people. We must all stand together to protect our rights as workers.
The ruling class wants us to forget that everything we’ve won has been through our own blood and sweat. For this reason, they sometimes pander to us or take our slogans for their own—only as long as we don’t name them as the enemy. But we must fight for ourselves. We must organize and take to the streets if we have any hope of winning true liberation.
We know that it is possible to fight back and make change even in this period of deep reaction. If the wave of teacher strikes since 2018 has shown us anything, it’s that mass, collective organizing still gets the goods.
In 2018, the TransLatin@ Coalition in Los Angeles unfurled a massive banner reading “Trans People Deserve to Live” at the 5th game of the World Series at Dodger Stadium. They did this at personal risk to themselves and were escorted by security out of the stadium. This kind of in-your-face politics is a far cry from the tame corporate Pride events we have become used to.
And the militant spirit and tactics of LGBTQ rights groups like ACT UP are alive and well here in Louisiana. On May 15, activists from the New Orleans Abortion Fund, Women with a Vision, the New Orleans Workers Group and the New Orleans Peoples Assembly staged a “die-in” in the style of ACT UP at the Louisiana State Capitol, protesting the suite of anti-abortion legislation being pushed through by the legislature. These brave demonstrators have been slapped with bogus charges of disturbing the peace and criminal destruction of property, but they are persevering. This is the politics of militant confrontation that we need and can inject into the LGBTQ and other peoples’ struggles today.
Protesters demonstrate against the abortion ban bill at the Louisiana State Capitol building on May 15, 2019, in Baton Rouge.
Backed by Big Oil and War Profiteers; They All Lie, Don’t Care if Children Die
Protesters say: We Won’t Go Back!
The push for laws banning abortion is led mainly by rich white men and funded by ultra-rich capitalists. These are the same people who oppose equal pay for women, civil rights laws, raising the minimum wage, and funding for programs that help women and families raise children. These are the same people that cheer for wars that kill thousands of children. They encourage their buddy war profiteers to raid the federal budget while they try to end programs like Food Stamps and WIC. They are for profit-making jails, religious intolerance and environmental destruction. They deny funds for programs that would address Louisiana’s maternal mortality crisis, where more women die in childbirth than anywhere else in the country—the number of deaths being twice as high among Black women. While they wrap themselves in the cloak of religion, their real motive is to increase profits by further driving women down.
These immoral forces have hidden hands and deep pockets. Their funders include the Koch brothers—oil billionaires and extreme racists responsible for widespread voter suppression—who run the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC gives politicians money in exchange for passing prewritten laws. A majority of the Louisiana legislature are recipients of ALEC funds and are members. Gov. Edwards gave the keynote address at their recent convention. These hypocritical men have always used their wealth to fly “their” wives and mistresses to have abortions no matter what they proclaim. They want to limit the number of heirs to their wealth. Banning abortions will not stop them; it will just mean that more working class women will die.
In Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the other 47 states, reproductive choice rallies took place May 21 and 22. Tens of thousands of people came out. Every poll shows the majority of Americans support choice, including abortion access. Photo: Birmingham, Ala.
WOMEN CANNOT THRIVE OR BE EQUAL WITHOUT REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE
RICH MEN WANT TO FORCE WOMEN INTO CHILDBEARING
Women should be free to choose whether to have an abortion, use birth control, or raise children. Whether her decision is based on concern for the rest of her children, her religious beliefs, health, rape or incest or timing, this is a fundamental right. Without this right, women are deprived of full participation in every aspect of society. Without this right, women will die and be driven to desperation.
At the same time that abortion access is criminalized, women are being driven deeper into poverty, especially single moms. The Catholic Church, like all other institutional religions, has already declared women second class to preserve male white supremacy. They even ban birth control, which most Catholic women use because they are smart and care about their families.
On May 22, hundreds of demonstrators rallied at Poydras and St. Charles Ave. in New Orleans to demand full funding for all programs that help women raise children if they choose to do so, including free abortion access.
REAL CHOICE IS ABOUT HAVING ABORTION ACCESS, BIRTH CONTROL, LIVING WAGES AND SOCIAL PROGRAMS TO HELP RAISE HEALTHY CHILDREN
The recent demonstration in New Orleans organized by Women With a Vision, the New Orleans Abortion Fund, Black Youth Project 100, Peoples’ Assembly, New Orleans Workers Group and the Hospitality Workers Alliance demanded full funding for all the programs that help women raise children if they choose to do so, while so called right-to-lifers are part of the right wing forces opposing this. Pro-choice means fighting family separation by mass incarceration and imprisonment of our immigrant sisters and brothers. Pro-choice means good schools, early childhood education, full-service free neighborhood childcare centers and sex education and abortion access. It means standing against racism, homophobia and transphobia. There are two movements here. The pro-choice movement stands for uplifting the people in all regards. Those behind the abortion bans are also behind every other right wing attack on the people.
NO SHAME IN HAVING AN ABORTION.
THE SHAME IS ON THE IMMORAL FORCES THAT IMPOVERISH AND CRIMINALIZE WOMEN FOR PURSUING OUR ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE
More and more, women workers and youth are coming into movements for social change: unions, community organizations and revolutionary groups. The anti-choice forces want women to be chained, desperate and unable to participate. But Orleans Parish women and women across the U.S. are declaring that whatever laws they pass, we are still the greatest power. Our voices are being raised, louder and clearer—let the ground shake under these greedy, rotten, rich men.
Why did you join up? To protect America? To defeat terrorists? To serve the ideals of freedom you were taught in school?
Was it long-term benefits and pensions? Healthcare? Because no other job was available? Pressure from your family?
Or was it because there was no other way you could feel strong? Was it because there was no other way to prove that the way you feel about your gender isn’t a weakness?
Was it because someone told you you could be yourself there? Was it because you wanted to hide from yourself there?
Was it something you never before questioned?
It might not feel like it right now, but I promise you, the transgender ban is a process of liberation. Despite the fact that this is fueled by hatred and that 13,700 people have been left jobless, you are now free.
You’ve been lied to. You’ve been betrayed. Now it’s time to come home and stand up for what’s right.
You were not defending the ideals you imagined.
You were used.
The military you were tricked into joining was not the organization you thought it was. Their actions have proven this. The military serves not the people of the United States, but the rich. They serve the select few who have the money and power to command the plunder you were tricked into taking part in (even if all you did was repair trucks).
Every promise they made has been taken away from you through callous transphobia.
You were always strong. You were always better than this world has told you you were. Being trans is not a mental illness, a weakness, or a lie. It’s a way of being that was once rightfully honored, and you should have been celebrated when you came out.
Your siblings still in uniform might still support you. But there’s only so much they can do while you’re back here, so let me tell you, trans soldier, that you have a community here.
You can fight for what’s right. You can fight for freedom. The fight is here in the United States.
The fight is not for inclusion in the U.S. military. It’s for the end of the U.S. military. It’s to end the power of those who betrayed you.
Take an honest look at the lies you were told. Ask yourself who you served. Ask yourself how you brought freedom or justice anywhere. Witness Iraq and Afghanistan. Witness Libya and elsewhere. Ask yourself if that is what you signed up for.
And then look at what is going on here at home.
You’ve been betrayed, and so have all of your trans siblings who no longer have any legal protections or recognition. Reproductive rights are being taken away state by state. People of color live in fear of unjust incarceration and worse. People are forced from their homelands only to endure torment at our borders.
If you want to fight, if you want to stand up for something, if you want to live your truth, you have to fight back against them.
And that’s what we’re doing. Agitate, educate, and organize with us. Take all that pain and use it in the struggle with us.
