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Pass the Gender Equality Act!

Right now, employers in 29 states can legally fire LGBTQ workers just because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. There are no federal protections preventing this kind of discrimination. That could change, however, if congress passes the Equality Act introduced by Rep. David Cicilline and Sen. Jeff Merkley.

LGBTQ activists have fought for this type of legislation for decades, but such protections would be a win for all workers. The capitalist class relies on keeping working people divided. There are more workers than there are bosses. But if the bosses can pit white workers against black workers, immigrant workers against non immigrant workers, LGBTQ workers against non LGBTQ workers, then it is the bosses who win.

We should remain hopeful and keep organizing, because many already see through the divide-and-conquer strategy. In 2016, the Public Region Research Institute conducted 42,000 interviews in all 50 states, and 70 percent of those interviewed said that they would support a bill like the Equality Act. Working class unity is possible and necessary.

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Bush Dynasty Got Rich by Arming Hitler, From Oil Companies and Banking and Lies, Bought His Way Into Office

9 Reasons Not to Be Sad That War Criminal & Racist, Bush Sr. is Dead

Bush began the 1991 war with Iraq with a blatant lie that Iraqi troops were aiming to invade Saudi Arabia and cut off the U.S. oil supply and deliberating encouraging Kuwait to steal Iraqi oil. With Bush even bombing air raid shelters, 89,000 tons of bombs killed 200,000 Iraqis. He bombed the infrastructure including sewage treatment plants which led to wide spread disease. He massacred tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers while they were retreating. By 1991, Iraq was ordering its soldiers to pull out of Kuwait through two roads. Those roads became known as the “Highway of Death” when the U.S. military bombed them “like shooting fish in a barrel,” according to one U.S. pilot.

He armed the death squads in Nicaragua that were killing anyone who opposed the Somoza dictatorship and U.S. invasion. He later pardoned all involved.

Bush was a war criminal. He violated the Geneva Convention, anti-torture convention, and War Crimes Act.

He initiated the so-called War on Drugs while allowing drugs to deliberately poison Black and other working class communities. Then threw a million people in jail where inmate slave labor is used to profit corporations.

During his presidential race against Michael Dukakis, he ran the infamous racist “Willie Horton ads”, painting young Black men as rapists and murderers. Bush Sr.’s campaign advisor would even apologize for the ad on his deathbed—Bush never did.

He sexually assaulted at least 8 women, including a 16-year-old woman by groping her when he was 79.

He let the AIDS epidemic grow to kill over 100,000 people. While mostly working class LGBT+ people were on their hospital deathbeds, Bush told them “well, change your behavior.”

As CIA director, Bush Sr. prioritized arms deals with fascist death squads in oil-rich areas, like the mujahedeen in Afghanistan (which would later become the Taliban). This was after he was on the payroll of Dresser Industries—a corporation that made a fortune off of weapons production and oil extraction.

He invaded Panama in 1989, killing 3,000 people and destroying the homes of tens of thousands more, all to keep U.S. military bases in Panama after they were scheduled to be closed by the government.

So who profited from Bush Sr.’s career? Oil corporations, private prisons, and military arms dealers (Bush’s own family!) reaped billions of dollars all throughout the criminal’s presidency. Bush Sr. was only an “American hero” to the wealthy elite that he served. He was an enemy of working class and oppressed people all over the world. It is sad that some progressives like Bernie Sanders praised him in death for his “humble and devoted service” to the country. Truth is our greatest weapon in securing a better future.

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Trans People Excluded from Capitalist Society

By Sally Jane Black

The law provides little protection for trans people. In New Orleans, a recent poll showed that 87% of black trans women had been sexually harassed or assaulted by members of NOPD, and across the nation, the police and other authorities do little to prevent crime against trans people. Since January 2017, 28 trans people have been murdered in the United States, including two in New Orleans. Almost all of them have been people of color. Almost none of their killers have been brought to justice. Furthermore, over 40% of trans people attempt to kill themselves. These statistics do not take into account trans people who are not out, or whose families hide their identities after they died. The real numbers are much higher.

Across the board, trans people have been excluded from capitalist society. Trans people are at higher risk of being homeless, bullied, abandoned by their families, or denied healthcare services or jobs. “Right to work” states, which target all workers, make it possible for trans people to be fired for being trans. Health insurance policies routinely classify necessary medical treatments as ineligible for coverage, for the few trans people who can afford insurance.
Meanwhile, in socialist Cuba, the government has created the National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) to advocate tolerance and educate the population on issues of gender, sexuality, and sex. Despite the fact that trans people make up a small percentage of the island’s population, the Cuban government has made promoting support for trans people a priority, and healthcare for trans people—including hormone treatments and surgery—is provided free within the nation’s universal healthcare system.

The contrast between the response from Cuba and the United States could not be starker. The ruling class in the United States sees trans people as a prop to be used to inspire infighting in all who resist it; the Cuban people seek to embrace all members of their society. Transphobia is an inherent part of the capitalist patriarchy; it will not be defeated and we will not be safe until capitalism is gone.

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Ruling Class Targets LGBT Workers

By Sally Jane Black

Cases before the Supreme Court are threatening to roll back gains won by the LGBT liberation struggle. With the decision to send the Texas case Turner v. Pidgeon back to the lower courts, the Supreme Court has opened the gate for businesses to refuse to pay for insurance and other benefits for same-sex partners, and with Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission currently pending, soon businesses might be allowed to legally discriminate against same-sex couples on the basis of “religious freedom.” What was won through decades of struggle, culminating in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, is now being overturned in pieces.

The fact that the right to marry is being ignored by these laws in favor of revoking the more tangible economic benefits that came with it is telling: the objections being made to same-sex marriage are rooted in greed, not a desire to protect anyone’s freedoms. These cases are blatant attacks on workers. As has been seen before, companies will take every opportunity to push back against workers’ gains. If the courts allow them to deny same-sex couples the same benefits as heterosexual couples, it’s only a matter of time before this is attempted to be used as precedent to make those same benefits inaccessible to heterosexual couples. If a loophole can be found, it will be taken advantage of. The goal is not to protect the freedoms of the religious—who mostly support same-sex marriage in this country—but the owners and bosses who want to squeeze every last penny out of their workers.

What these threats show is how easily concessions won from the ruling class can be lost. Unless the working class stands up to the ruling class and fights in unison against the divisive, manipulative attempts to economically punish queer and trans people, real change will never happen.

In December, the Louisiana courts declared that the state could not extend legal protections to queer and trans state workers as another step in a continuing fight between the governor and the state’s attorney general Jeff Landry, who has used trans people as nothing more than a political victim. Previously, the Democrats had offered to remove trans people from these protections in exchange for keeping them for queer people. This is a repetition of the same failed tactics that have been used for decades, from the fight for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act at the federal level to the recent “bathroom bills” which have been used to rile supporters and divide the opposition.

 

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The Dirt on Dat Dog

By Max Wilde

In a city where 40% of the population earns just 7.5% of the total city-wide income, and women make just 67 cents for ever dollar a man makes, it’s easy to imagine that the food and hospitality industry is hell for working women–especially with bosses like John Besh. In October of last year, 25 women came forward with horror stories of the sexual harassment they faced while working at his New Orleans restaurants. Sadly, to many working class people in New Orleans, it wasn’t surprising that a dirtbag business owner would assault his employees and allow or encourage management to do the same.

One unsurprised worker is also a locally famous street performer named Qween Amore who has grown accustomed to harassment and discrimination on and off the clock. “As a trans person of color, I’ve come to realize that safety is a privilege, and in my experience, I am never truly safe” Qween told Workers Voice. Only last November, she was fired from Dat Dog on Frenchmen. The reason for the firing? “The last time I went to dance [in the Quarter] I was attacked by a brass band. They stole my equipment and proceeded to further assault me, so I ran into Dat Dog seeking protection. The cops were called, and I got arrested for disturbing the peace… A couple days later, Dat Dog decided to fire me because I ran inside and the brass band followed me in.”

According to The U.S. Transgender Survey, 77% of trans respondents who had a job in the past year took steps to avoid mistreatment in the workplace, such as hiding or delaying their gender transition or quitting their job, and 30% reported being fired, denied a promotion, or experiencing some other form of mistreatment related to their gender identity or expression.

Dat Do’,s management firing an employee for being the victim of transmisogynistic violence would be more shocking if they didn’t already have a history of gendered abuse. And in the very few cases where a manager stepped down or was let go for their behavior, new bosses are always willing and ready to take on the sexist mantle. It’s not ‘a few bad apples’ that make working in the hospitality and food industry so hard for so many women, but rather the oppressive position of bosses in the lives of workers and the role of men in the lives of women.