For a DSA Response to the Wave of Anti-Trans Bills that Turns the Fight for Trans Liberation into an Essential Part of Our Broader Struggles for Workers’ Rights, Medicare for All, and Socialist Feminism

By Spencer Mann and Rosemary Dodd

2022 has seen an unprecedented wave of anti-trans legislation. Most high-profile was the grotesque directive issued by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, instructing the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to characterize gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth as “child abuse.” This directive targets not only trans children, but also the parents, teachers, and medical workers who seek to support them. 

More recently, Alabama passed an unprecedented law that makes it a felony for medical professionals to provide gender-affirming care to trans youth—care that is safe, medically necessary, and frequently live-saving. Anyone breaking these laws could face 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Regardless of some backwards beliefs among the public, the push for anti-trans legislation is coming from above, not below.

However, the situation for trans people is dire all across the country, and most anti-trans bills have flown under the radar of mainstream coverage. In the first three months of 2022, state lawmakers have proposed 238 anti-LGBTQ bills, with a staggering 154 of these targeting trans people specifically. For comparison, only 41 anti-LGBTQ bills were filed in all of 2018. This year’s numbers already dwarf those of 2021, a record year for anti-trans legislation when 191 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced, 80% of which were specifically anti-trans. These bills range from preventing trans people from participating in athletics and using gender-appropriate bathrooms, prohibiting trans issues from being discussed in schools, allowing workplace discrimination, and cutting off access to healthcare. Many of these bills target children under the guise of protecting them.

Hate from Below or Above?

But why the sudden onslaught of anti-trans laws? Research shows that while the frequency of these bills hits record highs, so has support for queer people among the general public. One poll found that 79% of Americans support anti-discrimination laws for LGBTQ people in jobs and housing (PRRI, March 17, 2022). According to another poll, 62% of Americans say they have become more supportive of trans rights compared to five years ago, compared to 25% who have become more opposed (PRRI, June 11, 2019). Two-thirds of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say they are against laws that would limit transgender rights, a poll found (PBS/NPR/Marist, April 2021).

This isn’t to prettify the issue.

Despite it being on the rise, support for trans people is far lower than it needs to be. Trans people still face an onslaught of discrimination daily not just from the state, but from peers, coworkers, bosses, and community members. 

Safety is also a major issue, with transgender people over four times more likely to experience violent crime (including assault and sexual violence) as compared to cisgender people. 

One flash point has been sports participation; only 34% of Americans say that trans athletes should be able to compete on teams that correspond to their gender identities according to Gallup (May 26, 2021). However, consciousness isn’t set in stone, and a nation-wide movement for trans rights as well as increased visibility of trans people could do much to reverse discriminatory beliefs.

Regardless of some backwards beliefs among the public, it’s clear that the push for anti-trans legislation is coming from above, not below. 

Rhetorical support does not overshadow Biden and the Democrats’ refusal to embrace trans-inclusive Medicare for All and affordable housing.

Right-wing lawmakers are catering to extreme religious groups and their hardened bases. In the era of Biden, social issues like trans rights are being wielded to spur polarization and give Republican state officials a scapegoat for the declining living conditions of the working class, allowing them to do nothing to address stagnating wages or provide social services. In the wake of the ongoing surge in labor action and solidarity, the ruling class and those aligned with the interests of capital are wielding race and gender identity as a tactic to divide and disempower workers.

President Biden has actually been more vocal in supporting transgender people than the Democratic Party has historically been. He condemned the Texas directive and appointed Rachel Levine as assistant secretary for health, the first openly trans federal official confirmed by the Senate. He also signed an executive action expanding non-discrimination protection to include gender identity. 

However, rhetorical support and appointing trans officials, while a good step, does not overshadow Biden and the Democrats’ refusal to embrace trans-inclusive Medicare for All and affordable housing that would truly make a difference in the lives of all marginalized people. In order to accomplish those aims, we will need more than a liberal capitalist orientation towards trans rights. We need a nationwide, socialist mass movement struggle for trans liberation.

Working While Trans

Trans people, particularly trans people of color, are among the most exploited members of the working class. Compared to their cisgender counterparts, trans people are twice as likely to be unemployed. An astounding 90% of trans workers report mistreatment or harassment on the job, and 47% of trans workers report adverse job outcomes such as being denied a promotion, passed over, or fired due to being trans.

In a capitalist society with a limited social safety net where people must work in order to survive, workplace discrimination can lead to homelessness and death. 22% of LGBTQ people and 30% of trans people report earning less that the federal poverty level of $12,490 per year, as compared to 16% of cisgender straight people. The numbers are even worse for trans people of color, with 38% of Black trans people living in poverty.

Although the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the Civil Rights Act applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, proving discrimination can be an onerous burden for workers. Organized workplaces and  strong union contracts can provide an extra layer of protection for queer and trans workers.

Arsenia Reilly-Collins, a labor organizer interviewed for Teen Vogue, says that they’ve seen recent union contracts that include “protections around pronouns, anti-harassment language, non-discrimination, health and safety, [and] expansive health benefits to include trans benefits.” Labor organizers and unions need to continue fighting for these types of benefits in order to sow the seeds for solidarity across the gender spectrum.

Historically, unions have a mixed record on queer rights, which is something that cannot be glossed over. Despite this, there are many historical examples of unions supporting the fight for protections from gender and sexuality based discrimination. In 1970, the American Federation of Teachers called for an end to anti-LGBTQ discrimination, and in 1977, the Teamsters union joined a boycott of Coors Brewing Company due to its racist, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-union stances, that was organized by queer activists. For the union movement to truly embrace trans liberation, rank and file workers need to have more control over their contracts and leadership.

Socialist Feminism and Bodily Autonomy

It’s not a coincidence that laws targeting trans people are ticking up at the same time as anti-abortion legislation and the likely overturning of Roe vs. Wade this summer. Bodily autonomy is fundamentally incompatible with capitalism, which relies on traditional families raising the next generation of obedient laborers as its source of social reproduction. Not only are anti-trans and anti-abortion laws similar in that they seek to control people’s bodies, a significant number of trans and queer people need abortion care and often have far less access to it than others, a fact that is often left out of mainstream discourse.

The feminist and abortion rights movements, both in the past and today, have not always been friendly to trans rights. The fact remains that it is absolutely essential that we build a socialist feminist movement that embraces ending all forms of discrimination that affect women and gender minorities, including racism and transphobia. Broadening our demands and rising in solidarity with our trans siblings doesn’t diminish the fight for abortion rights, but rather strengthens the base of the movement to bring in wider swathes of society.

The fight for Medicare for All should embrace free abortion services and comprehensive gender-affirming healthcare. Trans people face a myriad of obstacles in the for-profit healthcare system, including prohibitive costs, a lack of trained doctors, and requirements to prove to psychologists that they are “really trans” in order to get care. Combining these issues with a campaign for universal healthcare is an example of how anti-oppression activism on issues that impact a minority of the working class can strengthen and broaden demands that help everyone, while building working class, socialist power in the process.

What DSA Can Do

In response to the onslaught of anti-trans bills, a group of DSA organizers across the country decided to host a call to organize events for Trans Day of Visibility on March 31. One such event that the authors of this article helped organize was put on by Portland DSA—a rally and march that brought together transgender housing, labor, and socialist organizers, and was attended by well over a hundred people.

While these events were mostly small, they can serve as a starting point for a national mass movement campaign for trans rights. Unfortunately, DSA’s National Political Committee (NPC) did not help organize a coordinated response, which could have made the events much more wide-spread and provided materials and resources such as leaflets, unified political demands, and social media graphics.

DSA could organize a national day of action for trans rights with chapters participating all across the country, perhaps centered around Pride events this summer.

However, it’s not too late for a coordinated push from DSA on both trans rights and abortion access. Queer liberation is a major radicalizing force, especially for young people, and DSA members across the country would be eager to jump on an organizing drive that could help overcome the malaise that has plagued our organization during the Biden Administration. Such an effort could be housed in the Medicare for All campaign, which could bring trans and abortion rights activists together with healthcare advocates.

DSA could organize a national day of action for trans rights with chapters participating all across the country, perhaps centered around Pride events this summer. Additionally, DSA could incorporate demands around trans rights and bodily autonomy into ongoing abortion rights protests.

Protests are a great way to raise awareness and bring new activists into the fold, but alone they are not sufficient, and would need to be combined with town halls, labor action, and class-struggle elections.

While it may seem like a stretch to get unions on board with a trans rights campaign, our event in Portland featuring transgender Unite Here and American Federation of Teachers organizers as speakers reveals that there is an opening to start making those connections. Starbucks workers, who are disproportionately young and left-leaning, might also embrace trans rights in their unionization work, providing a major opportunity for DSA to make connections and build the socialist movement.

Ultimately, DSA should put more resources into running pro-trans rights and trans independent socialist candidates for office at all levels who can use their positions to build movements demanding equality, worker control, housing, free healthcare, and expand the power of the socialist movement and the organization. In order to unite the multi-racial, gender diverse working class behind a socialist program, DSA must take serious strides to incorporate the fight for trans rights into every aspect of our work.