A sign at a 2018 Pride parade in Washington, D.C. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Here’s our problem: Trump’s attacks
Rent is rising, good jobs are impossible to find, groceries keep getting more and more expensive and natural disasters fueled by climate change are destroying communities – but all Donald Trump seems to care about is stopping transgender people from living their life the way they choose. It seems like every day, the administration dreams up a new executive order they can use to paint trans people as the source of all our problems. Trump has issued executive orders making it harder for trans people to get healthcare or be treated with respect in school. He’s taken down countless government websites with valuable scientific information just because they acknowledge that trans people exist. And the administration banned trans people from the military on the basis that being trans is not “honorable, truthful, and disciplined”.
Trump says all of these drastic measures are needed to protect women, children and families. But that’s a lie. What’s really motivating these attacks?
The con game of billionaires
This is all part of a calculated effort to secure political power and distract people from the real problems we face: lack of good jobs, lack of health care, police violence and the fact that trillions of tax dollars are being spent on wars abroad instead of needs at home. Right wing politicians like Trump want to take advantage of the justified frustration people have about the state of their lives under this system. But, they cannot go after the bankers, CEOs and landlords who are actually responsible for our problems – these are the people who the politicians truly serve and who pay for the politicians’ campaigns. So they invent fake problems, like trans people being open about who they are, and try to misdirect people’s anger there. Republican politicians use the words “family values” over and over — what a joke! These are the same politicians that oppose tax credits for parents and that have spent years blocking universal childcare, health care and paid maternal leave. They block measures to raise the minimum wage and control rents — their whole program is aimed at making families poorer, not helping them.
The real answer for the working class: Equality and dignity
Trans adolescents and adults are our community members, not our enemies. They deserve to be treated with dignity like everyone else. Instead, they’re facing new levels of harassment and violence, and are being bullied to stop their healthcare treatments. The same rules that we expect for the rest of society must apply to trans people too, and that is: The government has no business interfering in people’s private healthcare decisions.
There is currently no nationwide anti-discrimination law protecting the basic rights of trans people. In many states and localities, it is legal to fire someone from their job or refuse to rent a home to them just because they are trans. The government should be guaranteeing that all people have equal protection under the law. Instead, it is doing the opposite in order to distract people from the problems we face under the rule of the billionaires.
This article is also available as a downloadable pamphlet here.
