Ricardo Martinez, Executive Director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), made the following statement:

Monday’s executive order is a direct attack on transgender Americans, deliberately making it harder for people to live their everyday lives. It is cruel, and it is wrong.

The administration is trying to create fear and sow chaos by its statements and orders, but no executive action can change the fundamental truth that transgender people are vital members of our families and communities. Like all people, transgender people deserve dignity, respect, and the freedom to live without fear of government-sanctioned harm.

A president’s powers are not unlimited—the Constitution, federal courts, and our democratic system serve as bulwarks against government overreach. Implementing today’s order and others that may follow cannot happen overnight.

GLAD Law will use every tool we have to fight for LGBTQ+ people’s rights and for fairness and dignity. We will defend the fundamental principle that equal protection under the law is guaranteed – without exception.

Originally published by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) — https://www.glad.org/

President-elect Donald Trump said at a conference for young conservatives in Arizona this past Sunday that the official policy of his upcoming administration would be the recognition that there are only two genders, male and female, and pledged to stop “transgender lunacy” from day one of his presidency.

Transgender issues have become a hot topic in U.S. politics, with Democrats and Republicans adopting opposing policies on matters such as healthcare provision and the types of books allowed in public schools and libraries. Republicans have been pushing against LGBTQ rights for many years now, and Republican-led state legislatures have passed legislation restricting medical care to transgender youth. As such, there is little doubt that the incoming Trump administration will seek to make good on its promise to punish transgender people and the LGBTQ community in general.

There are an estimated 1.6 million transgender people in the United States, facing severe discrimination and constant denial of their fundamental rights and, in many cases, even rejection by their own families. Their only crime is that they do not conform to societal expectations of gender identity, meaning that they do not fit the confines of male and female binaries. Yet, transgender people have existed for as long as humans have been around. There is ample documentation of transgender people from ancient Mesopotamia to the Greek and Roman empires. Indeed, the ancient Greeks did not have the same concepts of gender and sexuality that eventually became crystalized in the modern Western world, from around the start of the 16th century. In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus, the god of hermaphrodites and effeminates, was partly male, partly female.

Records from U.S. hospitals and clinics of trans kids seeking medical care date back to the early 20th century. Therefore, arguments denying transgender realities are simply outrageous while policies restricting the rights of transgender people (such as receiving basic healthcare, education, and legal recognition) should be treated as nothing short of conscious attempts to cause direct harm to individuals identifying themselves as transgender and assessed as nothing less than criminal.

There are many reasons why people wish to deny transgender realities and why so many states want to limit transgender rights, ranging from cultural and religious reasons to psychological ones. Transphobia however is also a product of a particular type of society, one built around class divisions where maximization of profit and the reproduction of labor power are essential features. In class divided societies, gender stereotypes and thus sexual dimorphism go hand in hand with the desire to maintain the existing status quo and the specific form of labor relations built into such systems. Indeed, under capitalism, beliefs and assumptions about biological essentialism and gender binarism are convenient ways to keep reproducing a mode of production and a social order in which people need to be divided and boxed into neat categories. Transness disrupts capitalist social relations as masculinity and femininity are built into the economy as a binary relation. In this context, transphobia kicks in to enforce the division of labor by sex and gender as roles in the workforce in capitalist societies have mainly defined and formed our gender.

Under capitalism, transgender people are affected by the same structures that oppress the working class. Aside from the treatment of transgender people by the private healthcare industry, whereby discrimination is quite prevalent, some 50% of trans people also report employment discrimination while their level of unemployment is double the natural average. Transgender workers tend to have much lower income than the general population and are twice as likely to be living in poverty.

Transgender rights are therefore a working-class issue and “the fight for trans equality must be recognized as class struggle.” Of course, this is not to deny the fact that there are very rich queer people inside the system that do what capitalists basically do, which is to exploit other people. There is even a proportion of the capitalist class that supports transness and LGBTQ people, but we should bear in mind that the relationship between capitalism and oppression has always been dynamic and contradictory rather than mechanical and linear.

That said, working class politics must embrace trans rights as the fight for trans rights, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights are not separate from the fight of the working class. A working-class program must address the needs and wants of trans people as most of them are indeed disproportionally poor and working-class. Unions, for instance, should follow the example of United Steelworkers who got rid of exclusions of gender-affirming healthcare. Unions should mobilize their members to fight back against anti-trans legislation at every level. And we must not forget that most of our citizens are not on the side of Trump and the Republicans when it comes to transgender people. Polling shows that two-thirds of U.S. citizens oppose transphobic bills, even though more than half of the states have introduced pieces of legislation seeking to curb the rights of transgender people.

Trumpism as a political strategy has always been about polarization, division, and bigotry. The fight against the upcoming administration requires class solidarity among all oppressed and marginalized group in U.S. society. The fight for transgender rights is a fight whose outcome will undoubtedly prove pivotal in the overall struggle to resist Trump’s extreme agenda (which includes mass deportations) in the next four years, starting January 20, 2025.

At the conservative conference in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump simple reiterated his plans to pass a federal ban on gender-affirming care for youth and to redefine gender at the federal level whereby the recognized genders are as assigned at birth. These policies would be an extension of what took place during the first four years of Trump in office, a relentless onslaught of attacks toward queer people. And Trump has already announced a host of extreme anti-trans appointees to key administration positions, which include former professional wrestling executive and anti-transgender advocate Linda McMahon as education secretary; Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who opposes gender-affirming care, as secretary of health and human services; and white supremacist and anti-LGBQ Stephen Miller as White House deputy chief of staff for policy.

The challenges that lie ahead for progressive communities across the United States for the next four years are many and severe. The fight for trans rights will be a long, arduous one, but winning it will be a huge victory for equality. There should be no mistake about that, which is why it must be recognized as class struggle.

Originally published by Common Dreams — https://www.commondreams.org/

The struggle against bigotry and the overt repression of persons of the LGBT+ community has been the cutting edge of social progress during the past 50 years. However, in the United States, recent legislation seeking to repress the LGBT+ community has emerged both nationally and at the state level.

Just a brief summary of various countries around the world show that progress for the LGBT+ community is advancing. Reactionary, bigoted attacks against those of the LGBT+ persuasion seems to be in retreat in several societies.

Denmark

Danish Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights are some of the most extensive in the world. In 2023, ILGA-Europe ranked Denmark as the third most LGBTQ-supportive country in Europe. Polls consistently show that same-sex marriage support is nearly universal among the Danish population.

In Denmark, same-sex sexual activity was legalized in 1933. Denmark was the first country in the world to grant legal recognition to same-sex unions in the form of registered partnerships in 1989.

Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation was entirely prohibited in 1996.

The Act on Prohibition of Unequal Treatment in the Labor Market adopted in 1996, defines “discrimination” as follows: discrimination means any direct or indirect discrimination based on race, color, religion, political opinion, sexual orientation or national, social or ethnic origin.

Cuba

The LGBT+ movement in Cuba has made significant strides in recent years. In 2022, the country voted to legalize same-sex marriage through a national referendum, making it one of the most progressive Latin American countries in terms of family law. However, historical discrimination and homophobia still exist, and there is work to be done to achieve equal rights for all. Cuba stands as a beacon of hope in the region, enshrining the most progressive Family Code in the world in its own constitution and working tirelessly to fight reactionary sentiment towards LGBT+ people.

As many scholars suggest, the Cuban Government treats trans rights and sex reassignment surgeries as a health issue. Cuba operates under the idea that healthcare is a right to all, allowing trans people access to gender-affirming public health care.

In 1979, the Ministry of Public Health (MIN-SAP) established the Multidisciplinary Commission for Attention to Transsexuals to provide both specialized health care and social services. Mariela Castro Espín describes it: “specialists in the care of transsexual persons … adopted internationally approved diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, which were incorporated as services offered free of charge by the [National Public Health System], along with courses to train sex therapists.”

England/UK

Since the turn of the 21st century, LGBTQ rights have increasingly strengthened in support. Some discrimination protections have been in place for LGBT people since 1999, but they were then extended to all areas under the Equality Act 2010. A ban on LGBT+ individuals serving openly in the armed forces was officially lifted in 2016, though a policy of non-enforcement had been in place since 2000. The age of consent was equalized at 16, regardless of sexual orientation, in 2001. Having been introduced in the 1980s, Section 28, which prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” by schools and local authorities, was repealed in 2003. Transgender people have had the ability to apply to change their legal gender since 2005. That same year, same-sex couples were granted the right to enter into a civil partnership, a similar legal structure to marriage, and also to adopt in England and Wales. Scotland later followed on adoption rights for same-sex couples in 2009, and Northern Ireland in 2013. Same-sex marriage was legalized in England and Wales, and Scotland in 2014, and in Northern Ireland in 2020.

In ILGA-Europe’s 2015 review of LGBTI rights, the UK received the highest score in Europe, with 86% progress toward “respect of human rights and full equality” for LGBT+ people and 92% in Scotland alone. However, by 2020, the UK had dropped to ninth place in the ILGA-Europe rankings with a score of 66%. The executive of ILGA-Europe also expressed concern about a “hostile climate on trans rights fueled by opposition groups”. By 2023, the UK’s ranking had fallen further to 17th place, with a score of 53%, falling behind Ireland, Germany and Greece. Anti-trans rhetoric has been described as “rife” in the UK media landscape. Meanwhile, 86% of the UK agreed that homosexuality should be accepted by society, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center poll, and a 2017 poll showed that 77% of British people support same-sex marriage.

Vietnam

The LGBT+ movement in Vietnam has gained momentum in recent years, with activists pushing for legal recognition and acceptance. The Viet Pride movement and the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage have made Vietnam a phenomenon in the global movement for LGBT rights.

The right to change gender was officially legalized in Vietnam after the National Assembly passed an amendment to the Civil Code in 2015.

Vietnam’s first annual gay pride parade took place in Hanoi on 5 August 2012. In 2017, pride parades were held in around 34 other cities and provinces.

On November 24, 2015, Vietnam passed a landmark law by a vote of 282–84, enshrining rights for transgender people in a move which advocacy groups say paves the way for sex reassignment surgery.

On April 10, 2023, lawmaker Nguyễn Anh Trí put forward a proposal to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to create the new Gender Affirmation Law (formerly known as Gender Identity Law). He said the law would show that Vietnam values protecting vulnerable communities and “leaving no one behind in its policies”. The proposed law would allow people the right to change gender identity, request a different gender identity to the one assigned at birth, the right to choose a medical intervention method for gender-reaffirming surgery, and strictly prohibit any form of discrimination and false information against transgender individuals, their families and relatives. In a feedback document the day before presenting the proposal, Trí said the government had outlined its support for the proposed legislation. In May 2023, the bill has been accepted by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

In August 2022, it was reported that within Vietnam conversion therapy became legally banned and it was declared that LGBT+ individuals “are not diseased” and should never be treated as such according to the Health Ministry.

South Africa

LGBTQ people in South Africa have the same legal rights as non-LGBTQ people. South Africa has a complex and diverse history regarding the human rights of LGBTQ people. The legal and social status of between 400,000 to over 2 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex South Africans has been influenced by a combination of traditional South African morals, colonialism, and the lingering effects of apartheid and the human rights movement that contributed to its abolition.

South Africa’s post-apartheid Constitution was the first in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. In 2006, South Africa was the fifth country in the world and the first in Africa to legalize same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples can also adopt children jointly and also arrange IVF and surrogacy treatments. LGBTQ people have constitutional and statutory protections from discrimination in employment, the provision of goods and services and many other areas.

In 1994, during his inauguration speech as president, Nelson Mandela stated the following:

In 1980s the African National Congress was still setting the pace, being the first major political formation in South Africa to commit itself firmly to a Bill of Rights, which we published in November 1990. These milestones give concrete expression to what South Africa can become. They speak of a constitutional, democratic, political order in which, regardless of color, gender, religion, political opinion or sexual orientation, the law will provide for the equal protection of all citizens.

The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill was passed by the National Assembly in March 2023 and by the National Council in November 2023, and signed into law by President Ramaphosa in May 2024.

The Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act allows people to apply to have their sex status altered in the population registry, and consequently to receive identity documents and passports indicating their gender identity. The law requires the person to have undergone medical or surgical treatment, such as hormone replacement therapy.

In 2021 the Department of Home Affairs announced plans to introduce gender-neutral identification on South African IDs, the first for an African country (after Kenya, which is only standardized for Intersex people only).

USA

Where does this leave the USA? Will it join progressive mankind in eliminating sexual bigotry, oppression, and second-class citizenship status of LGBT+ people? From Cuba to Vietnam to Denmark to England to South Africa, a progressive wind is blowing throughout the globe. At the same time, bastions of reaction and backwardness that have been empowered by the MAGA movement around Donald Trump and his right-wing backers. Such forces have become so widespread that it has even infected groups on the political Left.

Bigotry, like racism, is a social disease. Like most social diseases bigotry flourishes in environments where economic stability is faltering, and societal roles are being challenged. Forces on the right have historically used such periods to intensify social divisions and scapegoat minority groups in order to gain political power. Such forces were prominent in the recent US 2024 elections. The Peoples LGBT+ United Society (PLUS) must join with other progressive forces in confronting these backward views.

The results of this year’s Presidential election spell potential disaster for the LGBT+ community. President-Elect Trump ran a reactionary campaign threatening the rights of LGBT+ people. This coincides with increased right-wing demagoguery claiming their anti-LGBT+ views are to “protect the children.”  

On the campaign trail, Trump levied many threats to strip away the rights of trans people including instituting a Presidential order on “Day one” repealing Title IX protections that cover discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. He stated, “On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto our children.” 

The Peoples LGBT+ United Society (PLUS) stands in resolute solidarity with all LGBT+ people against government repression. The path forward is for working-class LGBT+ people to work to help build the labor-led anti-monopoly coalition. We need to join forces with other working-class and progressive organizations to end LGBT+ oppression, which is based in monopoly capital.

In unity,
Peoples LGBT+ United Society

The rally also represented a convergence of many local groups in coalition with each other, organizations that had connections with each other through the Springfield-Eugene Anti-Imperialist Coalition (SEAIC). Justin Filip, Pacific Green Party (PGP) Congressional candidate for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, spoke at the event, as well as Sam, a member of the local chapter of Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and Efron, a member of the University of Oregon chapter of Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP). 8 other organizations supported the event, including JVP Eugene, University of Oregon chapters of Students and Faculty/Staff for Justice in Palestine (SJP/FSJP) and UO Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Coffee Revolution Eugene, Planet vs. Pentagon (PvP), Eugene chapter of Veterans for Peace (VfP), making 13 supporting organizations in total.

The rally kicked off with a speech from Kamryn Stringfield, which called out corporate pride events, the capitalization on LGBT+ movement, and of course the pinkwashing narratives regarding Palestine, Ukraine and more. On the pinkwashing in Palestine, she said 

“I’ve written before in our publication, the Stonewall Lives! Bulletin, how Israel is a key example of pinkwashing. Israel presents itself to the world as a haven for LGBT+ people, a safe refuge for us just like they promise to Jewish people through Zionism. While LGBT+ rights are somewhat better in Israel than other Middle Eastern countries, they are increasingly becoming under attack by the most extreme forces in the Israeli political arena and this ignores the plight of the Palestinian people and the ways in which apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing, racism, settlement, bombardment, starvation, scholasticide and much more are impacting the LGBT+ Palestinians. They aren’t supportive of us “In the name of love” as one IOF soldier holding a banner in the bloody ruins of Gaza put it, but rather they use it for their propaganda demonizing Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. Much of this propaganda is targeted at Americans and other westerners.

They repeat the same old talking points about how Palestinians and Arabs hate gays and how Hamas will throw you off of a roof or shoot you against a wall. They claim you cannot live life openly as LGBT+ in Gaza without violence. Ironically right now, this is true. Life for anyone in Gaza right now is hell because of the genocide. This aside, these claims have very little evidence to them and are based on western colonial tropes about Arab society that don’t fully accurately reflect it and there are plenty of examples of LGBT+ people living in Palestine openly…”

She then called on all progressive LGBT+ organizations to take a stance against the genocide, call for a ceasefire and uplift the voices of LGBT+ Palestinian and Jewish people. She specifically called upon one local organization, saying “Transponder that means you, especially!”

Kamryn closed her speech by talking about how pinkwashing occurs in other areas like Europe, saying:

“I want to briefly tell you that pinkwashing is not just limited to Israel, even in the present moment. This technique is used against plenty of other Middle Eastern countries, including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, all being bombed by Israel, US and UK as the genocide in Palestine continues. They use it against Iran, China, North Korea, Russia and more as well. NATO acts like it and all of its member states are havens for the LGBT+ community and that it is a vanguard for our rights. NATO and the Banderite government in Ukraine invoke pinkwashing in their war against Russia and the peoples of the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile they ignore the violent oppression of LGBT+ people in Poland, Italy, Turkey and more. Even with Taiwan and Hong Kong can we see pinkwashing playing out as a western tool against China. We have to be cognizant of this international phenomenon and not let the imperialists use our oppression here or anywhere else to justify economic or military consequences against countries or people that won’t conform to our interests. We have to be careful with our solidarity and understand how our voices and bodies can best be used for the LGBT+ struggle here and in the places the west interferes in.”

She also briefly gave a shout out to Cuba and Vietnam for non-western countries that have made strides on the issue that seldom get referenced in mainstream media, and got the crowd to chant “Cuba Si, Bloqueo No!” against the illegal economic blockade of Cuba.

Other speakers touched on different aspects of pinkwashing. The speaker from PSL called out the hypocrisy of religious zealots who are the most ardent defenders of Israel suddenly acting like they care for the well-being of LGBT+ community, and connected the LGBT+ struggle to the struggle against the imperialism as a whole. Justin Filip from the PGP talked about the history of the Green party’s support for Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) and the Palestinian struggle, the history of dehumanization as a tool to justify oppression in the United States, and his experiences with pro-Palestine activism at the University of Oregon and being placed on administrative leave as a result of it. The speaker from Jewish Voices for Peace spoke about the reality on the ground in Palestine and how they felt about that and about pride during genocide, how queer liberation and Palestinian liberation were connected and about how our LGBT+ elders paved the way for our current struggle.

After wrapping up the speeches and Kamryn explaining the next action for the event, the protesters began marching through the Saturday Farmers Market in downtown Eugene, carrying the PLUS Banner in the front and Palestinian flags and pride flags while reciting several kinds of chants. Some were new and LGBT+ based, like “No Pride in Genocide”, “We won’t let you use our pride, as an excuse for genocide”, “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Pinkwashing has got to go”, “Queers and allies, we won’t hide, there’s no pride in genocide” and more. Some were standard Palestine chants, like “Free, Free, Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Signs said things like “Silence = Death”, “NATO and Israel are both white and blue, neither of them give a damn about you”, “Gays for Gaza” and more. A table was also brought for literature from different organizations, including the PLUS brochure and Spring-Summer 2024 edition of the Stonewall Lives! Bulletin.

Overall, this rally was a brilliant display of coalition-building, of anti-imperialist solidarity and of the presence of PLUS now as a working-class LGBT+ organization. You can watch the footage below captured by a local videographer. Stay tuned for updates on PLUS at pride events.

The Peoples LGBT+ United Society (PLUS) wanted to have a Pride event that was political but also accessible to the working class and spoke up against pinkwashing especially at a time when it is being invoked by Zionists carrying out a genocide in Palestine to justify their crimes. Our National Director, Kamryn Stringfield – who resides in Eugene, OR – got to work at the beginning of June to organize a rally and helped to build an impressive coalition of over a dozen supporting local organizations behind this for a wide showing of solidarity.

Supporting organizations/coalitions at this time are Springfield Eugene Anti-Imperialist Coalition (SEAIC), Eugene chapters of Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Pacific Green Party (PGP), Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), and Veterans for Peace (VFP), University of Oregon chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP UO), Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (UO FSJP), Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP UO) and Young Democratic Socialists of America (UO YDSA), Eugene Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Planet vs Pentagon (PvP), and Coffee Revolution Eugene.

The rally will take place at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza in front of the Lane County Courthouse on 8th Ave at 2:00 pm PDT to 4:00 pm PDT and will include speeches from Kamryn Stringfield and representatives of PGP, PSL and JVP UO. (By the way, if you didn’t know, Wayne Morse was one of 2 US Senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution during the Vietnam War). We invite attendees to bring signs and flags related to the LGBT+ struggle and the Palestinian struggle. We also highly recommend that our attendees wear face masks.

Pictures and videos will be taken at the event and we will report to all of our members across the country when it is over! We are also going out to Pride Events all across the country this month and throughout the summer! We just gave out brochures at Grants Pass Pride in rural Josephine County, Oregon and are preparing to attend events in California, New York, Oregon and Washington!

Research shows that LGBT+ youth are more likely to experience homelessness than heterosexual youth. LGBT+ people make up only 10% of the youth population, yet account for 40% of America’s homeless youth population.

The #1 reported cause of homelessness among these youth is being deliberately kicked out of their home by family members due to them being LGBT+. To make matters worse, LGBT+ experience discrimination in employment as well. This increases the likelihood that those of us cut-off from support will be unable to pay rent and will become unhoused.

Those of us who are forced into homelessness suffer worse health outcomes than those of us who remain housed. The constant stress, exposure to the elements, and unstable financial situation wear down the body and mind. If you are unlucky enough to be both transgender and homeless, you will likely experience additional discrimination at shelters. This is because shelters often decide to turn transgender people away, rather than allowing them to stay with the correct gender.

Furthermore, the corrective system often opts to avoid the issue by keeping transgender people in isolation. Thus, members of our community risk what is considered a form of torture by the United Nations if they express who they truly are.

The People’s LGBT+ United Society recognizes that although most of us will never experience homelessness, the mere threat of it forces a much greater percentage of us into silence. Until there is better state support for LGBT+ youth experiencing homelessness, and until more work is done to combat anti-LGBT+ chauvinism, much of our community will spend a large portion of their lives in silence out of fear.

We stand in solidarity with those of us facing housing discrimination and call on our community to mobilize to the same ends.

We thank LUEL for the fantastic work that they’ve been doing, and we plan to work closer with LUEL as our work goes on, especially where the labor movement and LGBT+ movement intersect.

Website: peopleslgbt.org

Phone: (206) 414-8924

Address: 720 Seneca St. Ste 106, Seattle, WA 98101

Email: [email protected]

One of the primary objectives of PLUS as a working class LGBT+ organization is to combat the imperialist pinkwashing that we see in so much of the western press when we’re hearing of developments in geopolitics. The term “pinkwashing” is one that many people I’ve talked to say they’ve never heard. Right away, however, they understand the meaning. Pinkwashing, like whitewashing or, as a better example, greenwashing, is the use of the LGBT+ community, movement, symbolism or oppression to bolster the interests of the imperialists.

Sometimes, it’s through defending the imperialist institutions and economies, claiming that they’re more LGBT+ friendly than before or are somehow advancing the cause of that community (the military industrial complex and intelligence agencies in the US are particularly guilty of this). Sometimes, it’s through attacking a country or group that opposes the west by implying or claiming that they are anti-LGBT+, and that military action or economic sanctions can be justified on that basis (similar to the cries to “save” the women and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, etc.) In any case, pinkwashing serves the imperialists, but doesn’t actually serve the LGBT+ community.

The war with the most media attention right now is the genocidal war that the Zionist Government of Israel is waging on the Palestinian people. In more than five months, more than 35,000 Palestinian people have been killed. While much of the war propaganda has focused on Hamas and the October 7th attack, there has been a campaign now and for years prior to pinkwash Israel/Palestine.

The term “pinkwashing” was initially used in the 80’s to refer to companies claiming to support women with breast cancer while profiting from cancer, but was actually recoined by a group of anti-Zionist LGBT+ people in San Francisco named “Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT)” in a 2010 piece for the Electronic Intifada publication, pointing to the Holocaust era pink-triangle for the reasoning behind the “pink” suffix. Since then, it has been used time and time again to refer to the Israeli government’s actions and rhetoric regarding LGBT+.

Since October, multiple Israeli publications have invoked pinkwashing to defend the Israeli government and attack Hamas, justifying collective punishment on Gaza. They claim that Israel is a haven for LGBT+ rights and that Hamas is violently oppressive of LGBT+ rights and should be opposed by LGBT+ groups on that basis. This propaganda fails to recognize that LGBT+ people do exist openly and publicly in Palestine and that occupation, blockades, sanctions, apartheid and bombing campaigns don’t help LGBT+ Palestinians or Israelis.

Israel has its own political challenges with the far-right threatening LGBT+ rights in the country, just like the Republican wave of anti-LGBT+ bills in state legislatures across the US. Zionism doesn’t serve LGBT+ people any better than NATO does, and neither could ever be justified in their military intervention against countries or people they claim are anti-LGBT+. We recognize that LGBT+ liberation is only to be found in the liberation of all oppressed people from imperialism, in the liberation of the working class, and that LGBT+ comfort in imperialist states is a privilege we can use and we can lose. PLUS unequivocally opposes the Israeli governments genocide and occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and stands with the Palestinian people, especially our Palestinian LGBT+ siblings.

This article was from the Stonewall Lives! Bulletin Spring Summer 2024 Edition that was just released. You can find the announcement of the bulletin and its full PDF at https://peopleslgbt.org/announcing-the-release-of-the-first-issue-of-stonewall-lives/