The Trump/Pence regime is barreling forward on its mission to deny the humanity of transgender people and eviscerate our recently won, hard fought, and very limited civil rights. How we choose to live and whether or not we have a place in society is not merely being called into question, it is again being openly denied and assaulted. The recently exposed Department of Health & Human Services memo seeks to define gender, as the New York Times report characterized it, “as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth”. Also, “the department argued in its memo that key government agencies needed to adopt an explicit and uniform definition of gender as determined ‘on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.’”
It is truly a bitter irony that this regime now makes a plea to scientific objectivity. Coming from a gang of truth-deniers and Biblical literalists who at every turn have undermined and attacked the fact of climate change, evidence-based education, shrieking about “fake news” at journalists who expose their crimes, and much more—it would be hilarious if it weren’t so deadly serious. And for the record, many medical experts and others were quick to refute the memo’s assertions, and are doing so on the basis of correct and well-established scientific certainty.
Trump claimed in response that he is doing this in pursuit of “protecting everybody… to protect our country." Let’s get real though, it is this regime that poses catastrophic danger to all of humanity and the planet itself. RefuseFascism.org summed this up well in their 2018 Call to Action stating, “Trump’s “Make America Great Again” is a 21st century fascist program of Manifest Destiny – “America First” – wrapped in the flag and Mike Pence’s Bible taken literally, with a program of white supremacy, misogyny, and xenophobia.” It is only by proceeding from the interests of all humanity that we can bring any kind of positive resolution to the threat of a fascist America. It is precisely the suffocating confines of American chauvinism, of protecting “our” country (which really is another way of saying ‘me and my people’) and proceeding from those premises that have also characterized the ‘resistance’ under the leadership of the Democratic party, and thus have rendered it utterly incapable of actually recognizing the situation we are facing, much less what is actually needed to overcome all this.
Nobody needs to be protected from transgender people or the LGBTQ community, who are facing a continuing assault on their humanity, with the removal of federal guidelines protecting the right of transgender students to use the bathroom matching their identity. Trans people have been dehumanized by being labelled as a “burden” during attempts to push through a ban on transgender people serving in the military, removal of Bureau of Prisons guidelines that emphasized considering gender identity when housing prisoners. A recent Department of Justice brief to the Supreme Court of the United States stated that a federal civil rights law banning sex discrimination in the workplace doesn’t extend to bias against transgender people (and how do you think a Kavanaugh court would rule on this?), and now we face threats of total erasure from society.
Just as nobody needs to be protected from immigrants coming from South and Central America, who face being immediately rounded up, caged, and deported just as they complete their arduous trek to flee the unlivable conditions that the United States has wrought upon their country. Just as nobody needs to be protected from the people of Iran or North Korea, who are facing not just threats of war, but even threats of total nuclear annihilation. Just as fetuses, which are not babies, do not need to be protected from women, who are about to have their basic right to control their own bodies torn away from them. Just as all this is true, so it is also true that trans people are not a danger to society, and in fact it is the Trump/Pence fascist regime that poses a dire threat to all humanity.
This only begins to touch on the stakes at hand should the regime achieve its white supremacist, misogynist, and xenophobic program – a package wrapped in the American flag and dark-ages biblical literalism, totally remake society and the world. Anyone who accepts the fascist logic which turns this reality completely upside down has lost their humanity. To the extent that they can regain it, that will only occur in the context of delivering a decisive political defeat to the regime that leads them.
And that is precisely what we must be organizing to do now, with all the energy, courage, and creativity that we’ve got. At a #WontBeErased rally to oppose this latest attack, I heard (along with other kinds of wishful thinking, like faith in the election outcomes) repeated assertions that “we will survive this.” It is true that maybe a few individuals will escape the horrors that the regime seeks to inflict upon us, and that others have survived fascism historically, but at what cost? Who will not survive the lynch mob terror that they are unleashing? Take for example Gavin McInnes—leader of the fascist “Proud Boys” thugs—who has called upon Trump supporters to, “Choke a tranny. Get your fingers around the windpipe.” How many more friends and family will be lost to suicide, fired from jobs and thrown into homelessness, or contract HIV with no access to resources to treat it—how much of that are you willing to accept? Are you willing to accept whole generation of us cast back into the shadows and deprived of the space and resources to realize our identities? Make no mistake, this is only just the beginning. Should we fail to stop this by driving this regime out of power, what more will we have to try and survive?
We shouldn’t have to just survive this regime, which many of us may not. We also don’t need to accept a fate of living in the shadows. We can refuse to accept a fascist America. We can cast aside illusions and self-delusions about the real way out of this. It is not by clinging to each other and hoping the horror of fascism won’t touch us. It is not by LGBTQ and other oppressed people running for office to “get a seat at the political table.” It is not by accepting the leadership of the Democratic party, which has no answer to this other than to line up behind them, vote, and then hope for the best. Their “Blue Wave” will not temper a fascist like Trump, who relishes in lashing out at his political opponents and shredding apart the normal political rules of the game that they are playing by. For a full understanding on the depth and scope of the threat that this regime poses, its nature and dynamics, its roots in the history of this country, and why fascism can be voted in but must be driven out, this film of a talk from Bob Avakian is an absolute must-see: THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In The Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America: A Better World IS Possible!
The transgender community are a strong, resilient, and courageous people. That is something that has been taken for granted for far too long, even by us. Let us not keep this to ourselves. Let us share this gift with the world and rise up with others to battle it out for the future of all humanity and the planet. To this end, I encourage everyone to join in the demonstrations called for by RefuseFascism.org on November 7th & 10th, right after the midterms, to put before the people the truth: no matter who wins, the only real way to stop the Trump/Pence regime will be through determined struggle in the streets. They are working to mobilize the millions of people who hate this regime into the kind of political movement that can end this nightmare—one that doesn’t yield and won’t be provoked.
RefuseFascism.org is organizing now to get in position to launch protests of millions raising the unrelenting demand: This Nightmare Must End! The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! at the soonest possible time.
Go to RefuseFascism.org right now and find a protest in your area or organize your own. Get your organization to endorse or partner with us on this. Spread the word about the protests on the streets and to all your social networks. There is a way to stop this regime that imperils us, all of humanity, and the planet itself—but we must act quickly before they fully consolidate fascism. The people of the world are counting on us to drive out this fascist regime, and in doing so we will affirm our dignity as full human-beings.