The Communist Party USA joins with the LGBTQ+ community and people’s movements to celebrate Pride Month. We recognize the revolutionary history of this celebration from the Mattachine Society, to the Gay Liberation Front, to Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, to Lesbians and Gays Against Intervention, to ACT-UP. We take this time to renew our commitments to LGBTQ+ liberation during this celebratory month, which is tragically marred by the ongoing violence toward the transgender community at the hands of vigilantes and MAGA fascism.

The Party rejects all anti-LGBTQ+ social trends and legal actions. We reject all violence and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, which is deeply entwined with racist violence. Anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, whether from the far right or the so-called Marxist left, is bigotry. We demand that the dignity and humanity of the LGBTQ+ community be recognized and upheld as key to the struggle against Trump and MAGA fascism, and for socialism. We stand for humanity, empathy, and the solidarity of all peoples with the LGBTQ+ community.

The transgender community is enduring what some organizations have warned are the beginning stages of genocide. Multiple transgender community members have been murdered in the past three months alone. But this violence also has a racial character. Since 2013, Black transgender women have comprised 63% of all recorded victims of anti-transgender hate crimes. The victims have been “overwhelmingly Black, under 35, and killed with a firearm.” The number is likely an undercount due to systemic anti-trans bias and misgendering. This racist, transphobic violence is fascist in character and state-sanctioned. We must act to end it now.

Now, more than ever, is the time for members of the LGBTQ+ community to stand together with their allies to declare their dignity in the face of threats and attacks from all corners of monopoly capital and the fascist right. LGBTQ+ people face threats at home from their families, threats at work from co-workers and bosses, and threats in the realm of policy from bigoted legislators who hope to write them out of existence. The fascists of this country try to dim the light that LGBTQ+ folks bring to the world in the hopes that they will never shine, but the bravery and solidarity of LGBTQ+ workers will continue to glow despite these constant threats.

This community is multiracial, gender-diverse, and multiethnic. The community does not move forward with one single voice, but rather as a choir of struggle and determination. Black transgender women are the most common victims of anti-LGBTQ+ violence. The fight is not just for one sector, but for every shade of the rainbow.

The struggle of LGBTQ+ workers may be greater than ever under the second Trump Administration. The MAGA coalition has carried out every trick in the book, hearkening back to the violence and repression of the McCarthy period. Whether it is through defunding gender-affirming healthcare, attempting to outlaw public expression of LGBTQ+ identity, or requiring passport genders to match sex at birth, the ruling class has shown they believe dignity is a privilege, not a right. The LGBTQ+ community fought anti-sodomy laws, against the AIDS epidemic, for marriage equality, for gender-affirming care, and the fight to defeat MAGA fascism’s reign of terror must be the next victory.

Great attention must be paid to every wave of hate that flows out of the Trump Administration. As ICE sinks its claws into the immigrant community, trans people are some of the most impacted. Recent Trump rulings no longer require ICE to report the number of gender-nonconforming detainees, and ICE requires trans immigrants to be detained according to their sex at birth.

Further, with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn sections of the Civil Rights Act, thousands of Black queer voters, particularly in the South, could lose their voice at the ballot box in coming elections. While the attacks are directed at African Americans, the queer community suffers from these blows too. These are attempts to politically silence progressive and working-class constituencies who are overwhelmingly opposed to MAGA fascism.

Trump, the Supreme Court and the ultra-wealthy are afraid of LGBTQ+ power. They are scared of the way LGBTQ+ workers show up for themselves, especially in the labor movement. MAGA fascists know that the LGBTQ+ community will not roll over. LGBTQ+ workers will not take abuse from a boss, from a CEO, and will certainly not take it from a president or politician.

Queer workers and allies: it is time to stand up. The next generation is counting on LGBTQ+ workers and their allies to not only fight for their existence, but to fight for their success and achievements. There is simply no other option. All those who consider themselves allies of the LGBTQ+ community must understand the centrality of anti-trans violence to the program of MAGA fascism, and join with the community to defend our transgender siblings and comrades from these violent attacks. When we fight to defend our transgender siblings, we fight the advance of fascism at large.

Images: Pride flag by CPUSA. CC BY-NC 4.0.