On a chilly December morning, Chase Strangio stood before the Supreme Court with the burden of history bearing down on him. Trans people have left a heritage of battling for justice, and as the first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the country’s highest court, he carried not only legal briefs but also the echoes of protests from the Compton Cafeteria riots to the Stonewall uprising.
The chants of the hundreds of demonstrators outside rose above the marble columns as they rushed against police barricades. In response to gender-based threats, the ACLU organized the demonstration with backing from the Gender Liberation Movement (GLM), a nationwide collective that develops policy, media, and direct action initiatives centered on bodily autonomy and self-determination.
According to Eliel Cruz, a co-founder of GLM, they want transgender individuals to disappear. And the best way to start that kind of bigger initiative is with young people.
The grassroots organization, which combines policy lobbying with street rallies, has become a major force in organizing protests against gender-based limitations across the country. Inside, GLM activists led shouts calling for protection of transgender healthcare rights while the Supreme Court heard arguments.
In a protest against new limitations suggested by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Representative Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), 15 GLM activists were arrested the following day in a Capitol restroom. The limits targeted even Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly transgender member of Congress. Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst who served seven years in prison for leaking classified documents about civilian casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and Raquel Willis, a Black transgender activist who spearheaded the historic Brooklyn Liberation March and popularized the slogan “I believe in Black trans power,” were among those arrested.
In a statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson justified the bathroom restrictions, claiming that the Capitol’s single-sex restrooms are only for people of that biological sex. Advocates of comparable state-level limitations contend that they uphold the privacy rights of women.
Johnson told The Tennessean that women should have their own areas. This opinion is in line with conservative lawmakers who have proposed similar legislation in state legislatures.
Today’s movement leaders are aware of the historical analogies. Activists follow in the footsteps of trailblazers like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera as Republican-led states push hundreds of measures that restrict transgender rights and healthcare. But this time, the battleground isn t just the city streets, but also the marble corridors of power, and the weapons are legal briefs instead of bricks.
How LGBTQ+ activism made everything better for everyone
LGBTQ+ activists have emerged as a cornerstone for civil rights movements in the United States. We are part of every community considered from the point of view of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, and class, said Chris Sanders, executive director at theTennessee Equality Project(TNEP.) Therefore, all types of discrimination have an impact on us.
Sanders cited notable individuals such as Pauli Murray, a civil rights advocate, attorney, and co-founder of the National Organization for Women, who allegedly used both the she/her and they/them pronouns; Audre Lorde, a trailblazer in Black feminism; and Bayard Rustin, a key organizer of the historic March on Washington, who adopted civil disobedience strategies from Indian organizers, creating a famous Civil Rights Era tactic.
The list is endless. Larry Kramer, a Jewish American and founder ofACT UP during the HIV/AIDS pandemic, influenced healthcare policymakers includingAnthony Fauci, who referenced Kramer during COVID-19. Trans figures fought in several instances to protect the First Amendment right of peaceful assembly and the constitutional rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Such examples include Tamara Ching,a trans Asian American womanat the Compton Cafeteria uprising, and Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera at Stonewall, all three women mobilizing against police brutality. Meanwhile,Harry Weider, a hard of hearing child of Holocaust survivors with dwarfism, joined ACT UP and advocated for public housing.
Kiyoshi Kuromiya, an openly gay Japanese American and survivor of World War II internment, marched with Rev.Martin Luther King, Jr. on Selmaand served as hispersonal assistant. When King was assassinated, Kuromiya lookedafter King s children. In 1970, Kuromiya served as the only openly gay panelist at theBlack Panther Convention, representing the Gay Liberation Front Philadelphia chapter; that same year, Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newtonendorsed LGBTQ+ and women s liberation movements.
The visibility and success of LGBTQ+ rights movements have sparked broader conversations about intersectionality, encouraging other marginalized groups to advocate for their rights, said Manuel Hern ndez, who uses pronouns li/naya and he/they. Hern ndez serves as the executive director ofALMA Chicago, which since the AIDS epidemic has advocated for the fair treatment and equality of the Latinx LGBTQ+ community. This ripple effect has made the fight for equality more comprehensive and interconnected.
Trans people are still left behind
Despite broader LGBTQ+ gains, trans people find themselves excluded while being drastically impacted by modern political debates. While the recent election cycle ushered in the historic election of openly transSarah McBride to Congress, less than 1% of U.S. elected officials identify publicly as LGBTQ+. Since 2017, the Victory Institutetracked a 6% decrease in elections of trans people amid increases in elections of other LGBTQ+ candidates. Representation in office continues to be dominated by cis white gay men. This underrepresentation leavestransgender people vulnerable to discrimination and political exploitationfrom both parties, advocates say.
Blossom C. Brown, an Afro-Native trans activist based in Los Angeles, with appearances on the trans rights podcastTransparencyand inviral contentat Jubiliee sMiddle Grounddebates, said, We are the easiest community to be used for political points by politicians, including some Democrats.
In 2015, Jennicet Gutierrez, co-founder of trans Latine advocacy groupFamilia TQLM, confronted then President Barack Obama during a White House Pride Month reception about gender-based violence against trans women inICE detention centers. Security removed her from the event, and media outlets described her actions as heckling. During her 2024 presidential run, Vice President Kamala Harris received endorsements from several major LGBTQ+ organizations, including theHuman Rights Campaignand theNational LGBTQ Task Force. However,trans speakers were excludedfrom the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
In 2018, then president Donald Trump referred to migrant caravans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border ashardened criminals.Some of the earliest known caravans consisted primarily of transgender migrants, displaced by internal conflicts includingU.S.-backed coupsacross Latin America and targeted by police due to gender identity, self-expression, and sexual orientation.
In August 2017, the Transgender Law Center recorded the first known official migrantRainbow Caravan,11 of whom were trans and the rest LGB. The following year, several LGBTQ+ couplesmarried at the border with Mexicobefore crossing over.
Cruz also warned of parallel and potentially deadly consequences similar to the struggle for abortion rights. We are going to have thousands and thousands of families and trans young people unable to access that care, he said. We ll need to find either ways to get it illegally in their state, or they might have to flee.
Transgender people have begun leaving the United States. They have fled toNew Zealand,France, the Netherlands, and other countries whereimmigration policieswelcome trans asylum seekers. According to a 2023 report fromData for Progress, 41% of trans adults and 43% of trans people aged 18-24 have considered moving. Eight percent of trans adults, including those aged 18-24, have already left, alongside 9% of LGBTQ+ adults 65 or older.
The SCOTUS ruling will have much more impact on the trans community than it will the LGBTQ community as a whole, said Brown. We must wake that up in this movement.
What s at stake
As the protests at the Supreme Court over healthcare for trans youth remain at the forefront of the debate, gender-affirming care also applies to cisgender people. A Hastings Center report found thatcisgender make up the majority of those seeking gender-affirming care. These issues have systematically contributed to our detriment, said Brown. [S]ystemic oppression tries to keep us as the outsider. But truth is we are far from it!
In November 2024, TNEP and other groups successfully fought off a second conservative proposal in Tennessee s Knox County campaign toprotect child innocenceby cutting funding to programs deemed sexually explicit. Opponents called itundefined,while the four-page document defined prohibited content as harmful to minors, matter, nudity, obscene, prurient interest, and sexual conduct. Several nonprofits argued that such a vague resolution threatened services, such as programs thatrespond to and protect children from abuse. Critics called it a thinly disguised anti-drag initiative, which could have had drastic repercussions on the entire state.
Thirty-five state constitutions still ban marriage equality. While federal courts overruled these bans in the Supreme Court s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in 2015, some legal experts worry the current court could overturn that decision as it did with abortion.
Other SCOTUS rulings have undone LGBTQ+ efforts regarding universal human rights, including work and healthcare discrimination. In 2023, the Supreme Court sided with Lorie Smith, a wedding website designer, declaring that she could deny a gay couple services. However, the case centered ona straight man married to a woman who claimed that he never submitted a request. This ruling now means that anyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender, can be denied services.
In July this year, the Biden administration wasunable to enforce new rulesaffirming healthcare for trans U.S. citizens. The SCOTUS overturning of the 1984Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Councilruling weakened federal enforcement of regulations and reduced the political authority of the Environmental Protection Agency, creating an unforeseen connection between trans rights and climate justice.
In 2017, the same year as the Rainbow Caravan, the Trump administration ordered theend of the DACA program, whichSCOTUS reversed in 2020. Trump svows of mass deportation, partially which incorporated his twisting of the trans struggle to fit his agenda, could threaten the livelihood of many people essential to the U.S. economy, like the agriculture sector, which employs a73% migrant workforce.
What comes next
As a common practice, activists center the needs of the most marginalized to create universal solutions. Cruz said that by addressing the needs of Black trans women, including disabled Black trans undocumented women with English as a second language, the rights and needs of all will be served. This is true for all Americans, he said. It s not some special thing that only Black trans people or queer trans people need.
Amid574 anti-LGBTQ billscirculating across state legislatures and the resultingmental health crisisfor trans youth, organizers plan to follow the trans legacy of activism and continue to pressure the Supreme Court to side with them through direct action. We will never give up on our trans youth, said Brown. I have hope and faith that the LGBTQ community will respond with even more powerful mechanisms of change.
Sanders encouraged activists to show up for TNEP s Zoom phone banks and Day on the Hill action to campaign for LGBTQ+ rights, which they will announce later.
In Chicago, Hern ndez indicated that ALMA will mobilize through educating the wider community about transgender issues and collaborating with legal organizations likeEquality Illinois. ALMA currently offers empowerment and economic mobility through programs like its Latinx LGBTQ+ Advocacy Leadership Institute. Where possible, we ll also explore ways to offer financial support to trans youth and families navigating new legal or medical challenges, said Hern ndez.
In New York City, Cruz called for increased volunteer and financial support of theTransgender Law Centerand other trans-led legal efforts nationwide.
We ve made America a better place by pushing for inclusivity, said Brown. Unfortunately there are groups who are threatened by this. Not our problem! We will continue the fight.
Rohan Zhou-Lee(They/Siya/ (T )/Elle) is a queer/nonbinary Black Asian dancer, writer, and organizer. A 2023 Open City Fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop, they have written forNewsweek, Prism Reports, NextShark, and more. Siya is also the founder of theaward-winningBlasian March, a Black-Asian-Blasian grassroots solidarity organization, and for their work has been featured onCNN,NBC Chicago,USA Today,WNYC, andmore. Zhou-Lee hasspoken on organizing, human rights, and other subjects at New York University, The University of Tokyo, the 2022 Unite and Enough Festivals in Z rich, Switzerland, Harvard University, and more.www.diaryofafirebird.com
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