By Thomas White
Internationally LGBTIQ+ people are under attack with crackdowns on the queer community going hand in hand with a general rising trend of repression against protest movements. Prominent attempted roll backs of queer rights in the US have been a feature of the Trump regime’s racist, sexist, pro-billionaire agenda.
The attempted ban issued by official Twitter decree on Transgender people serving in the US military, while unsuccessful, is a clear indication of the direction that the US ruling class would like to go. The more recent ‘cake decision’, when the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of a Colorado baker who refused to design a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, is a partial roll back of Federal anti-discrimination policy. It should sound as a warning shot to the queer community in the US and as a lesson for us all to learn on a global scale.
Struggle wins
All of the rights, protections and freedoms that we have for LGBTIQ+ people have been fought for and won through struggle, through a grassroots movement of queer people standing up, speaking out and demanding our rights. It should not be forgotten, that only 25 years ago homosexuality was still a criminal offence in Ireland.
What we have won, we can lose and the recent spate of attacks on LGBTIQA+ rights in the US show that queer people need to be ready to take to the streets once again. By working with a broad coalition of progressive movements and the labour movement we won’t just defend the gains that we have won, but we will fight for more. To fight, not just to limit bigotry and prejudice and to become tolerated, but to crush it and become liberated from all that oppresses and divides us.
