By IWU-FI
The first recorded uprising by gender and sexual non-conformists in modern history occurred on the 28th of June, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. Although there had previously been various protests and movements of queer peoples, taking action for sexual and identity liberation and dignity, those nights of uprisings in response to police repression and persecution in New York City, marked a before and after for the LGBTQIA+ movement that spread over the years around the world.
Fifty-six years on, we are still fighting for the full recognition of our rights; even more so since the return of Donald Trump to the US government, and with the rise of the far right across the world, which, from power, promotes hate speech towards sexual and gender non-conformists, and attacks access to the rights won by the community. In Argentina, hate speech and Milei’s austerity plan are especially fierce against Queer peoples, and particularly against the Trans and Non-Binary community, Brazil continues to be the country with the highest number of murders of Trans and Travesti people, in Colombia the upsurge in hate crimes and transfemicide, such as the murders of Sara Millerey and Nawar Jimenez, shook the streets, and in Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s government banned public gatherings and events of LGBTQIA+ peoples, such as the Pride March, building upon the previous 2021 anti-LGBTQ legislation which, similar to that in Russia, prohibits discussions and portrayals of LGBTQIA+ people in schools and in the media. In different countries around the world, governments are seeking to advance reactionary measures against our community, including persecution, repression, imprisonment, exile and death sentences…
We, queer peoples, are in a worldwide struggle against the far-right governments that have been attacking all working people. In Argentina, in february, the first Anti-Fascist and Anti-Racist Pride March was organised, which gathered more than a million demonstrators in the streets across the whole country. In Hungary, the Budapest Pride March, banned by Orban’s reactionary government, saw more than 100,000 people take to the streets. In many other countries we continue to fight for the defence and recognition of our identities, and for democratic rights, such as equal marriage and Trans Quotas. We continue to fight for access to health, education, housing and decent work, as well as for historical reparations for those who have been marginalised by governments for years.
We fight daily against hate attacks that leave scars on our bodies and psyches, or worse, that kill us. Attacks emboldened by hate speech, that are moulded and installed in the heat of political and economic crises in capitalist countries, and are raised by the most reactionary sectors such as Trump in the United States, Vox in Spain, Meloni in Italy, Putin in Russia or in the capitalist dictatorship of China, which is not socialist at all, where dissidence is persecuted and condemned, as in the most reactionary countries of the Middle East.
With the rise of the right-wing across the world, the mask of the multinationals and their pompous campaigns of ‘pinkwashing’ and ‘rainbow capitalism’ has fallen, where multi-million dollar companies, such as Nike, Nissan, Pepsi, Amazon, Google, Toyota, among others, have reduced or eliminated their budgets and policies related to the promotion of the rights of LGBTQIA+ peoples. At the same time, we denounce that some progressive governments ride on a false rainbow, that disappears after Pride month, in order to achieve a link in favour of their profits and political gain with the queer community; especially when they promote progressive resolutions, decrees or legislation, but without a corresponding budget, demonstrating their double discourse that does not solve the most urgent problems of the community. We denounce these campaigns of double standards, where, while they deny rights and adjust their policies to fit what’s most favorable at the whim, non-conformists, along with women, are the most affected and marginalised.
The State of Israel and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu deserve special mention, as they gloat about being the most ‘gay-friendly’ country in the region (even though it does not even have legalised equal marriage), whilst it actively blackmails, persecutes and attacks gay, lesbian and trans Palestinians in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. It is intensifying genocide in Gaza and violently advancing with its settlers on Palestinian territory in the West Bank, in addition to aggravating regional tensions with its declaration of war with Iran, with the support of Trump and the United States.
In this context, where the most important crisis of the imperialist capitalist system is worsening, where new far-right governments are appearing and new or recycled fascist movements are emerging in the world, the working class, youth, women and sexual and gender dissidents are mobilising to confront the adjustment plans, hate speeches and hate crimes.
From the militancy of queer members of the IWU-FI, we mobilise to confront this capitalist and patriarchal system that exploits and oppresses us with the policies of adjustment and misery of their cisheteropatriarchal governments, to deepen the fight against the genocide of the Palestinian people; against the Zionist state of Israel, and for a free Palestine. We fight against the hate speeches that materialise in attacks on our identities, and to promote the mobilisations of the working class, youth, women and dissidents for a socialist world, where we can live in full freedom.
