Trans liberation is central to all struggles for liberation. That is, the liberation of trans, gender nonconforming and intersex communities is not a “separate” issue, it is fundamentally a lens to organize around all the challenges our communities face, from housing to policing to healthcare. Black, brown, Indigenous, immigrant, femme, disabled, and incarcerated trans and nonbinary folks have long provided the leadership, vision, strategy and organizing expertise to manifest the conditions for trans self-determination that also provide collective liberation for all.

In the past decade, the right has aggressively ramped up its attacks on queer, trans, and nonbinary communities in order to incite a base committed to patriarchy, white supremacy, ]and transmisogynoir. For example, according to the independent research group Trans Legislation Tracker, in 2024 there are 652 anti-trans bills currently at play in the US – compared to 21 in 2015. This is by design: the right has invested major funding and energy into campaigns that hypervisibility and attack trans communities in all aspects of community life, both public and private – from local school boards and libraries to doctors’ offices and bathrooms. At the center of these attacks is the right’s fascist blueprint to erase queer and trans communities from public life, censor and silence dissent, and above all, spread fear.

In the face of these assaults, we continue to protect our gente. In powerful resistance to the right’s unpopular anti-trans platform, trans, gender nonconforming and intersex organizers, artists and cultural workers are keeping self determination and trans joy at the center. What does this look like? It looks like grassroots funding for Black trans folks to access safe transportation and affordable housing. It looks like powerful cultural organizing, from drag story hours to trans community organizing centers to Black trans dinners focused on connection and joy. It looks like student and educator walk-outs in protest of thinly veiled anti-trans education policies and community knowledge sharing about where to find trans affirming healthcare providers. It looks like deportation defense for Black queer and trans migrants and organizing for abolition. At the state and local policy level, it also looks like leveraging existing federal and state anti-discrimination laws to ensure trans, intersex and nonbinary communities are protected from discrimination at school, at work, and beyond.