Responding to the backlash

A wave of legislation targeting trans and queer people is sweeping across the United States from Alabama to Arizona. These laws deny youth access to gender-affirming care, effectively criminalizing trans youth and their families.

Like the manufactured panic over Critical Race Theory and the recent attacks against Roe v. Wade, anxieties directed toward transgender and gender-nonconforming people have become central to the GOP’s incursion into the culture wars. Without a doubt, the attacks against trans youth are a calculated political play aimed at motivating conservative voters ahead of the midterms.

In efforts to overturn this wave of reactionary legislation, mainstream queer activists have primarily turned to legal strategies. These are important and necessary efforts, but, (just as in the past) they are not enough to ensure justice for all trans and queer people.
What is motivating these attacks and how should the left respond?

A Tempest Discussion Panel

Sunday, April 24th at 1pm ET/12 CT/10 PT

Tempest hosts a panel discussion featuring:

• Isabelle is an intersex activist, writer, athlete, and coach from Rochester, NY now living in Portland, OR
• Kristen Godfrey (they/she) is a Black, non-binary community organizer and social worker living on stolen Tohono O’odham and Yoeme ancestral and traditional lands. Kristen has worked alongside LGBTQ+ young people in after-school programs, community resource centers, and higher ed for nine years. She is a member of Tempest Collective, and a co-founding member of Thompson House Tucson, a socialist organization and mutual aid collective.
• Ash Terry (she/her) is a student at the University of Texas. She organizes with the grassroots network TEAR IT UP and is a member of Trans Resistance of Texas (TRoT). Both groups have been at the fore of organizing protests in response to Governor Abbott’s February executive order criminalizing trans youth and gender-affirming care.
• Eric Maroney (he/him) is a transgender organizer and an active union member with the AFT. He teaches community college English, and he is a graduate student at the University of Connecticut. Eric is also a member of the Tempest Collective.

Registration link for Zoom. Facebook event details.