Tacoma rallies for trans rights

Tacoma, WA – On March 31, over 30 people took to the streets to rally for transgender rights. Community members spoke on the importance of Transgender Day of Visibility, and how it intersects with the working class, climate justice, and indigenous sovereignty. After speeches, a short march, and an indigenous cultural offering from a two-spirit person, people filled the municipal building to speak during the city council meeting.

On the city’s agenda was a Transgender day of Visibility proclamation fought for by community organizers and signed by the mayor and city council.

This rally and march were called by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and also came in response to a Supreme Court decision to re-legalize conversion therapy. Many community members feared how this could impact them at home and at work.

Haze Bender, a union warehouse worker with Teamsters Local 174, said, “Everything we do is informed and impacted by our relationship to production. As workers under capitalism, we have a lot more commonality than differences with the people we work alongside. Remember, most of our oppression is coming from the people above, rather than the people alongside us.” Bender stressed the importance of trans and working class solidarity.

“The United States government sent us [to boarding schools], along with all Indians, where they criminalized our languages, changed our names, and attempted to erase our way of being,” said River Bondi, a two-spirit speaker from the Ojibwa and Odawa First Nations. “They did not succeed. My existence is a testament to the resilience of my ancestors.”

“My mom told me growing up, if you marry another woman, or if you marry somebody that is not Latin, I will disown you,” said Amelia Isabel Escobedo, a two-spirit person with the Brown Berets. She rejected that narrow view, saying instead “You are a part of me and I am a part of you. And we are family.”

Tacomans made it clear that they would not sit down while the Trump administration continued to attack trans rights. After chants of “Trans rights now,” over ten people took the energy of the rally into city council chambers to demand material protections for trans people in Tacoma.

“So on this Transgender Day of Visibility, I ask you to do more than see us,” Dez Chalfant said to the city council in chambers. “Stand with us. Fight with us. Protect us. Because we are not going anywhere.” Chalfant is a rank-and-file member of UFCW 367 and a representative on the Pierce County Central Labor Council.

During the council meeting chants of “When trans rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back!” echoed through the building, reminding the council that the residents of Tacoma is ready and willing to fight for trans people. The city of Tacoma passed the proclamation for Trans Day of Visibility.

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