Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

LGBTQ

By Regina Joseph

Tallahassee, FL — On August 20, in Missouri, Tenia Williams, a Black transgender woman, was stabbed and choked by a man she met online.

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By Carolyn Connelly

New York, NY – I was recently watching the documentary She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry, about the second wave of feminism in the U.S. In it, one woman said one of the main lesson that she's learned is that no victory is permanent, and that really struck me. No victory is permanent. And while I was watching this documentary, news hit my social media that Chelsea Manning had announced that she was going to take her own life. And I thought again how no victory is permanent.

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By Sharif Hall

Christina Kittle speaking at Trans Lives Matter rally.

Jacksonville, FL – About 150 people came out to a Trans Lives Matter rally, June 27, in front of Jacksonville courthouse to demand justice. The event was sponsored by many organizations including Jacksonville Community Action Committee, Coalition for Consent, Jacksonville Transgender Action Committee, Equality Florida, and Transgender Awareness Project. This rally was to honor the lives of the three black transgender women murdered here in Jacksonville.

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By Jessica Schwartz

New York, NY – In the aftermath of multiple allegations of sexual harassment, assault, and rape against Hollywood executive and producer Harvey Weinstein, a social media hashtag campaign #MeToo emerged. The hashtag was created by African-American activist Tarana Burke ten years ago, and gained traction again amidst the Weinstein allegations. With this campaign, victims of sexual assault told their stories of sexual abuse and harassment to shed a light on the frequency of sexual violence in the U.S. and globally. French women created their own hashtag “#BalanceTonPorc” or “Expose Your Pig.” Since Weinstein, numerous other celebrities have been outed as sexual assailants and predators.

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By Jessica Schwartz

New York, NY – In the aftermath of multiple allegations of sexual harassment, assault, and rape against Hollywood executive and producer Harvey Weinstein, a social media hashtag campaign #MeToo emerged. The hashtag was created by African-American activist Tarana Burke ten years ago, and gained traction again amidst the Weinstein allegations. With this campaign, victims of sexual assault told their stories of sexual abuse and harassment to shed a light on the frequency of sexual violence in the U.S. and globally. French women created their own hashtag “#BalanceTonPorc” or “Expose Your Pig.” Since Weinstein, numerous other celebrities have been outed as sexual assailants and predators.

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By staff

Minneapolis anti war march.

Minneapolis, MN — The afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 7 saw over 100 people join a protest to mark 16 years of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The protest was organized under the call of Stop Endless U.S. Wars.

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By Jess Sundin

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Minneapolis, MN – Tens of thousands lined Hennepin Avenue to watch the annual Twin Cities LGBTQ Pride parade on June 25. A group of hundreds behind a banner reading “Justice for Philando #NoJusticeNoPride” took the lead of the parade, a few blocks ahead of the police car that was supposed to lead the official parade. The group was protesting Pride’s decision to allow police to lead the parade and be present throughout the festival, despite an epidemic of police violence that particularly targets queer and trans people of color.

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By staff

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Jacksonville, FL – Around 50 people rallied for trans rights at Memorial Park in Jacksonville, June 24. Organized by the Coalition for Consent, Jacksonville Transgender Action Committee along with other groups, protesters rallied to demand an end to attacks on the trans community, especially oppressed nationality trans women.

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By Gabriella Killpack

On the picket line in Utah.

Salt Lake City, UT – 50 union members and supporters picketed the AT&T store, May 21, in South Jordan, Utah in support of the Communication Workers of America’s three-day strike. CWA members discouraged AT&T customers from crossing the picket line, asking that they support their fight for good jobs and return tomorrow when the strike would be over. Strikers and supporters had a high energy throughout the rainy day. They played union songs and chanted “No contract, no peace!”

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By staff

Memorial for Chay Reed.

Opa Locka, FL – On April 28, 20 community members, students and family members gathered to honor the life of Chay Reed and called for an end to trans murders. The vigil was held on the street corner of NW 27th Avenue and 39th Street, the corner where Chay Reed, a 28-year-old Black trans woman, was murdered by an unidentified shooter on April 21. Nine Trans women of color have been murdered in 2017.

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By staff

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

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On March 8, women of the world mark this day as one that honors the role of women and their struggle in their families and communities to confront discrimination, oppression and marginalization, emphasizing the struggle of working class women and nationally and racially oppressed women. This day takes on additional importance for Palestinian women in the context of their struggle and participation in the Palestinian national liberation movement since the very beginning of the struggle against colonization on the land of Palestine, confronting Zionist invasion and occupation of the land of Palestine.

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By staff

Protest demands “Stop Trump’s attacks on women”

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More than 250 people gathered here on March 8, International Women’s Day, to oppose Trump’s attacks on women. After rallying in Mayday Plaza, in the West Bank neighborhood, protesters marched on the headquarters of the Minnesota Republican Party.

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By Freedom Road Socialist Organization

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The U.S. has a long history of women rising up against their bosses and demanding economic justice. The first industrial strike in the U.S. was in May 1824, when 102 women workers in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, left their looms after the mill’s owners announced a wage cut. They refused to return to their stations and, instead, gathered the rest of the workers (including children) and took to the streets. They marched to the factory owner’s house while throwing rocks and shouting obscenities. Before the strike ended, the protests affected factories in eight nearby towns. The workers only returned when the factory owners reinstated their wages.

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By Richard Blake

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Hundreds gathered at Hemming Park directly outside City Hall on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, awaiting news of whether Jacksonville's city council would pass an expanded Human Rights Ordinance (HRO) protecting LGBTQ community members from discrimination. Speakers, musicians, and DJs led the crowd in chants, songs and speeches as the city council debated inside on amendments to the bill.

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By staff

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Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles, Jan. 21, for the LA Women’s March, calling for women’s rights. The massive protest was one of hundreds that took place across the U.S. the day after Trump’s inauguration.

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By J Burger

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On a bright, warm day, an estimated 250,000 people turned out for the Chicago Women's March. As supporters of the Women's March Chicago filled the streets, their number grew so large that event organizers canceled a planned march to the Federal Plaza. Thousands took to the streets anyway, raising their voices and chants for women's rights, immigrant rights, and against Trumps’ destructive agenda. Chants could be heard that women will not “go back,” they will fight back.

#ChicagoIL #LGBTQ #US #PeoplesStruggles #Elections #DonaldTrump #WomensMarch

By Josh Sykes

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Chanting “Forward together, not one step back!” a crowd of approximately 10,000 people, predominantly women, rallied and marched through downtown Asheville as part of a national day of action following the inauguration of the billionaire misogynist and bigot Donald Trump.

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By Stephanie Taylor

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Minneapolis, MN – Donald Trump, the U.S. president-elect, embodies an anti-woman agenda. He promotes rape culture, attacking women who dare speak out against him as fat and ugly. He is guilty of serial sexual harassment and believes that women want to be grabbed by him because he is a celebrity. It’s difficult not to read the election of Trump as an attack on women’s gains against sexual harassment and assault and for full equality – not so much because of who didn’t win the election but because of who did. A system run by the rich and powerful, in the interests of the rich and powerful does not serve the interests of the vast majority of us no matter what face represents it.

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By Fight Back

Tampa Bay SDS protests Orlando shooting

Tampa, FL – About 20 student activists from Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) came together, June 24, to speak out against the Orlando shooting, homophobia and Islamophobia. The protest occurred on the campus of University of South Florida.

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By Regina Joseph

Tallahassee vigil for those killed at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub

Tallahassee, FL – On June 14, close to 200 people gathered on the steps of the Old Capitol to honor the LGBTQIA people killed and wounded in a vicious homophobic attack at Pulse nightclub on June 12.

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