Trans communities beat fascism

By Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition

It goes without saying at this point: trans communities are under attack. Around the world, our lives have become central to escalating far-right “culture wars.” In Aotearoa, we’ve seen trans flags burnt on the street and politicians draft bills trying to define us out of existence. These efforts aim to instill fear, to push us to de-transition or to disappear. Trans people at the intersection of multiple marginalised identities, including trans women and trans people of colour, bear the brunt of this violence.

Why are trans people being targeted? As decades of neoliberal capitalism increases wealth inequality and ecological breakdown, those who have hoarded money and power fear collective working class resistance. To divide us, they scapegoat vulnerable groups—like trans communities—whipping up panic and distrust.

Fascism feeds on binaries, demanding order and control. The idea of a gender binary, where genders are fixed and are determined by a person’s biology, was imposed in Aotearoa by colonisers attempting to subjugate Māori. Today, fascist movements claim this colonial gender binary is natural and immutable. In this narrative, trans people are depicted as being unnatural and perverse, “gender ideologues” whose existence threatens the heterosexual nuclear family.

In reality, trans people threaten fascists because if the gender binary can be questioned, so too can every other hierarchy masquerading as destiny. Legendary activist and Marxist philosopher Angela Davis put it best in 2020: 

“I don't think we would be where we are today [...] had not the trans community taught us that it is possible to effectively challenge that which is considered the very foundation of our sense of normalcy. So if it is possible to challenge the gender binary, then we can certainly, effectively, resist prisons, and jails, and police.”

As trans folks in Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition, we see trans liberation as inseparable from anti-fascism. Freedom for trans people cannot be won until all people are free—free from control over our bodies and identities, free to access healthcare without barriers, and free to live without fear of fascist suppression and violence. Fascism is capitalism’s desperate death grip, a last resort to crush the collective power of the working class. Fascists must not be allowed to march in our streets or spew their hateful rhetoric. We counter fascists not only to protect ourselves and our comrades from violence, but to ensure we have the space to organise together—to build a better, egalitarian, cooperative future.

If you are trans, please know that you are not alone. Trans people play important roles in anti-fascist and anti-capitalist political organising, and you will find yourself welcomed into and able to contribute in those spaces also. Our cisgender allies, too, recognise how critical solidarity is to collective liberation. In recent years, we have rallied together in our thousands across Aotearoa, standing up against transphobic attacks. Together, we will not stop fighting until all people are free to live without fear and oppression.