Recommendations

Strengthen community relationships

• Follow the lead of trans-led organizations and projects. Trans-led organizations and projects are the most familiar with the impact that anti-trans organizing has on trans and gender diverse people. Many also have more specialized insight based on their subject, region, or demographic of focus. Let them guide you!

• Center diverse, representative voices impacted by anti-trans mobilization. As covered previously, anti-trans mobilization has a broad range of focus areas that impact trans and gender diverse people across intersections in different ways. Include and listen to trans people from communities most impacted. Want to understand the impact of criminalization on trans people? Look to advocates like trans sex workers, formerly incarcerated trans people, and trans people with experience with being unhoused or undocumented. Disabled trans advocates, those living with HIV, or with experience with substance use have insight into things like health care discrimination. Trans women of color are important voices in understanding how racism intersects with other areas of marginalization, as well as the impact of carceral feminism and white supremacy.

• Center international solidarity. As evidenced by this report, anti-trans movements are global and highly networked, with the highest degree of influence coming from the Global North. Our struggles for survival are inherently linked to each other. Coalitions seeking to counteract anti-trans movements should work with and uplift the expertise of trans and gender diverse advocates in the Global South impacted by imperialist networking. Similarly, network with trans advocates in areas such as Europe, where US-based conservative think tanks finance opposition to gender equality, LGBTQ liberation, and reproductive freedom.ⁱ

• Strategically partner with feminist and women’s organizations in order to support popular democracy. Build strong, proactive relationships with regional feminist and women’s organizations to strengthen commitments to trans-inclusive feminist initiatives. As anti-trans feminist organizations push the narrative that trans rights are in conflict with women’s rights, strong partnerships with trans-inclusive feminist groups can serve as a powerful counterbalance.

• Build from the ground up: network with local, grassroots organizations in addition to national and international organizations. Many times, grassroots organizations are the ones that meet the needs of more marginalized groups not represented by national organizations. These grassroots movements are the vanguards in our local communities holding the front lines. Incorporating their efforts into your resistance networks also helps them gain more momentum, visibility, and additional supports needed for building more sustainable local movements. Don’t leave them out at the table!

Educate and inoculate

• Develop and disseminate narrative to help combat media misinformation. Compile resources that counteract key misinformation claims that make their way through press, social media, and everyday organizing efforts. Since familiarity with trans issues can vary widely and there’s many areas of impact, consider splitting up your resources into learning levels (such as 101, expand your knowledge, and become an expert) and subject types.
   
  Not sure where to start? Here’s some options:

• • Political Research Associates has released a 101 guide on anti-LGBTQ organizing, detailing how to recognize the who and the what of modern anti-LGBTQ advocacy.

  • Trans Safety Network has compiled a range of debunking resources based on subject. They also have many reports, such as how anti-trans groups spread health care misinformation by exploiting confusion in international health reviews.

  • Interrupting Criminalization, in collaboration with Black & Pink Boston, wrote a detailed brief on the criminalization of trans youth in the face of bans on gender affirming care throughout 2021 and 2022.

  • Health Liberation Now! has additional resources for organizers and advocates to strengthen their movements and a how-to guide on recognizing and avoiding anti-trans conversion therapists. They also publish detailed reports on the key actors involved in promoting conversion therapy for trans youth, the growing cross-pollination between QAnon and anti-trans feminist movements, and the impact of collaborations with the Christian Right on health care equity.

  • Media Matters has written on how Facebook and TikTok circulate conservative anti-trans rhetoric, which can serve as a funnel into far right media through algorithms.

  • The National Center for Transgender Equality, in partnership with Red Umbrella Project and Best Practices Policy Project, wrote a comprehensive report on transgender experiences in the sex trade.

  • Hacking//Hustling has a detailed report on the impact of FOSTA-SESTA and online censorship, including among trans and gender diverse sex workers.

  • Sandra Duffy’s “An International Human Rights Law Analysis of the WHRC Declaration” details how WDI’s Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based rights misrepresents international human rights law to deceive activists and feminist organizations.

  • TransLash Media’s Trans Bodies, Trans Choices project and their Trans-Affirming Guide to Roe v. Wade are great for educating people about the needs for trans-inclusive reproductive care and access to abortion.

• To counteract disinformation surrounding and exploitation of detransitioned experiences, look to trans-led organizations or projects offering de/retransition supports. This serves two purposes: offering direct supports to people in need in a way that uplifts trans-led organizations or projects needing those needs and diverts from anti-trans resources that can do harm to vulnerable people seeking supports. Examples include WikiTrans (France) and Gender Minorities Aotearoa (NZ) for direct supports and Health Liberation Now! (US) for narrative campaigns. If such resources don’t exist in your region, consider partnering with a trans-led organization to build them!
• Inoculate U.S. and international feminist and women’s organizations against anti-trans feminist rhetoric. Once you’ve compiled your resources, proactively work with feminist and women’s organizations to create, strengthen, and/or implement trans-inclusive stances that emphasize the interconnected fight against gendered violence and oppression. Coach them on infiltration from anti-trans actors attempting to influence their members (anti-trans feminists call this “peaking”), coded rhetoric designed to divide activist organizations and its impact on community members, and how commitments to trans inclusive feminism creates a stronger movement for the liberation of all people impacted by patriarchy.

• Inoculate civil-society organizations against anti-trans feminist rhetoric. Many of the suggestions for feminist and women’s organizations also applies here. For civil society organizations, tailor your strategy and related resources to their areas of focus. For instance, provide shelters information on the impact of domestic and/or sexual violence on trans people and thus the importance of trans-inclusive policies.

Expose threats to trans liberation for strategic resistance

• Identify allegiances built between anti-trans feminist and religious conservative organizations or political parties. Just like with anti-sex work and anti-porn feminists, allegiances between anti-trans feminists and conservative organizations have been building up for years.ⁱⁱ These allegiances can be regional or international, with varying strategies or areas of impact. Learn how to identify when they show up on panels together, sponsor events or actions alongside each other, write or support destructive legislation, or hire them as security during on-the-ground actions. If you’re unfamiliar with a particular area and need more specialized insight, network with local researchers and activists who know their region.

• Highlight collaborations between anti-trans feminist and Christian Right organizations and activists. One of the ways that anti-feminist organizations have built strength is through ongoing collaborations with Christian Right organizations and political parties despite extensive research that the Christian Right works against feminist interests.ⁱⁱⁱ Other times they may work with far right paramilitaries, militias, or neo-nazi media.^iv Emphasize these collaborations in media, testimonies, and policy submissions. By doing so, you can correct the narrative that anti-trans feminists are working in the interest of feminism.

• Leverage and exploit existing schisms within anti-trans feminist communities. These collaborations are causing internal divisions amongst anti-trans feminists. Keep the pressure on. As more anti-trans feminists collaborate with Christian Right organizations or far right groups, some members choose to leave their old groups or disavow them. This weakens their ability to mobilize in the moment, reduces their ranks, and makes it harder for them to latch onto feminist and women’s organizations to influence them towards anti-trans stances.

Build a sustainable counter-resistance

• Invest in community resources holding the front lines against anti-trans activism and policies. This includes local, national, and international groups! Local groups offer the direct supports on the ground, such as Transgender Education Network of Texas and their toolkit for trans youth on their rights as students. National groups often times have more capacity to take on larger targets, such as Transgender Law Center’s fight for the rights and safety of incarcerated trans women. International groups, such as GATE and ILGA World, help advocate on the UN level where anti-trans feminist organizations like WDI are trying to influence.

  If you’re not sure where to start, or you want to expand beyond your local region, a great place for ideas is the list of grantees from trans funding projects. The Trans Justice Funding Project has many possibilities in different states across the US. For international solidarity, lists from the International Trans Fund (2020 and 2021) are also options. Both the Trans Justice Funding Project and International Trans Fund prioritize underfunded, grassroots groups and organizations that focus on intersecting areas of marginalization and movement building.

• Invest in community resources researching and exposing the threats to trans liberation in society. As anti-trans mobilization ramps up, regional trans-led groups have been proactive in identifying and addressing threats to our ability to live freely in society. Sometimes that’s monitoring organized hate campaigns and the spread of disinformation, such as the Trans Safety Network and their tracking of campaigns among anti-trans feminist and far right groups. Other times they fill key roles for mobilization, such as Trans Formation Project which tracks anti-trans legislation across the US and lists their sponsors so people can contact their representatives.

• When investing, emphasize organizations or projects from marginalized, underresourced trans communities that are being explicitly targeted. This strengthens their defenses against the highly resourced TERF, SWERF and Christian Right allegiances fighting against them. In the US, this could be trans-led sex worker collectives offering direct supports such as GLITS, collectives or centers run by trans people of color such as Brave Space Alliance or TransLatin@ Coalition, trans-led groups supporting trans youth such as the Transgender Education Network of Texas, or groups supporting incarcerated trans people such as Black & Pink.

• Volunteer if you can! If you have time and skills to share, volunteering is a great way to support resistance efforts. Many LGBTQ grassroots organizations are mostly, if not entirely, volunteer-operated. Even just a few hours a week can make a huge difference!

• Embrace collective care, not just self-care. Collective care emphasizes that we are social creatures that are part of a caring community, versus self-care which puts the onus of managing burn-out on the individual. While self-care is critical in managing mental health, normalizing and encouraging collective care in social justice movements allows fellow activists to thrive alongside each other long term even when we are struggling in the moment. Check in with each other, step in when someone needs to step back, and create resources for ongoing supports among the people you’re working with.

References