Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Rainbow Rising: A Call for Queer Anti-Capitalist Submissions During Pride

We invite you to submit articles to Left Voice during Pride Month and contribute to the conversation around the need for socialism and queer liberation. Email us at [email protected].

Left Voice

May 27, 2020
Facebook Twitter Share

It’s dire times. Unemployment is at Great Depression levels and still growing. Against all medical advice, states are re-opening, demanding effectively that the working class die for Wall Street’s bottom line. And there is an increasing mental health crisis as we are forced to remain in isolation.

The virus and the economic crisis aren’t equal opportunity. While the wealthy hide away in their mansions and beach houses, the virus is exacerbating existing inequalities, which is especially true for queer folks — especially queer folks of color. Queer communities already had higher unemployment, more uninsured people, higher rates of homelessness, and suicide rates than straight folks. For the most oppressed among us, trans folks and queer people of color, these numbers were already alarming. We don’t have the numbers yet, but we have reason to believe that the pandemic is brutal to our community. 

But this isn’t the queer community’s first pandemic. And it isn’t the first time the government and the corporations have ignored a pandemic and allowed the most oppressed among us to die. The AIDS crisis decimated the gay and trans community, and the government wouldn’t even name the crisis. When there was too much pressure to name it, expensive medications were made, and now HIV/AIDs is a source of profit for big pharmaceutical companies. 

That’s why we have to be anti-capitalist queers: big pharma and big corporations who profit from our and our straight co-workers’ exploitation have no place in our liberation. And although Pete Buttigieg’s electoral run may express some level of acceptance of white, wealthy, gay men, it doesn’t mean much for queer working-class folks who are still oppressed and exploited. Last year’s Reclaim Pride march that brought together over 10,000 people had this powerful message.

This year, we won’t be able to be in the streets. Yet, an anti-capitalist queer message is more essential than ever before. People are dying in a pandemic, capitalism is responsible, and imperialist, corporate gay men like Buttigieg will not fix it. 

Queer folks have a rich history of organizing and action: from Stonewall to the protests against pharmaceutical companies and the government during the HIV/AIDs crisis. Across decades and generations, our community has shown a willingness to fight. That fight is needed now, as the twin crisis of coronavirus and economic devastation are ravaging the working class worldwide. 

This month, we want to highlight the crisis that queer people are facing amidst the pandemic, the rich history of resistance in our community, and the need for a socialist solution that unites the working class and oppressed to fight back against the capitalist class. We invite you to write articles for Left Voice for Pride Month and contribute to the conversation around the need for queer liberation. Email us at [email protected].

Facebook Twitter Share

Left Voice

Militant journalism, revolutionary politics.

Gender & Sexuality

Berlin Has a New Pride Demonstration That Cops Hate

Pride should be a protest, not a party. The Internationalist Queer Pride in Berlin takes up the tradition of the Stonewall Riots. Cops hate it — and that's a good thing

Nathaniel Flakin

July 30, 2023
People marching at New York's Queer Liberation March in June. The banner reads "left and labor for trans rights"

Trans Liberation and Socialist Revolution — A Debate with the IMT

Trotskyists should aim to be in the front lines of all struggles against oppression. This is a debate with Alan Woods's International Marxist Tendency (IMT) on how socialists should relate to the movement for queer and trans liberation.

Sasha Frost

July 29, 2023

The Communist Women’s International, in English for the First Time

An Interview with historians Daria Dyakovona and Mike Taber about their new book with documents from the Communist Women’s International

The First Pride Was a Riot, This Pride Is a Strike: Starbucks Workers Shut Down Over 150 Stores

This June, Starbucks implemented a new policy which prevented employees from decorating their stores for Pride. Instead of accepting this hypocrisy from the supposedly queer-friendly corporation, workers at over 150 unionized locations shut things down.

Reba Landers

July 1, 2023

MOST RECENT

China’s Rise, ‘Diminished Dependency,’ and Imperialism in Times of World Disorder

In this broad-ranging interview, originally published in LINKS, Trotskyist Fraction member Esteban Mercatante discusses how recent global shifts in processes of capital accumulation have contributed to China’s rise, the new (and old) mechanisms big powers use to plunder the Global South, and its implications for anti-imperialist and working-class struggles today.

Esteban Mercatante

September 22, 2023
President Biden giving a speech on Friday, September 15, about the UAW strike. A UAW sign in the background.

Joe Biden Is Afraid of the UAW Strike. That’s a Good Thing.

A few days ago, Biden called on the bosses of the Big Three automakers to give concessions to the striking UAW workers. It’s because he’s scared of the UAW’s power.

Enid Brain

September 20, 2023
Migrants from Northern Africa sit in lines on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Crisis in Lampedusa: Down with Fortress Europe, Open the Borders!

The way out of the immigration crisis is through the struggle against imperialism. This is a declaration from the European organizations of the Trotskyist Fraction - Fourth International.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams stands at a podium.

The Housing Crisis and Migrant Crisis Are Crises of Capitalism

As thousands of people come to the U.S. seeking shelter, politicians around the country are claiming that housing in the U.S. is already in crisis and that there is no room for them. Both the “migrant crisis” and “housing crisis” are crises created and exacerbated by capitalism.

Mike Pappas

September 20, 2023