Organizers announced that they will be launching an all-out campaign to force the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) to drop their anti-trans policy and to restore the ability of Floridians to change the gender markers on their IDs to reflect who they are.

More than a dozen community organizations including HOPE Community Center, Orlando for Gender Equality and Dream Defenders were united behind a banner which read, “DeSantis DMV. Drop the policy. IDs for all.” Florida Representative Anna Eskamani also attended and pledged solidarity with the growing campaign. As reporters gathered to hear the announcement outside the prominent LGBTQ health center, activists chanted “We won’t go back. Not one step back!” and “We will not go back in time, being trans is not a crime.”

Jacob Muldoon, lead organizer with Orlando for Gender Equality spoke first and outlined the context for DeSantis’ latest attack on the LGBTQ community. He explained that community groups organized and mobilized in great numbers during the past legislative session. Through actions like protests, letter-writings, die-ins, and more, activists defeated 21 out of 22 anti-LGBTQ bills attempting to move through the Florida legislature. But now, facing defeat, the GOP is pivoting to an undemocratic, administrative rule change.

Muldoon went on to say, “These political moves by DeSantis and the GOP are unconstitutional and follow a trend of Florida violating federal laws like Real ID and Title IX. DeSantis and the GOP are rogue actors, dead set on their unpopular and hate-filled agenda. We must defend Orlando from Tallahassee.”

Well-known community organizer Shea Cutliff delivered a powerful speech, stating, “As someone who transitioned very early, my ID was like a black American Express card. It was a ticket to so many things. It put a stop to being discriminated against before I even had the chance to interview for a job. It was my chance to stand up for myself in a place as simple as a grocery store by presenting my ID with the proper gender marker reflected on it.”

Joey Knoll, founder and president of SPEKTRUM Health also spoke out against DeSantis’ attempts to erase Florida’s trans population from public life. Knoll rebuked the right-wing governor, “regardless of what Ron DeSantis says, thinks or does: trans people have existed, trans people exist now, and trans people will continue to exist long into the future. Nobody is asking for his permission.”

The coalition ended the conference with a call to action, promising to mobilize and protest at DMVs around the state of Florida in the coming weeks.

#OrlandoFL #LGBTQrights #TransRights #TransLiberation #GayRights #RealID #TitleIX #Desantis #

Wadsworth, OH – On October 23 and 24, dozens of people organized themselves to “phone zap” the county court and prosecutors of Wadsworth to demand that all bogus charges against Leif Autzen be dropped. They called the office non-stop to voice their anger. Within 48 hours of the beginning of the zap, all felony charges against Autzen were dropped and he no longer faced jail time.

On March 11, Autzen was unjustly arrested and charged with assault after he was attacked by a right-wing extremist while escorting attendees at the Wadsworth Drag Story Time.

In line with a series of anti-trans bills and vicious right-wing demonstrations against drag shows, neo-nazis and similar groups protested and threatened the Story Time. Autzen stepped up to protect attendees. While escorting a party of children and disabled people, Autzen was struck with a megaphone by a man in medieval armor. Autzen, fearing for his life and the lives of the attendees, pepper-sprayed his assailant and was promptly arrested by Wadsworth police. He was subsequently charged with three counts of assault, despite Ohio law giving Autzen the explicit right to defend himself, even with deadly force, in this situation.

As the trial approached, prosecutors and police made it clear that they intended to make this a show trial. Police admitted to deleting all body camera footage of the event and the prosecution moved for the court to forbid witnesses from testifying on Autzen’s behalf. If found guilty in this show trial, Autzen would have faced years in prison and a torturous process of forced de-transition if incarcerated. This mockery of a trial would threaten to blatantly violate the rights of a trans activist to self-defense and gender-affirming healthcare.

The trial caught the attention of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) due to Autzen’s campaign to bring attention to his unfair prosecution. SDS took up Autzen’s cause at their national convention on October 15 with a resolution which read “SDS upholds the democratic rights of the people to self expression, to self defense in the face of bigoted violence, and to freedom of gender expression and opposes far-right violence of all kinds”. It resolved to “demand that all charges against Lief Autzen be dropped by police and prosecutors” and to fight for this demand by “joining a day of action on Lief’s behalf.” This resolution was adopted with a standing ovation and chants of “Drop the charges, now!” in the packed hall.

Following through on their promise, students from around the country organized a call-in campaign, which lasted the entire day before Autzen’s trial. They called constantly in order to show the court and prosecution that a student movement was fighting and scrutinizing them. The first day, after hours of calling, a felony assault charge was dropped. Seeing this effect, the SDS organized a redoubled effort to begin the very next day, the day of the trial. Students from around the country called into the courthouse to “demand that all charges against Leif Autzen be dropped” and called his trial “illegal political repression.” Before noon, all felony charges were dropped! Autzen pled to two remaining trumped-up misdemeanors.

According to Autzen, he was “informed that a vulnerable child witness was being coerced to give false testimony by the prosecution” so he “opted for a plea deal to protect the child from trauma and scrutiny” given that none of the misdemeanors carry the possibility of jail time.

This is a great victory for the LGBTQ liberation movement, the student movement, and for the solidarity between these forces against right-wing political repression and extremist violence.

The sentencing for these absurd charges will be December 6 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern and all concerned people should look out for the call to action by SDS to demand minimum sentencing.

#WadsworthOH #SDS #TransLiberation

Minneapolis, MN – Just days after a news of new Trump administration attacks against transgender people, transgender community members and allies responded with a massive demonstration of solidarity on October 28. Several thousand people – transgender, intersex and gender-expansive people, and allies – lined three and a half miles of sidewalks along Lake Street, from Minneapolis to Saint Paul.

According to one of the event organizers, Cole Nicholls of SDS-UMN and the MN Transgender Health Coalition, “They say transphobia kills. It’s true. But it kills with hunger, with homelessness, with illness, with violence from bigots and johns and police, with the same weapons used by white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism to kill people all across the world.”

She continued, “To those who stand with us today, I ask you to stand with us not only in the struggle for our rights, but for rent control, for public housing, for free healthcare, for community control of police and for unionization. We are fighting not only against discrimination. We are fighting to survive and to thrive. We will not be erased. And when we unite with oppressed people across the world, we cannot be erased.”

#MinneapolisMN #transLiberation