Like other minority groups in American society sexual minorities who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered (LGBT) face varying levels of oppression under capitalism. There is extreme hostility toward people who are seen as different, as many LGBT people report severe harassment, whether or not they are publicly “out” about their sexuality. A group monitoring hate crimes estimates that there were 2,475 assaults motivated by homophobia in 2005. This is probably an understatement. Many people know about the vicious murder of Matthew Shepherd, a young gay man who was killed in 1998 but there are many other cases of homophobia-inspired murders which are not as well known.

LGBT people can also be legally discriminated against. In 34 states it is completely legal for an employer to fire someone simply because of their sexual orientation. In 44 states it is legal to fire someone because they are transgendered. The “Real ID Act” of 2005, makes it much more difficult, in the wake of 9/11, to change aspects of one’s identity on passports, driver’s licenses, and other government documents.

In addition to these problems, working class LGBT people also share the economic strains faced by most working class people in our society today - the lack of affordable housing, decent paying jobs and the rising costs of transportation and food.

Evolving Strategies for LGBT Rights

The modern LGBT rights movement began with the Stonewall riots in the summer of 1969 in New York’s Greenwich Village. This occurred during the Vietnam War protests and the radicalization then occurring throughout US society. The event began with what was then a routine police raid on a gay bar connected to the Stonewall Inn. Unlike hundreds of other police raids against gay establishments, often involving a system of lucrative payoffs to police morals squads known as “gayola,” the bar patrons fought back. As word spread through New York’s LGBT community the crowd was augmented by a largely working class crowd which met the police brutality head on.

The events of Stonewall radicalized and galvanized the LGBT community. The “Gay Power” movement was explicitly socialist and was in solidarity with workers’ struggles, national liberation movements and the anti-war movement. Since then, as the broader movement and the Democrats have moved to the right, so has the LGBT movement.

Today, mainstream LGBT organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Lambda Legal, the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and others have focused much of their en-ergy on the campaign for same-sex marriage. HRC has pursued single issue politics to the point of supporting right-wingers like Alfonse D’Amato of New York and Lieberman of Connecticut. While socialists support the right to same-sex marriage as a basic human right, we also see the need to broaden the movement to include such things as liberalized hospital visitation and free national healthcare for all. Socialists also advocate programs for affordable housing and living wage jobs for everyone in society, queer or straight.

The large LGBT organizations are closely tied to the Democratic Party. While paying lip service to LGBT rights and half heartedly supporting some measures like an anti-discrimination bill, Bill Clinton supported and signed into law the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) banning same sex marriage nationally and the disastrous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy towards gays in the military. John Kerry, echoed the right wing’s call for “family values” in 2004 and while opposed to gay marriage, he supported gay civil unions to keep the support of gay voters. The same is true of Obama and Clinton today.

Organizing the Fight Back

Labor union organizations like Pride At Work, a caucus within the AFL-CIO, campaigns for LGBT rights in the workplace. Unions like the Teamsters have national LGBT caucuses. These are steps in the right direction as unions need to work to advocate anti-discrimination laws and fight for issues such as gender neutral bathrooms. Unions also need to organize against workplace harassment, all too common for LGBT people. Single-issue politics and looking to Democratic Party politicians to end the oppression LGBT people face is a dead end. LGBT people, unions, anti-war activists, young people, and retired workers need to get together and run our own candidates, challenging corporate politicians of both parties. Under capitalism any rights won through workers’ struggles can be taken away. The LGBT movement needs to join in the struggle of the working class to ensure that all individuals and families, whether they’re straight, gay, married, or non-traditional, have control over the economic issues facing their lives.