In the latest volley of right-wing attacks on queer existence, a horrifying new “detransition clinic”—the nation’s first—will open in Texas Children’s Hospital as part of a settlement with Texas Attorney General (and right-wing Senate candidate) Ken Paxton and Trump’s Department of Justice. This settlement is a serious attack on trans people. Paxton and Trump claimed that Texas Children’s, the largest pediatric hospital in the country, billed Texas Medicaid to cover gender-affirming services under false diagnosis codes. This sets yet another deadly precedent for gender-affirming care and opens the floodgates to further cuts to healthcare in general. 

The only thing that will stop these anti-trans attacks is a mass, working-class movement that fights against all attacks on the oppressed. We cannot wait around for do-nothing Democrats to step in while healthcare deprivation is actively killing us, and while the right wing is pushing deadly laws targeting trans people. We need to use our power as workers to strike back against these attacks and to struggle for trans-inclusive universal healthcare.

Billionaires Perpetuate Trans Persecution!

The opening of a “detransition clinic” is part of the right wing’s aim to stop and even reverse medical transitions, particularly for minors. Under the justification that they want to “protect minors,” the right wing pushes the idea that most trans people regret their transitions. This is a complete lie—of the only 8% of trans people who detransition, the vast majority of them do so because of societal pressure, not regret.

The hospital also agreed to fire five “woke doctors” who performed what Paxton calls “harmful medical interventions” on Texan children. These so-called “harmful medical interventions” consisted of mental health services and access to puberty blockers, medications with both life-saving and entirely reversible effects that have been prescribed to both transgender and cisgender children for decades. Contrary to the bigoted rhetoric pushed by lawmakers, genital surgery is almost never performed on minors. Gender-affirming care for transgender minors, which has been unfairly banned in Texas since 2023, consistently reduces rates of suicide by astounding margins.

The denial of these medical treatments has no doubt cost the lives of countless young trans people in Texas. But this cruel move by the hospital, motivated by a desire to protect their profits, won’t stop at state borders. This is part of a larger push by the ruling classes to eradicate queerness, not just here in Texas, or in the United States, but internationally. One consequence of the rise of the right wing across the world has been the scapegoating of marginalized communities like trans people and immigrants, blaming them for crises that are actually produced by capitalism.

With capitalism in deep decay, Trump and the billionaires are seeking to protect their power and profits by preparing society for an era of more war. This includes enforcing traditional gender roles, with women raising children at home while men prepare to “defend their country.” Anyone outside the straight, cisgender binary is deemed a threat to these sexist and nationalist ideas. The ruling class tries to manipulate the working class to be concerned about queer people’s bodies to distract from the real issues impacting ordinary people, such as the cost-of-living crisis, housing insecurity, and the for-profit healthcare system.

Build A Movement To Fight Back

The only way to fight against these attacks from the far right is by putting a stop to the flow of profits to the billionaire class. To start, we need to organize a queer-inclusive mass movement of workers and students to fight together for our common working-class interests, showing that it’s not a cabal of queers raising the cost of your healthcare. It’s the billionaires who only exist because of this capitalist system of oppression and exploitation. 

We cannot rely on the Democrats to take up this fight. Year after year, the Democratic Party has pandered to us at Pride events, promising they will stand up to right-wing attacks on the queer community. Yet, year after year our rights are stripped away. The truth is that the Democratic Party is a billionaire party just like the Republican Party, and they will say whatever they need to win an election. Gavin Newsom, who is likely gearing up for a 2028 presidential run, has repeatedly thrown trans athletes under the bus with the nonsense rhetoric of “fairness.” 

Democrats at best maintain a vicious status quo because at the end of the day, they would prefer to abandon trans people rather than compromise relationships with their billionaire donors. That is why we need to organize in our workplaces and schools, using our collective power to shut down places of business and disrupt daily life. Only by hitting them in their profits will the corporate politicians be forced to listen to demands and back off anti-trans projects like the “detransition clinic.”

Same Struggle, Same Fight!

The fight for queer rights is part of the fight for the rights of all workers. We need to fight for trans-inclusive universal healthcare, a living wage, and affordable housing. We need to build  a real working-class party, one that not only fights for our economic needs, but against all oppression. Such a new political party should not be beholden to the will of corporations or billionaires, but to the will of ordinary people. 

The history of queer liberation has shown that the only time our demands are heard is when we link arms with a multigender, multiracial movement of working people to struggle for change.

We demand:

• NO to Paxton and Trump’s “detransition clinic”!
• Reinstate gender-affirming care at Texas Children’s! Repeal SB 14, which bans life-saving gender-affirming care for youth!
• Harris Health, through the county hospitals, should make gender-affirming care available for free to all who need it!
• Universal healthcare, including gender-affirming care and safe, accessible abortion access!
• A working-class party, not beholden to the will of billionaires, that can help us organize mass action and fight against these attacks on our communities!
• An end to sexism, racism, queerphobia, and all forms of bigotry and oppression! For a socialist world!