ABORTION ACCESS AND TRANS RIGHTS are on the front lines of the fight against the far right and for working class liberation. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have long fought to protect and expand rights to bodily autonomy through ongoing work towards reproductive justice and trans/queer liberation. For years, we have fundraised for abortion funds, packed care kits, supported trans students, advocated for Medicare for All, and organized community spaces for queer and trans folks and women in our chapter. The newly formed Bodily Autonomy Working Group (BAWG) seeks to braid all of these pieces together into a single, cohesive strategy which fights for reproductive justice, trans and queer liberation, full democratization of the labor of social reproduction, and an end to state recognition of the gender binary. We invite all members to read about our mission, strategy, and structure in the BAWG Charter.
Our chapter has long had an active Socialist Feminist Section, which has organized ongoing reading groups and social events to foster a sense of community and a strong theoretical foundation for socialist feminism in our local chapter. However, in the wake of the Dobbs decision in 2022, several comrades came together to form the Reproductive Justice Working Group and developed a more focused strategy to win reproductive freedom in the region. Forming a working group was a way to mobilize motivated folks into more sustained organizing around abortion rights in the immediate aftermath of SCOTUS’ devastating decision to strip women nationwide of their bodily autonomy.
For the last two years, this working group has held numerous fundraisers, raising over $2,000 for the DC Abortion Fund; purchased supplies for and packed hundreds of care kits – including emergency contraceptives, condoms, pregnancy tests, and zines on reproductive justice – for people in states with high barriers to reproductive care; and held several public meetings to build community and facilitate discussions about the tenets of reproductive justice. Currently, comrades campaigning for reproductive justice are partnering with the Electoral Working Group to pass Question 1 in Maryland to codify the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which would include access to abortion, birth control, and IVF.
Facing a political landscape of rising misogyny and queer- and transphobia in which hundreds of anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQIA+ bills are introduced in state legislatures every year, DSA recognizes that reproductive freedom and trans rights in particular are important sites of struggle in the fight against the far right and their agenda of christofascism. As such, rooted in the socialist belief that an injury to one is an injury to all, DSA members introduced and passed a resolution to form “A Fighting Campaign for Reproductive Rights and Trans Liberation” (page 95) at the 2023 DSA National Convention. Following through on this mandate from Convention, National DSA launched the Trans Rights & Bodily Autonomy (TRBA) Campaign Commission in February 2024. The campaign commission is a national hub for chapters engaging in grassroots organizing for reproductive justice and trans liberation through advocacy campaigns, ballot measures, elections, labor unions, and mutual aid, and provides a critical space for members to map and strategize for different conditions from state to state.
At the kickoff call on February 3, Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a DSA member and the first transgender person elected to the Montana House of Representatives, highlighted how “the anti-trans legislation for the majority of the [state legislative] session and the way the Republicans were able to get it across the line was to amend it to include anti-abortion provisions. So they recognize that these fights are the same.” In the face of concerted far right attacks on bodily autonomy, TRBA is an invitation to all chapters to collectively defend and advance abortion access and trans rights in our communities, unions, and schools across the country. In our chapter, the members and leaders of both the Reproductive Justice Working Group and Socialist Feminist Section, responded to this invitation by building on the formations and structures already in place to participate in the national TRBA Campaign Commission. Within the Socialist Feminist Section, leaders of a new Trans/Queer Liberation Campaign got to work on building out a local strategy for defending trans rights.
In its first two months, TRBA organized a national #TransDayofAction for Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) on March 31. Chapters across the country brought together hundreds of trans folks and allies for banner drops, clothing drives, and other trans-affirming community events. Building on previous successful campaigns, other chapters canvassed for ballot measures and socialist candidates to protect access to gender-affirming and reproductive healthcare from “safe” states such as Delaware, Maine, and Massachusetts to “ban” states like Florida, Georgia, and Ohio. In the lead-up to TDOV, Metro DC DSA’s Trans/Queer Liberation Campaign stood in solidarity with Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Pride and allies at a rally for the school board to protect queer and trans kids in the face of a hateful rightwing-funded lawsuit against FCPS policies protecting trans and LGBTQIA+ students. Campaign lead Lyra M spoke at the rally to declare our solidarity with the students and families of Fairfax County Public Schools. On the national #TransDayofAction, the Trans/Queer Liberation Campaign officially launched its push for trans and LGBTQIA+ sanctuary provisions throughout Northern Virginia by talking to attendees at Trans Pride DC’s TDOV event at As You Are DC.
During this time, our Reproductive Justice Campaign team also put together a fundraiser for the DC Abortion Fund and a popular event where over 100 comrades packed some 500 care kits in less than an hour! These kits contained Plan B, pregnancy tests, condoms and zines about reproductive justice that the working group helped to create. In October, the Reproductive Justice Campaign organized its first Socialist Night School – “Reproductive Justice 101” – a political education event held at MLK Library to recruit more folks through a fun and informative session about this important framework. Since those first TDOV events, the Trans/Queer Liberation Campaign has become a visible presence throughout the DMV, tabling not only at Trans Pride, but also at ALX Pride, Silver Spring Pride, and – as united BAWG members – the Gender Liberation March. These were all great opportunities for our chapter to begin showing up in our communities as socialists for reproductive justice and trans liberation.
Following on the heels of our successful launch, organizers from Metro DC DSA’s Trans/Queer Liberation Campaign focused six months of energy on Project Sanctuary, a national effort to pass (predominantly municipal and county-level) sanctuary provisions declaring and providing community support for the bodily autonomy and rights of the trans community, women, and all working class people marginalized on the basis of gender and sexuality. In the form of ordinances or policy directives within resolutions, such provisions provide additional legal protections by preventing the use of government resources to aid state intervention or using those same resources to wage the fight for our rights and support our material well-being. Our initial push began in the City of Alexandria, and culminated in a tremendous victory in which the Alexandria City Council unanimously adopted a sanctuary resolution.
Organizers from the chapter’s Trans/Queer Liberation Campaign drafted the initial proposed text and worked with the council and the city attorney’s office for five months to get the strongest possible protections for a resolution-based sanctuary (as opposed to an ordinance) nationally, as well as doing community outreach and canvassing to mobilize community support for the action. Members believe it can serve as a model for those pursuing similar efforts in other Dillon’s Rule states. With this campaign victory, Alexandria officially became the first jurisdiction in Virginia to declare itself a safe haven for LGBTQIA+ people. The members who worked with Councilmember McPike were verbally recognized during the vote and included in the public record. The region’s NPR station, WAMU 88.5, interviewed campaign lead Lyra M and aired a positive segment crediting both Metro DC DSA and TRBA by name for spearheading the initiative, and received additional coverage in The Washington Blade.
While the Trans/Queer Liberation Campaign has been focused on Project Sanctuary, the chapter’s Reproductive Justice Campaign team has been hard at work with the Electoral Working Group and the Political Engagement Committee to put together a Get Out the Vote operation. As an endorsing partner in the Reproductive Justice Maryland coalition, our members have been knocking thousands of doors to help drive the passage of Maryland Question 1, known as the Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment. If you would like to join the final canvass this weekend and support this critical effort to enshrine the right to prevent, end, or continue a pregnancy, you can fill out this interest form and the team will reach out to you!
Meanwhile, Trans/Queer Liberation organizers were busy with the first initiative of our Community Survival Program – Gender & Name Change Clinics. The first one was held at the Hyattsville Branch of the Prince Georges County Library, with additional clinics across the DMV planned for Montgomery County, Northern Virginia, and DC. Our team is in the planning stages of additional mutual aid actions, such as campaigns to provide continuous support to regional abortion funds and expanding our capacity to not only help people navigate the gender and name change process but also help cover the onerous fees involved.
Additionally, the Trans/Queer Liberation Campaign team is already moving to expand Project Sanctuary to Arlington County. Members held an introductory meeting with Board Member Matt de Ferranti at the beginning of August, and based on his suggested course of action, the team prepared and submitted a comprehensive package to all members of the Board, including letters of support from Arlington residents, model legislation, and sample city-specific language based on our experience in neighboring Alexandria.
In the months since TRBA’s launch nationally, the Reproductive Justice and Trans/Liberation Campaigns and the Socialist Feminist Section have worked together closely on shared priorities and common goals. Recognizing that our struggles are inextricably linked, we have decided to continue our organizing under the banner of a single, unified Bodily Autonomy Working Group (BAWG).
Combining our formations to build a coordinated and powerful Bodily Autonomy Working Group enhances our capacity to fight against the far right and combat their concerted attacks on bodily autonomy, from gender-affirming and reproductive care to censorship of vital information, denial of community support, and shaming us for our self-expression. On the legislative front, we will continue to expand Project Sanctuary, working to secure the same protections in jurisdictions inside the Beltway and then continuing on into suburban Northern Virginia. We also plan to advocate for increased funding and support for gender-affirming, reproductive, and universal healthcare access throughout the DMV. This will include campaigns to, for example, require full and proper Medicaid coverage of hormones, as well as for universal 0-3 childcare. We will continue to fight and organize to protect trans and LGBTQIA+ kids both in our public schools and in our wider community.
Taking an intersectional approach, BAWG will work closely with labor organizers to ensure union contracts incorporate comprehensive coverage of gender-affirming and reproductive care, as well as anti-discrimination policies and strong paid family and medical leave provisions for workers and their loved ones; with tenant organizers to ensure working class trans and LGBTQIA+ people and women remain in affordable, decommodified homes; and with ecosocialist organizers to ensure there are green community spaces, public power, and free transit for all. We will grow our Community Survival Program, starting with a regular cadence of fundraisers and care kit packing events for local mutual aid organizations to meet reproductive and trans community needs that the state currently fails to provide. Supporting and uplifting our neighbors is both socialist feminist praxis of care and part of a long-term strategy of raising class consciousness and bringing more people into our beautiful community of struggle for a better world.
We have big plans and big ideas for advancing the causes of reproductive justice and trans liberation. We want and need many more of our comrades and communities to join us in the struggle, and to develop the capacity and strategies to win the world we aim to build – a just and liberated world for all! Please come out for the Bodily Autonomy Working Group Launch Party at Dew Drop Inn on Monday, November 4. If you would like to get involved, please visit our linktree and fill out our interest form.
