Until total sexual liberation: Revolution‍!

The first Stonewall anniversary march, held on June 28, 1970. The annual march continues to this day.

This International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, we refuse to let our struggles be sanitized into matters of understanding and conversation; instead, we continue to wage a relentless fight for gender and sexual revolution.

In Hebrew, the acronym for this day is הבנ”ה, pronounced Havana - meaning "understanding." This name is a mistake.

Undeniably, as queer people, we suffer from bigotry and ignorance among our cis-straight peers and surroundings. Throughout our lives and from a young age, queer people are marked, singled out, and attacked for our transgression of gender, punished for the crime of being different. This punishment is often delivered in a seemingly unorganized, interpersonal manner, or at least, that is how well-meaning cisgender-heterosexual liberals present it to us. This narrative drives us to the false conclusion that the problem is apolitical and entirely cultural, suggesting that the only way to struggle against queerphobia is through education and empathy.

We say no. Our oppression is not abstract, it is not discursive, and it is not just bigotry. The oppression of trans people is not summed up by being misgendered by insensitive cis people; the oppression of homosexuals is not summed up by being called a slur by a stranger or a parent; and the oppression of bisexual and nonbinary people is sure as hell not summed up by being “erased” in online queer discourse.

We are transgressors of an entire disciplinary system maintained by violence.

Radical queer activists protesting with the anti-Pinkwashing bloc at the Tel Aviv Pride march. 2023

We are denied healthcare, employment, housing, and safety by an organized, well-funded political movement dedicated to our devastation and our disintegration as a people and a culture.

We are the chosen scapegoats of a cis-heteropatriarchy that enforces far more than just bigotry against queers. Yet, we are also glimpses of a possible freedom, of the liberation of humanity as a social organism from the chains of patriarchy and the violent enforcement of gender and sex.

Today and every day, the fight against homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia is a concrete, political struggle, one that can and must be organized and relentless.