On March 12th, eight state Democrats in Michigan voted for an anti-trans resolution that would hurt trans kids in schools.

HR40 is a non-enforceable resolution that strongly encourages the Michigan High School Athletic Association to discriminate against trans women by following Trump’s executive order to ban trans-women in women’s sports.

Despite it being non-enforceable, this resolution would lead to increased harassment and discrimination towards trans children who just want to play sports with their classmates.

The eight state Democrats who voted for this resolution are Rep. Alabas Farhat, Rep. Peter Herzberg, Rep. Tullio Liberati, Rep. Denise Mentzer, Rep. Reggie Miller, Rep. Will Snyder, Rep. Angela Witwer, and Rep. Mai Xiong.

Call your state Representative and let them know how you feel about their vote! You can find your state Representative here!

If your state Representative voted yes for this resolution, call them to express how disappointed you are and tell them they need to stand for trans rights or you will be voting against them in the next election.

If your state Representative voted no for this resolution, call and thank them for siding with trans people. Encourage them to continue their support and to speak up for the rights of trans people. We need as many people in positions of power to be on our side.

Keep in mind, your state representative does not represent anywhere close to as many people as your US Congress representative. Your call could very well sway them to support trans people going forward, even if they are Republican. In Montana, 29 Republicans changed their mind on an anti-trans bill after Reps. Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell gave impassioned speeches. This goes to show that it is possible to sway state Republicans.

The whole situation was handled so maliciously. Speaker Pro Tempore Rachelle Smit (R-43), a far-right Republican who believes the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, kept cutting off the speeches of Democrats so that her Republican colleagues could speak. The vote was then rushed through the House without letting Democrats finish their speeches. Erin in the Morning provides a copy of the whole situation here.

We must all stand for the rights of trans people!

The post Call your Reps and Tell Them to Let Trans Kids Play Sports appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

During the early morning of March 18, as people were asleep or preparing suhoor to begin their Ramadan fast, the Israeli occupation forces openly resumed the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. Over 400 Palestinians were murdered in a single day, including 174 children – one of the largest child death tolls in Gaza ever recorded.

Israel’s recent assault follows several violations of the recent ceasefire, including a weeks-long siege on Gaza cutting 2.2 million people off from food and electricity. This recent genocidal escalation and brazen refusal to abide by the ceasefire lays bare the intentions of the Zionist project: the theft of Palestinian land and the annihilation of the Palestinian people.

In the face of this inexcusable violence, our commitment to the Palestinian solidarity movement and to the liberation of the Palestinian people will only strengthen.

People today are increasingly seeing past the bankrupt morality of the pro-genocide bipartisan consensus. As a result, both parties have attempted to silence activists, and have increased the political repression of anti-Zionists. In the Bay Area and across the U.S., ICE has targeted immigrants who’ve spoken up against fascism and for Palestine. People like Mahmoud Khalil – a leader of the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University, who was arrested off the streets walking back from iftar and has been threatened to lose his green card without due process. Moreover, local students, workers, and faculty have faced harassment, expulsion, firing, arrest, and more for their principled advocacy for Palestinian liberation.

In the face of such odds, people have continued to stand strong and speak out against the genocide: thousands filled the streets across San José, San Francisco, and the U.S. this week in protests against the ceasefire violation. The Palestinian solidarity movement is only growing in power, and no government repression will stop it.

To end the immediate genocide for good, we must march onward and continue the struggle for Palestinian liberation, by fighting for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and by securing an arms embargo. We must fight at every level, from local businesses, to city councils, to county supervisors, to state legislatures, to Congress and the highest levels of government, to cut off all U.S. support to the genocidal state of Israel. In Silicon Valley, we must also fight big tech companies, which have created dangerous AI weapons and tactics of surveillance, often first unleashed on Palestinians before being used by police and military here in the U.S. This is our duty as socialists in the Bay Area, as the cause of liberation here, in the heart of the tech industry fueling the war machine, is inextricably linked to the cause of liberation in Palestine.

To build our power as a movement, we need you — yes, you! — to take a stand for justice and join an organization. The Bay Area has several groups fighting for the Palestinian cause: Palestinian Youth Movement, Arab Resource & Organizing Center, Jewish Voice for Peace, Vigil 4 Gaza, and San José Against War. Additionally, we at Silicon Valley DSA have our own International Solidarity Working Group which supports Palestine solidarity. Our work includes the No Appetite for Apartheid campaign, where we educate local businesses on the Israeli apartheid regime, and convince them to boycott and remove Zionist food products from their shelves.

Together, through persistent organizing, dedication, and solidarity, we will fight Zionism, imperialism, and all forms of oppression. Together, we will win a better world. One where Palestine will be free!

The post SVDSA Condemns the Recent Genocidal Attacks on Gaza appeared first on Silicon Valley DSA.

Buffalo DSA’s Response to Buffalo Niagara Partnership’s 2025 Advocacy Agenda

We are a volunteer effort of class-conscious Western New Yorkers who have researched and organized against the BNP.

Here’s what you need to know:

Buffalo-Niagara Partnership stands for expensive, private healthcare on behalf of their health insurance company donors and board members.

Universal, public healthcare is what we need as people, patients, caregivers, and workers.

Unlike the “Advocacy Agenda” states, the child tax credit is not a solution to the childcare crisis.

Groups who might be actually concerned about the workforce should use their political power to advocate for direct cash payments to families to help with childcare costs, and a universal childcare system of well-paid caregivers.

BNP warns about the”benefits cliff” that means-testing creates, while advocating against universal policies that would solve the problem.

The solution is a state that provides support to all of us and encourages shared responsibility.

They want blank checks for their friends to make superficial improvements to our city while our existing housing issues worsen.

What we need is Good Cause Eviction and measures for Rent Control to start. We ultimately need public, social housing and anti-discrimination in New York.

BNP’s genius development ideas include a push for Buffalo to take part in over-investment in Al centers that fry our power grid and have little potential for actual adoption, while opposing environmental progress.

Building a tech bubble locally is an oversight that will lead to job loss in the future.

We have all the productive capacity we need to thrive, but the power is held in the wrong hands.

BNP’s scarcity mindset around taxes, as well as desire to protect and expand the private sector at great cost to the public, reflects their elite members’ preferences – not the scale and potential of New York’s economy.

A better Western New York is possible – if we get educated, build the independence, and political courage to prioritize the needs of working people.

The Butlalo-Niagara Partnership is structurally incapable of undertaking, or even guiding, such a task.

Political leaders should be held to account for their collaboration with them.

Take action with us:

• Read our full reports and share our materials – we are a volunteer effort!
• Sign our Back Off, BNP open letter exposing the relationship between our local corporate elites and politicians!
• Use our tools to contact your rep and demand they bring universal healthcare to a vote in NY this year!
• Share your healthcare story with us. Lets flip the script on the corporate for-profit care industry.
• Union Members: Advance a resolution in your union to support universal healthcare.