🏳️‍⚧️Trans rights are labor rights – and on Trans Day of Remembrance, we’re reaffirming our support to fight for our transgender coworkers. Below is a short piece written by one of our union’s trans leaders, Christi (they/he) – a Starbucks partner from Pittsburgh, PA – as well as art by Raven (she/her), a member of our union’s Trans Rights Action Committee.

“2024 has not been an easy year to be a trans person. Anti-trans legislation is at an all time high, with 665 anti-trans bills being introduced throughout the United States this year alone. 45 of these have passed. Hate crimes and transphobic rhetoric have skyrocketed. We are routinely being used as punching bags on all sides of the political spectrum. It has been a very difficult year.

Today – November 20th – is Trans Day of Remembrance. Specifically, this is the 25th Trans Day of Remembrance. TDOR was started in 1999 by Gwendolyn Smith, in response to the still unsolved 1998 murder of a trans woman named Rita Hester. In the years since, it has become the day we mourn all we have lost over the last year. Every year the violence against trans people – especially Black trans women – gets worse. This last year, 30 trans people in the US have been murdered according to GLAAD… the youngest of these being only 14 years old. Many suspect the number of those affected by transphobic crimes are even higher.

But guess what? We are still here, we are still fighting. Members of our union’s Trans Rights Action Committee (TRAC) are front and center in the fight to protect trans workers at Starbucks in whatever ways we can. Trans people have ALWAYS been at the front and center of this campaign and we always will be – and as we continue bargaining for our union contracts, we are pushing for an inclusive workplace that serves not only our most vulnerable, but all workers within it.

As trans organizers, we are proud of what we have done for each other. The work continues.”

Sources:

2024 Anti-Trans Bills: Trans Legislation Tracker | Translegislation.com 

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) | GLAAD