End Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Working class unity is a core belief of our union. Article IV of UE’s constitution stipulates that all working persons are eligible for membership “regardless of skill, age, sex, nationality, color, race, religious or political belief or affiliation, sexual orientation, disability or immigration status.” We know that the bosses and billionaires use rhetorical, legislative, and other attacks on LGBTQ+ people to divide our class and weaken our movement to fight against them. We must remember who our true enemies are. They are not our LTBTQ+ community members.

While the ability to legally marry was a great victory for the LGBTQ+ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer/Questioning, and other gender identities and sexual orientations), more than half of this community in the U.S. continues to struggle for basic rights such as safe and affordable housing, freedom from workplace violence, and to not be discriminated against because of who they are. Heartbreakingly, this discrimination is even more prevalent against LGBTQ+ people of color, who experience exponentially greater threats of violence simply because of the color of their skin.

Since January 2025, the Trump Administration and its allies have accelerated the removal of hard-fought protections, modifying federal law to strip protections from those most vulnerable to discrimination and legitimizing biological fundamentalism that puts at risk everyone who appears gender non-conforming. The administration has rolled back the clock on gains in areas of employment, housing, education, the military, health care, and numerous other government programs while trying to weaponize federal law against transgender people across the country in an effort to erase them from everyday life. This has led to increased physical attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. Among the first official acts of this administration was to sign executive orders targeting transgender people, spreading harmful and inaccurate rhetoric that ignores the existence of intersex people and centuries of gender diverse people across world cultures.

For LGBTQ+ individuals, the current moment is marked by a rapid erosion of the basic right to self-determination. Stoking fears rooted in deep, psychosocial hatred, the federal government now seeks to insert its eyes, ears, and hands into every bedroom and bathroom both by direct surveillance and enforcement, and by empowering those who would harass and harm LGBTQ+ individuals to do so with impunity. Denying trans individuals passports that accurately reflect their gender identities makes it near impossible for them to safely travel or identify themselves. Dismantling efforts towards gender-affirming care puts both the mental and physical health of trans individuals at risk.

The recent decision by a U.S. District Court in Tennessee v. Cardona strips trans individuals of harassment protections under Title IX, opening the door to invite back a veil of repression that had only started to lift. The administration has declared that sex is an immutable binary biological trait, yet any such definition as such fails to hold water. The message is clear—you do not have the right to define your identity and your relationships with others. That is the purview of the administration and its dogma, which will be enforced through harassment and repression. When such basic rights are denied to even one person, they are denied to all. We as members of UE must vehemently defend the rights of all—an injury to one is an injury to all.

Meanwhile, many states continue to push false narratives and “religious liberty” laws which allow for anyone to claim religious belief as an excuse to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals, including in employment and access to healthcare. To date, there have been 115 trans-specific bills prefiled in 2025 alone. These laws are also often constructed or vaguely worded so as to allow discrimination—up to and including termination—against unmarried women for being pregnant or using birth control. Sometimes, these laws protect further forms of bigotry, such as against interracial marriage, as long as the discriminating party claims a “religous” conviction. This is all done in an effort to control people who do not conform, or who are seen as “different,” by those who are quite possibly scared of these differences. Should this trend of bills follow those introduced last year, other attacks may affect censorship in schools around LGBTQ+ issues and our community’s freedom of speech and expression more broadly.

Moreover, violent acts against the LGBTQ+ community still occur far too frequently, with the majority of those murdered being trans women of color. We must unite to fight against all discrimination, starting within our own communities and families. We must take up the cry that an injury to one is an injury to all.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS 79^th UE CONVENTION:

1. Encourages the formation of LGBTQ+ caucuses at all levels of the union;
2. Calls on locals to bargain for protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; health insurance, including health insurance coverage for transition-related healthcare for transgender individuals, and pension coverage for couples of all genders and sexual identities, equal access to bathrooms and other spaces that align with their gender identities; and contract language that provides domestic partners the same rights as married employees;
3. Calls on all levels of the union to continue to mobilize and organize to protect our LGBTQ+ comrades from the dangerous rollback of protections and continued persecution from the right-wing administration; and to support organizations fighting for the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals;
4. Calls on all levels of the union to reaffirm support for the LGBTQ+ community and denounce the discrimination it increasingly faces;
5. Directs the UE Education Department to update, continue to develop, and disseminate anti-oppression workshops and materials at all levels of the union to educate our members and the community on the destructive nature of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination;
6. Urges members to boycott establishments, institutions, and organizations that discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community.
7. Urges locals to demand gender-neutral language in our collective bargaining agreements;
8. Encourages all members to be conscious and make use of gender-neutral language in everyday conversation;
9. Support and encourage the development and growth of LGBTQ+ leaders on all levels of the union;
10. Opposes any legislation that would curtail the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals to participate in marriage, access medical care, be recognized in society and by the law, and any other laws that would impinge on the rights of individuals to live their lives as free and equal citizens;
11. Calls on all levels of the union to use gender-neutral language in their constitutions, official communications, and other documents.