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Movement for Kshama

an initiative of

United Front for a Workers Party

Justice for Juniper Blessing

Fight anti-trans violence! Build a party for workers and all oppressed people!

Trans Solidarity March — Friday, June 26 @ 6 pm

Photo of Juniper Blessing

JOINT STATEMENT BY

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 16, 2026

On May 11, a 19-year-old transgender student, Juniper Blessing, was murdered at off-campus student housing at the University of Washington in Seattle.

While cops and Democrats make hollow statements and offer condolences, they have no solutions to the crisis of violence against trans people, or against any other oppressed group.

Investigators say Juniper’s murder is “not being treated as a hate crime.” But transgender people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime. The murder rate for trans people doubled between 2017 and 2021. This is not an isolated incident, but the product of the capitalist system and its hostility toward workers and the oppressed everywhere.

For years, the right has mounted escalating political attacks on transgender people. So far in 2026, more than 750 anti-trans bills have been introduced in state legislatures around the country. This includes a bill in West Virginia “recognizing transgenderism as a mental disorder,” and a bill in Maryland to make it a felony for a doctor to prescribe hormones to minors.

The Trump administration has also made numerous federal attacks on trans people, including removing trans people from hate crime studies and having counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka investigate trans right groups for being “violent left wing extremist groups.” 

The right-wing assault on transgender people has led to acts of violence against transgender people on a mass scale.

Seattle and Washington state are completely controlled by the Democratic Party. This March, City Council passed a proclamation “affirming” Transgender Day of Visibility. But what are they actually doing to keep transgender people safe?

Evictions have gone up 12 percent in King County since last year. Nearly one in three transgender people report being homeless at some point in their lives. Yet last year, Seattle City Council tried to REPEAL renters’ rights, making it easier for corporate landlords to jack up prices and evict tenants. This attack failed only because renters and socialists, including many transgender people, fought back.

Last year, the Seattle Police Department attacked peaceful protestors who were demonstrating against an anti-trans hate group which was holding a rally in Seattle. The SPD used chemical weapons on the crowd. How did Democrats respond? By giving the police department a $40 million “funding surge”! SPD’s budget has now increased by $123 million since the George Floyd movement. Last year’s police budget was approved unanimously by the all-Democrat council, including by Alexis Mercedes-Rinck, the so-called “progressive” on the council.

We could take that $123 million from the police to fund clinics providing free healthcare to 100,000 people in Seattle, including free gender-affirming care, as a concrete step toward free universal healthcare. 

ICE puts transgender immigrants and asylum seekers under intense scrutiny, aided by the Trump administration’s new anti-trans visa requirements. The City Council passed a one-year moratorium on ICE detention centers under pressure from the movement, but won’t even commit to making the ban permanent. Mayor Katie Wilson refused to follow through on her campaign promise to shut down the city’s Axon surveillance camera system, prioritizing big business and the World Cup over keeping immigrants safe from ICE surveillance.  

The Democrats are a party of war and genocide. We cannot count on them to fight back against these violent attacks on trans people and immigrants. We need an independent working-class movement to lead walk outs, sick outs, and strikes. To end these escalating attacks on trans people and fight for the demands that trans people and all workers need, like free healthcare for all.

At this year’s Trans Solidarity March, our demands are: 

To get real justice for Juniper Blessing or any of the hundreds of trans people murdered every year, and to fight the right-wing attacks, we need to go on the offensive. We need a new party that will fight for transgender people, workers, and all oppressed people.

Mark your calendar and join us at this year’s Trans Solidarity March: Friday, June 26 @ 6 PM. We will rally at Seattle Central College, then march to Volunteer Park, where we will host a teach-in to discuss how to build a movement to win trans liberation. 

Issue N°5 May 23, 2026