truthout--2020-12-30--Ecosystem Destruction Fueled the Pandemic. Pollution Has Made It Worse.

On December 30 , 2019 , an urgent email circulated on the internet , in which the Wuhan Municipal Health Committee noted the treatment of multiple patients with “ pneumonia of unknown cause.
” Since then , researchers have identified antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 , the virus that causes COVID-19 , in blood and spit samples in the United States , France and Italy , suggesting human exposure to the virus may have occurred well before that first cluster in Wuhan , China .
Scientists have a long road ahead in pinpointing the exact conditions under which COVID-19 originated .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Health Organization and a Lancet COVID-19 Commission are in the midst of attempting to trace COVID ’ s origin story to determine how public health officials might prevent pandemics of similar proportions in the future .
In the meantime , epidemiologists agree that humans most likely got the virus from bats , through a transfer linked to the same changes in land use that contribute to the climate crisis .
Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio is the associate vice president for conservation at the EcoHealth Alliance .
As he explained during a talk on biodiversity loss @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diseases have jumped from other animals to humans in the past 60 years , an estimated 65 percent of which have been linked to ecosystem loss through processes like deforestation and an increase in agricultural practices .
“ We are getting more encounters with animals and therefore we get more viruses coming from these animals to us , ” Zambrana-Torrelio said .
Other zoonotic viruses , including MERS , H1N1 and HIV followed a similar course .
“ Bat viruses spill into humans ; they don ’ t climb into us , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the Next Human Pandemic , David Quammen wrote in December for The New York Times .
As the public grows familiar with COVID ’ s original hosts , people shouldn ’ t harbor animosity toward bats or other animals , he wrote , explaining how extractive processes like hunting bats for meat or collecting bat excrement for fertilizer is what tends to initiate the “ spillage ” of viruses .
In his piece , Quammen emphasizes that the viral transfer did not occur because a bat simply “ flew into Wuhan and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Neither should individual people tied into extractive livelihoods that sustain them necessarily be held to blame for the ecosystem changes they ’ re caught in .
“ Disease happens because of natural and unnatural selection , ” University of Minnesota professor of veterinary population medicine Dominic Travis said during a panel in May .
With each degree of latitude moving toward the equator , the diversity of microorganisms , flora and fauna increases , which means human encroachment on these ecosystems provides increased opportunities for viral transmission .
Concerns about hunting and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but cracking down on specific locations where the probability of disease transfer is heightened masks the larger driving forces of global capitalism .
“ Locally , you have markets based on food security , ” Travis said .
“ But then we ’ ve got this scalability issue as well .
We ’ ve got these global trade routes where these products are transferred.
” Such was the case with the 1998 Nipah virus outbreak in Malaysia , spurred in part by an increased demand for pork .
As rainforests were burned and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ land , fruit bats that lived among the canopies were left without fruit to feed on , forcing them into orchards elsewhere .
Somewhere in that process , on account of the sudden close proximity , pigs living around the orchards picked up Nipah , possibly by consuming fallen fruit that bats had nibbled on .
Once it was known that livestock were getting sick , pig farmers prepared their animals even more rapidly for markets to minimize potential economic loss in case the animals got sick and died .
Of the 265 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 105 died as a result of the virus .
Other Nipah virus outbreaks have since been detected in Singapore and the Philippines , as well as repeated outbreaks in Bangladesh and India , where the mean fatality rate is 75 percent .
With the COVID-19 vaccination rollout underway , the question of how to prevent future pandemics looms large .
Some scholars focus on the benefits of international aid , such as USAID ’ s Biodiversity Conservation and Forestry Program .
“ At an annual cost of $ 9.6 billion , direct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ achieve a 40 percent reduction in areas at highest risk for virus spillover , ” 17 international scholars co-wrote in a July article in the journal Science .
The scholars also point to strengthening wildlife enforcement networks and minimizing disease spillover by testing wildlife , humans and livestock for known pathogens in rural areas more frequently .
Other scholars have emphasized that mitigating the current pandemic and preventing future ones must entail a shift in political philosophy — refocusing policy to bring about degrowth , debt cancellation and the precarious conditions in which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ professor of ecology and evolutionary biology , Rob Wallace , for instance , has written for Truthout that investing in healthy soil and clean water could minimize the rift between economy and ecology that leads pathogens to spring up in unexpected pastures .
“ On the world stage , we must end the unequal ecological exchange between the Global North and South , ” Wallace wrote .
Whereas a virus like SARS-CoV-2 may have once “ burned out ” relatively quickly in a healthy forest ecosystem , Wallace suggested in Monthly Review , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ viruses were in part controlled by the complexities of the tropical forest are being drastically streamlined by capital-led deforestation and , at the other end of the peri urban development , by deficits in public health and environmental sanitation.
” When left to live in an environment undisturbed by humans , pathogens have fewer opportunities to encounter their ideal host species , Wallace explained , so they often die out on their own .
As of this writing , over 82 million people have active COVID cases across the globe , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the disease , according to Johns Hopkins University ’ s COVID-19 dashboard .
The results of public health research suggest the staggering COVID numbers — particularly the fatalities — could have been prevented by policies and regulations that prioritize the health of human ecosystems .
A Harvard analysis of data from 3,080 U.S. counties shows that a small increase in long-term exposure to polluted air leads to a large increase in COVID-19 death rates , such that if Manhattan had taken measures to lower its level of particulate matter by a single microgram @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years , 248 fewer people may have died from COVID-19 in that borough .
Ongoing wildfires in the Western U.S. , linked to rising average temperatures as a result of climate change , may also increase the risk of COVID .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) states that wildfire smoke can irritate lungs , cause inflammation , affect the immune system and “ make you more prone to lung infections , including SARS-CoV-2.
” Meanwhile , on December 7 , the Trump administration rejected Environmental Protection Agency ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the soot standard , The Washington Post reported .
According to EPA scientists , lowering the standard to between eight and 10 micrograms per cubic meter could save up to 34,600 lives each year — a disproportionate number of which would likely be people of color .
White people breathe 17 percent less air pollution than what is caused by their own consumption , in comparison with Black and Latinx people , who consume 56 and 63 percent more , respectively , than what they themselves are responsible for emitting .
The disparity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drastically different concentrations of air pollution at places of residence , but the causes behind the findings are a subject of ongoing analysis .
“ This flies in the face of good science and good public health .
It is outrageous , ” Dominique Browning , co-founder and the head of Moms Clean Air Force told The Washington Post .
Much remains to be researched regarding the impact of pollution and other environmental malaise on COVID outcomes .
A Danish study now under peer review suggests exposure to the “ forever chemical ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ severe COVID-19 symptoms twofold .
The CDC recently issued a statement that high PFAS levels in the blood may also lessen COVID-19 vaccine efficacy , noting however that “ more research is needed.
” Ostensibly , the dozens of Trump-era environmental rollbacks — including loosened restrictions on the transport and discharge of genetically modified organisms ( GMOs ) and the release of wastewater from coal-burning power plants — could be further worsening COVID ’ s wrath through dynamics upon which researchers have yet to design studies .
As is the case with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ created equal in their culpability in and failure to respond to the COVID crisis , nor now , in their access to the vaccine .
As Georgetown Professor of Global Health Emily Mendenhall has written in The Lancet , “ Recognising failures of wealthy countries is imperative as we think about where global knowledge and power sit within fields like global health .
”

On December 30, 2019, an urgent email circulated on the internet, in which the Wuhan Municipal Health Committee noted the treatment of multiple patients with “pneumonia of unknown cause.” Since then, researchers have identified antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in blood and spit samples in the United States, France and Italy, suggesting human exposure to the virus may have occurred well before that first cluster in Wuhan, China. Scientists have a long road ahead in pinpointing the exact conditions under which COVID-19 originated. But the job is underway.
The World Health Organization and a Lancet COVID-19 Commission are in the midst of attempting to trace COVID’s origin story to determine how public health officials might prevent pandemics of similar proportions in the future. In the meantime, epidemiologists agree that humans most likely got the virus from bats, through a transfer linked to the same changes in land use that contribute to the climate crisis.
Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio is the associate vice president for conservation at the EcoHealth Alliance. As he explained during a talk on biodiversity loss and COVID-19 in April, over 400 diseases have jumped from other animals to humans in the past 60 years, an estimated 65 percent of which have been linked to ecosystem loss through processes like deforestation and an increase in agricultural practices. “We are getting more encounters with animals and therefore we get more viruses coming from these animals to us,” Zambrana-Torrelio said. Other zoonotic viruses, including MERS, H1N1 and HIV , followed a similar course.
“Bat viruses spill into humans; they don’t climb into us,” the author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, David Quammen wrote in December for The New York Times. As the public grows familiar with COVID’s original hosts, people shouldn’t harbor animosity toward bats or other animals, he wrote, explaining how extractive processes like hunting bats for meat or collecting bat excrement for fertilizer is what tends to initiate the “spillage” of viruses. In his piece, Quammen emphasizes that the viral transfer did not occur because a bat simply “flew into Wuhan and bit a poor man on the toe.”
Neither should individual people tied into extractive livelihoods that sustain them necessarily be held to blame for the ecosystem changes they’re caught in. “Disease happens because of natural and unnatural selection,” University of Minnesota professor of veterinary population medicine Dominic Travis said during a panel in May. With each degree of latitude moving toward the equator, the diversity of microorganisms, flora and fauna increases, which means human encroachment on these ecosystems provides increased opportunities for viral transmission. Concerns about hunting and poaching are valid, Travis said, but cracking down on specific locations where the probability of disease transfer is heightened masks the larger driving forces of global capitalism. “Locally, you have markets based on food security,” Travis said. “But then we’ve got this scalability issue as well. We’ve got these global trade routes where these products are transferred.”
Such was the case with the 1998 Nipah virus outbreak in Malaysia, spurred in part by an increased demand for pork. As rainforests were burned and cleared to make way for new agricultural land, fruit bats that lived among the canopies were left without fruit to feed on, forcing them into orchards elsewhere. Somewhere in that process, on account of the sudden close proximity, pigs living around the orchards picked up Nipah, possibly by consuming fallen fruit that bats had nibbled on. Once it was known that livestock were getting sick, pig farmers prepared their animals even more rapidly for markets to minimize potential economic loss in case the animals got sick and died. Of the 265 people who contracted Nipah during the outbreak, 105 died as a result of the virus. Other Nipah virus outbreaks have since been detected in Singapore and the Philippines, as well as repeated outbreaks in Bangladesh and India, where the mean fatality rate is 75 percent.
Over 400 diseases have jumped from other animals to humans in the past 60 years, an estimated 65 percent of which have been linked to ecosystem loss through deforestation and an increase in agricultural practices.
With the COVID-19 vaccination rollout underway, the question of how to prevent future pandemics looms large. Some scholars focus on the benefits of international aid, such as USAID’s Biodiversity Conservation and Forestry Program. “At an annual cost of $9.6 billion, direct forest-protection payments to outcompete deforestation economically could achieve a 40 percent reduction in areas at highest risk for virus spillover,” 17 international scholars co-wrote in a July article in the journal Science. The scholars also point to strengthening wildlife enforcement networks and minimizing disease spillover by testing wildlife, humans and livestock for known pathogens in rural areas more frequently.
Other scholars have emphasized that mitigating the current pandemic and preventing future ones must entail a shift in political philosophy — refocusing policy to bring about degrowth, debt cancellation and the precarious conditions in which agricultural laborers work. Iowa State University professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, Rob Wallace, for instance, has written for Truthout that investing in healthy soil and clean water could minimize the rift between economy and ecology that leads pathogens to spring up in unexpected pastures. “On the world stage, we must end the unequal ecological exchange between the Global North and South,” Wallace wrote.
Whereas a virus like SARS-CoV-2 may have once “burned out” relatively quickly in a healthy forest ecosystem, Wallace suggested in Monthly Review, “Ecosystems in which such ‘wild’ viruses were in part controlled by the complexities of the tropical forest are being drastically streamlined by capital-led deforestation and, at the other end of the peri urban development, by deficits in public health and environmental sanitation.” When left to live in an environment undisturbed by humans, pathogens have fewer opportunities to encounter their ideal host species, Wallace explained, so they often die out on their own.
Cracking down on specific locations where the probability of disease transfer is heightened masks the larger driving forces of global capitalism.
As of this writing, over 82 million people have active COVID cases across the globe, and over 1.7 million people have died from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard. The results of public health research suggest the staggering COVID numbers — particularly the fatalities — could have been prevented by policies and regulations that prioritize the health of human ecosystems.
A Harvard analysis of data from 3,080 U.S. counties shows that a small increase in long-term exposure to polluted air leads to a large increase in COVID-19 death rates, such that if Manhattan had taken measures to lower its level of particulate matter by a single microgram per cubic meter over the past 20 years, 248 fewer people may have died from COVID-19 in that borough. Ongoing wildfires in the Western U.S., linked to rising average temperatures as a result of climate change, may also increase the risk of COVID. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that wildfire smoke can irritate lungs, cause inflammation, affect the immune system and “make you more prone to lung infections, including SARS-CoV-2.”
Meanwhile, on December 7, the Trump administration rejected Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists’ recommendations to lower the soot standard, The Washington Post reported. According to EPA scientists, lowering the standard to between eight and 10 micrograms per cubic meter could save up to 34,600 lives each year — a disproportionate number of which would likely be people of color. White people breathe 17 percent less air pollution than what is caused by their own consumption, in comparison with Black and Latinx people, who consume 56 and 63 percent more, respectively, than what they themselves are responsible for emitting. The disparity is due, in part, to drastically different concentrations of air pollution at places of residence, but the causes behind the findings are a subject of ongoing analysis. “This flies in the face of good science and good public health. It is outrageous,” Dominique Browning, co-founder and the head of Moms Clean Air Force told The Washington Post.
A small increase in long-term exposure to polluted air leads to a large increase in COVID-19 death rates.
Much remains to be researched regarding the impact of pollution and other environmental malaise on COVID outcomes. A Danish study now under peer review suggests exposure to the “forever chemical” PFAS may increase the likelihood of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms twofold. The CDC recently issued a statement that high PFAS levels in the blood may also lessen COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, noting however that “more research is needed.” Ostensibly, the dozens of Trump-era environmental rollbacks — including loosened restrictions on the transport and discharge of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the release of wastewater from coal-burning power plants — could be further worsening COVID’s wrath through dynamics upon which researchers have yet to design studies.
As is the case with the climate crisis, all countries are not created equal in their culpability in and failure to respond to the COVID crisis, nor now, in their access to the vaccine. As Georgetown Professor of Global Health Emily Mendenhall has written in The Lancet, “Recognising failures of wealthy countries is imperative as we think about where global knowledge and power sit within fields like global health.”
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-12-31--Our Democracy Is Still in Danger Even With Trump Ousted

Despite an unprecedented range of threats , our democracy survived 2020 , and in a sense even thrived : turnout soared , voting went much more smoothly than feared — and President Trump ’ s efforts to subvert the results have been laughed out of court .
So with Trump on his way out , the crisis is over , right ?
If only .
We dodged a bullet this time around , but if any of several things had gone differently — most obviously , if the presidential race had been closer — we might not have been so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ highlighted and exacerbated the reality that our democracy may be a lot less secure than we ’ d like to think .
And many of the reasons for that won ’ t disappear when Trump himself takes up full-time residence at Mar-a-Lago .
So with a new year approaching , here are the five key threats that our democracy will have to reckon with in 2021 and beyond : Trump Voters Wrongly Believe the Election Was Rigged This one could be the subject of a column on its own .
The president ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fraud have convinced many of his supporters — over three-quarters , by some measures — that he was the true election winner , and that President-Elect Joe Biden ’ s administration will be illegitimate .
With their voters in thrall to this lie , elected Republicans are acting like they believe it too : seventeen red states ( plus a few states that don ’ t even exist ) and over half of the GOP members of the House signed on to Texas ’ s outlandish lawsuit aimed at getting the Supreme Court @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state Senate leader in Pennsylvania said that if she had publicly opposed a letter that has a similar goal , signed by 64 of her Republican colleagues , “ I ’ d get my house bombed.
” It ’ s hard to overstate the damage this will do if extended across the next four years .
For starters , if the GOP holds the Senate , the basic cooperation needed for a functioning government figures to deteriorate even further than it already has , spurring yet more distrust and cynicism about government .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that .
A party that believes it was cheated out of the presidency is all but certain to carry out its own anti-democratic rule-breaking in response .
The doomed efforts to keep Trump in office are likely to be just the start .
Vote Suppressors Are Readying a Push for a New Round of State Voting Restrictions The robust turnout that democracy advocates are celebrating has spooked some politicians who ’ d prefer a smaller electorate .
Seizing on the same baseless fraud claims that Trump has promoted , supporters of voting restrictions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crack down .
Legislators in Georgia and Pennsylvania have signaled they plan to advance measures making it harder to vote , and in Texas nearly a dozen bills have already been filed .
Mail-in voting , which many states expanded this year in response to the pandemic , is most clearly in lawmakers ’ crosshairs , with bills expected to make it harder to get an absentee ballot , ban drop-boxes , and disenfranchise voters whose ballots arrive late , among other steps .
But other forms of voting could also be affected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a nationwide voter ID law .
Gerrymandering Could Skew Elections in Many States for Another Decade The upcoming redistricting cycle , set to kick off early next year , could also strike a major blow against fair elections .
To be sure , some of the states that saw the most extreme partisan gerrymanders last cycle may get fairer maps this time , either because they passed reforms to the process or because they now have divided government , giving both parties a seat at the table .
But in other states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Missouri , Iowa , and North Carolina ( which does have divided government , but gives the governor no role in the process ) — partisan lawmakers will have a more or less free hand to draw maps for the benefit of themselves and their party rather than voters .
Indeed , they could be even more emboldened , thanks to a Supreme Court ruling last year finding that the federal courts can ’ t intervene in partisan gerrymandering disputes .
And Speaking of the Supreme Court The justices have so far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bid to reverse the election .
But before we get complacent , remember that there were four votes ( not including Justice Amy Coney Barrett , who had just joined the court and recused herself ) for the radically anti-voter position that Americans should be disenfranchised if their ballots arrived late but were postmarked by Election Day , as was allowed when they voted .
In that light , it ’ s not hard to imagine the Court taking new steps to limit voting rights — perhaps by narrowing the scope of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bar only the most blatant intentional discrimination , which is exceedingly difficult to prove .
There are also fears the court could strike down as unconstitutional the independent redistricting commissions that are perhaps the most promising tool to stop gerrymandering — maybe even by embracing the truly radical theory that state legislatures have essentially sovereign power to set voting rules .
Beyond these specific potential rulings , two-thirds of the justices have now been appointed by a party that ’ s won the most votes just once in the last eight presidential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ court that ’ s both so powerful and so far out of step with public opinion undermines the democratic values on which our system rests .
Before the election , a range of ideas for reforming the court were finally being discussed .
But given the Senate results — no matter what happens with the Georgia runoffs — those reforms are now off the table for the foreseeable future .
Our Other Undemocratic Institutions Are No Closer to Being Fixed , Either Similarly , the Senate results have all but ended talk of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rico to the union .
That means the Senate will continue to give small states , which tend to be rural and conservative , far more clout than their size deserves .
That ’ s not just a problem for democracy in the abstract .
Because these states are more likely to support Republicans , it gives the GOP a built-in advantage , and makes it all but impossible to achieve large-scale progressive outcomes in Washington , even those that are popular .
Meanwhile , unlike in 2016 and 2000 , the candidate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year ’ s election .
But a change of fewer than 50,000 total votes spread across Wisconsin , Georgia , and Arizona would have changed that , with Trump winning despite getting nearly 7 million fewer votes and losing the popular vote by nearly 5 points — a much wider gap than we ’ ve ever had to contemplate before .
As with the Senate , the Electoral College skews presidential results to the right by privileging small states , and it ’ s likely to cause another democratic disaster again soon .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ are , it ’ s never been more urgent to ensure that the candidate supported by the most voters becomes president .
Perhaps more important than any single one of these threats is the way in which they reinforce one another .
The refusal of many Trump backers to accept the election results , for instance , makes new voter suppression efforts in the states only more likely .
And we could more easily curb voter suppression , as well as gerrymandering , if we had a Supreme Court that was more in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and cared more about prioritizing democracy .
And so on .
So getting rid of Trump was an enormous and crucial step forward in protecting and potentially strengthening our democracy .
But the idea , so long take for granted , that the rule of the people should be concrete and meaningful , still faces a moment of real peril .
This is no time to stop fighting .
The views expressed are the author ’ s own and not necessarily those of the Brennan Center .

The Trump era has both highlighted and exacerbated the reality that our democracy may be less secure than we think.
Despite an unprecedented range of threats, our democracy survived 2020, and in a sense even thrived: turnout soared, voting went much more smoothly than feared — and President Trump’s efforts to subvert the results have been laughed out of court.
So with Trump on his way out, the crisis is over, right? If only. We dodged a bullet this time around, but if any of several things had gone differently — most obviously, if the presidential race had been closer — we might not have been so lucky. The Trump era has both highlighted and exacerbated the reality that our democracy may be a lot less secure than we’d like to think. And many of the reasons for that won’t disappear when Trump himself takes up full-time residence at Mar-a-Lago.
So with a new year approaching, here are the five key threats that our democracy will have to reckon with in 2021 and beyond:
Trump Voters Wrongly Believe the Election Was Rigged
This one could be the subject of a column on its own. The president’s barrage of false claims about voter fraud have convinced many of his supporters — over three-quarters, by some measures — that he was the true election winner, and that President-Elect Joe Biden’s administration will be illegitimate.
With their voters in thrall to this lie, elected Republicans are acting like they believe it too: seventeen red states (plus a few states that don’t even exist) and over half of the GOP members of the House signed on to Texas’s outlandish lawsuit aimed at getting the Supreme Court to overturn the results. The GOP state Senate leader in Pennsylvania said that if she had publicly opposed a letter that has a similar goal, signed by 64 of her Republican colleagues, “I’d get my house bombed.”
It’s hard to overstate the damage this will do if extended across the next four years. For starters, if the GOP holds the Senate, the basic cooperation needed for a functioning government figures to deteriorate even further than it already has, spurring yet more distrust and cynicism about government. But it’s much worse than that. A party that believes it was cheated out of the presidency is all but certain to carry out its own anti-democratic rule-breaking in response. The doomed efforts to keep Trump in office are likely to be just the start.
Vote Suppressors Are Readying a Push for a New Round of State Voting Restrictions
The robust turnout that democracy advocates are celebrating has spooked some politicians who’d prefer a smaller electorate. Seizing on the same baseless fraud claims that Trump has promoted, supporters of voting restrictions are already talking about the need to crack down.
Legislators in Georgia and Pennsylvania have signaled they plan to advance measures making it harder to vote, and in Texas nearly a dozen bills have already been filed. Mail-in voting, which many states expanded this year in response to the pandemic, is most clearly in lawmakers’ crosshairs, with bills expected to make it harder to get an absentee ballot, ban drop-boxes, and disenfranchise voters whose ballots arrive late, among other steps. But other forms of voting could also be affected: One U.S. senator has even called for a nationwide voter ID law.
Gerrymandering Could Skew Elections in Many States for Another Decade
The upcoming redistricting cycle, set to kick off early next year, could also strike a major blow against fair elections.
To be sure, some of the states that saw the most extreme partisan gerrymanders last cycle may get fairer maps this time, either because they passed reforms to the process or because they now have divided government, giving both parties a seat at the table. But in other states — including Texas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Iowa, and North Carolina (which does have divided government, but gives the governor no role in the process) — partisan lawmakers will have a more or less free hand to draw maps for the benefit of themselves and their party rather than voters.
Indeed, they could be even more emboldened, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling last year finding that the federal courts can’t intervene in partisan gerrymandering disputes.
And Speaking of the Supreme Court
The justices have so far declined to get behind Trump’s bid to reverse the election. But before we get complacent, remember that there were four votes (not including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who had just joined the court and recused herself) for the radically anti-voter position that Americans should be disenfranchised if their ballots arrived late but were postmarked by Election Day, as was allowed when they voted. In that light, it’s not hard to imagine the Court taking new steps to limit voting rights — perhaps by narrowing the scope of the Voting Rights Act still further so as to bar only the most blatant intentional discrimination, which is exceedingly difficult to prove.
There are also fears the court could strike down as unconstitutional the independent redistricting commissions that are perhaps the most promising tool to stop gerrymandering — maybe even by embracing the truly radical theory that state legislatures have essentially sovereign power to set voting rules.
Beyond these specific potential rulings, two-thirds of the justices have now been appointed by a party that’s won the most votes just once in the last eight presidential elections. The very existence of a court that’s both so powerful and so far out of step with public opinion undermines the democratic values on which our system rests.
Before the election, a range of ideas for reforming the court were finally being discussed. But given the Senate results — no matter what happens with the Georgia runoffs — those reforms are now off the table for the foreseeable future.
Our Other Undemocratic Institutions Are No Closer to Being Fixed, Either
Similarly, the Senate results have all but ended talk of adding the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to the union. That means the Senate will continue to give small states, which tend to be rural and conservative, far more clout than their size deserves. That’s not just a problem for democracy in the abstract. Because these states are more likely to support Republicans, it gives the GOP a built-in advantage, and makes it all but impossible to achieve large-scale progressive outcomes in Washington, even those that are popular.
Meanwhile, unlike in 2016 and 2000, the candidate who got the most votes won this year’s election. But a change of fewer than 50,000 total votes spread across Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona would have changed that, with Trump winning despite getting nearly 7 million fewer votes and losing the popular vote by nearly 5 points — a much wider gap than we’ve ever had to contemplate before. As with the Senate, the Electoral College skews presidential results to the right by privileging small states, and it’s likely to cause another democratic disaster again soon. With the parties as polarized as they are, it’s never been more urgent to ensure that the candidate supported by the most voters becomes president.
Perhaps more important than any single one of these threats is the way in which they reinforce one another. The refusal of many Trump backers to accept the election results, for instance, makes new voter suppression efforts in the states only more likely. And we could more easily curb voter suppression, as well as gerrymandering, if we had a Supreme Court that was more in step with the views of most Americans and cared more about prioritizing democracy. And so on.
So getting rid of Trump was an enormous and crucial step forward in protecting and potentially strengthening our democracy. But the idea, so long take for granted, that the rule of the people should be concrete and meaningful, still faces a moment of real peril. This is no time to stop fighting.
The views expressed are the author’s own and not necessarily those of the Brennan Center.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-12-31--2020 Was a Record Year for Far Right Violence in the US

This year was quite active for the far right in the United States , especially after its relative downturn in 2019 as an active street movement compared to the recent past .
Although the far right may not have committed as many high-profile massacres as previous years , 2020 saw more murders and car attacks at demonstrations than any year in recent memory .
While the openly fascist wing of the “ alt-right ” continued to implode over the past year , some on the far right picked up steam : the Boogaloo movement — a new grouping of younger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ look and feel of the alt-right ; Gropyers — white nationalists and their allies who are trying to influence the Trumpist movement from inside ; and followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory , who believe Trump is always about to arrest a cabal of liberal , deep state , satanic pedophiles .
Moreover , aggressive street demonstrations led by the Proud Boys reached a fever pitch , inspired by comments from Donald Trump , and renewed opposition to the revived Black Lives Matter ( BLM ) movement .
The COVID-19 pandemic led to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cities started implementing shutdowns in March , but even beforehand , conspiracy theories circulated that the virus was a hoax , a Chinese bioweapon or a plot to enslave Americans .
By April , the “ reopen ” demonstrations were in full swing .
These protests were driven by “ alt-lite ” members ( the more moderate wing of the alt-right , which allows people of color , Jews and gay men to join ) , militias and Trumpists , but white nationalists also participated .
One of the most aggressive actions was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pushed their way into the Michigan legislature .
This movement was soon overtaken by another starting on May 25 , when a Minneapolis cop murdered George Floyd , an unarmed Black man , launching a new wave of the BLM movement .
It took on an almost revolutionary furor ; a police precinct was burned and militant demonstrations broke out across the country .
Eventually , they spread even to small towns , and by July , up to 26 million had joined protests in support of this multiracial movement for Black liberation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aggressive counter-protests , especially as BLM rallies lost their initial intensity .
These counter-protests were driven in part by Trump ’ s accusation that anti-fascists ( also known as antifa ) and anarchists were responsible for the protests ’ militancy , a rehash of 1950s accusations that Communists controlled the civil rights movement .
These conspiracies reached a fever pitch on May 31 when Trump tweeted “ The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.
” ( Antifa is neither a single organization , nor does such a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ swept Western states in September , a bizarre rumor , sometimes spread by law enforcement , claimed that members of antifa were intentionally setting them .
Armed vigilantes set up roadblocks intended to function as “ checkpoints ” to identify “ antifa arsonists.
” Things turned deadly in the spring .
There were a large number of murders and car attacks at BLM demonstrations .
The most infamous of these was in Kenosha , Wisconsin , where , during an August 26 demonstration , 17-year-old militia member Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ activist Aaron Danielson was killed after he allegedly attacked random people in the aftermath of a violent far right protest in Portland , Oregon .
He was shot by self-identified anti-fascist Michael Forest Reinoehl , who in turn was killed by law enforcement on September 3 — without any warning , witnesses said .
Trump even gloated that law enforcement gunned him down because “ they didn ’ t want to arrest him.
” In October , far right activist Lee Keltner was killed by a security guard as he threatened a TV @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Danielson , Reinoehl and Keltner were all connected to very aggressive demonstrations , mostly led by the Proud Boys .
These had morphed into joint anti-antifa/anti-BLM- themed events , the two movements now joined in the far right ’ s feverish imagination .
Although found in various cities , until the election they continued to be largely centered in Portland .
The Proud Boys became the undisputed far right street force of the year , and were even mentioned in the presidential debate , with Trump telling them to “ stand back and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ BLM demonstrations have gone on for over 200 days — the Proud Boys held a series of violent demonstrations .
On August 22 , Proud Boy Alan Swinney pointed a handgun in the middle of a melee while police stood by .
The next week , a vehicle caravan attacked bystanders with paintballs and mace , and the day ended with Aaron Danielson ’ s death .
On September 26 , the Proud Boys held an aggressive , drunken demonstration at a North Portland park while the counter-demonstration was held elsewhere .
Post-election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ MAGA March ” in Washington , D.C. , where — for the first time since Charlottesville — well-known white nationalists openly mixed with other Trumpists .
A follow-up December 12 rally was marked by more clashes with anti-fascists and vandalism at two Black churches , plus four stabbings and a shooting .
The Proud Boys ’ leader called for his members to violently disrupt Joe Biden ’ s inauguration .
And on December 21 , members of a protest , which included armed members of groups like the Proud Boys , attempted to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Oregon .
However , the decline of U.S. fascists , which began in 2018 , continued in 2020 .
The largest “ alt-right ” fascist group , Patriot Front , held three pop-up marches , each of which showed a decline in attendance from previous years .
The American Identity Movement ( formerly Identity Evropa ) disbanded , as did the Atomwaffen Division , although some observers say it just rebranded as the National Socialist Order .
The fascist National Justice Party also formed this year , and Kyle Chapman ( aka “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Boys to form the openly white nationalist and anti-Semitic Proud Goys .
But the most important movement that fascists took part in was the Groypers , whose goal is to turn Trump ’ s base further right by working inside that movement .
This strategy is opposed to those explicit white nationalist groups who either work separately from the larger Trumpist movement or , in the case of Patriot Front , reject Trump altogether .
Numerous members of Atomwaffen Division , including former leader John Denton , were arrested on weapons charges , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( attempting to get SWAT teams to raid a residence under false pretenses ) .
Seven members of The Base , a similar fascist group that promote terrorism , were arrested for crimes including planning to murder anti-fascists and attack a gun rights rally .
The group ’ s leader , Rinaldo Nazzaro , was revealed to be living in Moscow ; his past as a Pentagon contractor led New York Magazine to muse that he could be either an FBI agent creating a neo-Nazi honeypot , or a Russian asset .
Just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ March , NSM ( National Socialist Movement ) member Timothy Wilson was killed by police as he was heading to bomb a hospital .
Jeremy Christian , who murdered two people in Portland in 2017 for intervening against his Islamophobic harassment of two women , was sentenced to life .
An army private in the pro-Nazi Satanist group , the Order of Nine Angles , was arrested for plotting to ambush his own unit .
And Christopher Cantwell , who in 2017 was slated to speak at the Charlottesville “ Unite the Right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ September of extortion for making a rape threat .
There were high-profile arrests of other far right militants as well .
In October , 13 militia members were busted , including six who were plotting to kidnap the Michigan governor .
Numerous Boogaloo movement members were also arrested after they sought to inflame the early George Floyd protests for their own ends : Steven Carrillo was arrested for murdering both a federal security guard during the Oakland protests in May , and in June when he ambushed police officer outside his home in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was arrested for firing a weapon during the initial Minneapolis protests , while three others received terrorism charges for plotting attacks in Las Vegas .
Social media platforms also cracked down on the far right , although belatedly .
Twitter started labeling many of Trump ’ s posts as “ disputed.
” Numerous far right accounts were removed from different platforms , though sometimes for coronavirus denial — not fascism or violence .
Twitter suspended both former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon ( who had been arrested earlier in 2020 ) and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Duke , who had spent over a decade on the platform .
Different platforms suspended conspiracy theorist David Icke , Ammon Bundy and the Oath Keepers , as well as the Proud Boys plus their allies , American Guard .
In August , a large Facebook purge was focused on QAnon and militias , but also included some anti-fascists and anarchists .
This deplatforming spurred a far right migration to the politically sympathetic platform Parler .
The election brought on more far right action .
The right-wing conspiracy theory surrounding QAnon became very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president embraced it .
Trump also declared that antifa was “ virtually part of ” Biden ’ s campaign , who he called a “ Servant of the Globalists.
” ( Accusations of “ globalism ” are a long-time anti-Semitic dog whistle . )
After losing the election , Trump has continuously claimed it was rigged and that he won , fueling aggressive protests by his followers .
He even turned on his beloved Fox News , instead promoting the more extreme OANN ( One American News Network ) and disposing of his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brought the far right to a new level of popularity , and it remains to be seen what will happen after his departure .
Undoubtedly , some groups will immediately shift to opposing him , and others will continue to maintain that the election was stolen .
It ’ s uncertain if Trump will continue to be involved in stoking this movement , however , or if he ’ ll retire from politics .
It ’ s possible that after a year or so , without a president to inspire them , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( although even those levels were more substantial than many people realize ) .
Some watchers , however , think such a cooling off might take years .

This year was quite active for the far right in the United States, especially after its relative downturn in 2019 as a violent street movement compared to the recent past. Although the far right may not have committed as many high-profile massacres as previous years, 2020 saw more murders and car attacks at demonstrations than any year in recent memory.
While the openly fascist wing of the “alt-right” continued to implode over the past year, some on the far right picked up steam: the Boogaloo movement — a new grouping of younger activists with militia-style politics, but the look and feel of the alt-right; Gropyers — white nationalists and their allies who are trying to influence the Trumpist movement from inside; and followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, who believe Trump is always about to arrest a cabal of liberal, deep state, satanic pedophiles. Moreover, aggressive street demonstrations led by the Proud Boys reached a fever pitch, inspired by comments from Donald Trump, and renewed opposition to the revived Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to new ground for the far right. Cities started implementing shutdowns in March, but even beforehand, conspiracy theories circulated that the virus was a hoax, a Chinese bioweapon or a plot to enslave Americans. By April, the “reopen” demonstrations were in full swing. These protests were driven by “alt-lite” members (the more moderate wing of the alt-right, which allows people of color, Jews and gay men to join), militias and Trumpists, but white nationalists also participated. One of the most aggressive actions was on April 30, when armed protesters pushed their way into the Michigan legislature.
This movement was soon overtaken by another starting on May 25, when a Minneapolis cop murdered George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, launching a new wave of the BLM movement. It took on an almost revolutionary furor; a police precinct was burned and militant demonstrations broke out across the country. Eventually, they spread even to small towns, and by July, up to 26 million had joined protests in support of this multiracial movement for Black liberation. The far right responded with increasingly aggressive counter-protests, especially as BLM rallies lost their initial intensity.
These counter-protests were driven in part by Trump’s accusation that anti-fascists (also known as antifa) and anarchists were responsible for the protests’ militancy, a rehash of 1950s accusations that Communists controlled the civil rights movement. These conspiracies reached their height on May 31 when Trump tweeted: “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.” (Antifa is neither a single organization, nor does such a designation exist domestically.) When wildfires swept Western states in September, a bizarre rumor, sometimes spread by law enforcement, claimed that members of antifa were intentionally setting them. Armed vigilantes set up roadblocks intended to function as “checkpoints” to identify “antifa arsonists.”
Things turned deadly in the spring. There were a large number of murders and car attacks at BLM demonstrations. The most infamous of these was in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where, during an August 26 demonstration, 17-year-old militia member Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two people.
Days later, far right activist Aaron Danielson was killed after he allegedly attacked random people in the aftermath of a violent far right protest in Portland, Oregon. He was shot by self-identified anti-fascist Michael Forest Reinoehl, who in turn was killed by law enforcement on September 3 — without any warning, witnesses said. Trump even gloated that law enforcement gunned him down because “they didn’t want to arrest him.” In October, far right activist Lee Keltner was killed by a security guard as he threatened a TV crew in Denver.
The killings of Danielson, Reinoehl and Keltner were all connected to very aggressive demonstrations, mostly led by the Proud Boys. These had morphed into joint anti-antifa/anti-BLM- themed events, the two movements now joined in the far right’s feverish imagination. Although found in various cities, until the election they continued to be largely centered in Portland.
The Proud Boys became the undisputed far right street force of the year, and were even mentioned in the presidential debate, with Trump telling them to “stand back and stand by.” In Portland — where BLM demonstrations have gone on for over 200 days — the Proud Boys held a series of violent demonstrations. On August 22, Proud Boy Alan Swinney pointed a handgun in the middle of a melee while police stood by. The next week, a vehicle caravan attacked bystanders with paintballs and mace, and the day ended with Danielson’s death. On September 26, the Proud Boys held an aggressive, drunken demonstration at a North Portland park while the counter-demonstration was held elsewhere. Post-election rallies included the November 14 “Million MAGA March” in Washington, D.C., where — for the first time since Charlottesville — well-known white nationalists openly mixed with other Trumpists. A follow-up December 12 rally was marked by more clashes with anti-fascists and vandalism at two Black churches, plus four stabbings and a shooting. The Proud Boys’ leader called for his members to violently disrupt Joe Biden’s inauguration. And on December 21, members of a protest, which included armed members of groups like the Proud Boys, attempted to break into the statehouse in Salem, Oregon.
However, the decline of U.S. fascists, which began in 2018, continued in 2020. The largest “alt-right” fascist group, Patriot Front, held three pop-up marches, each of which showed a decline in attendance from previous years. The American Identity Movement (formerly Identity Evropa) disbanded, as did the Atomwaffen Division, although some observers say it just rebranded as the National Socialist Order. The fascist National Justice Party also formed this year, and Kyle Chapman (aka “Based Stickman”) left the Proud Boys to form the openly white nationalist and anti-Semitic Proud Goys. But the most important movement that fascists took part in was the Groypers, whose goal is to turn Trump’s base further right by working inside that movement. This strategy is opposed to those explicit white nationalist groups who either work separately from the larger Trumpist movement or, in the case of Patriot Front, reject Trump altogether.
Numerous members of Atomwaffen Division, including former leader John Denton, were arrested on weapons charges, threatening journalists, or “swatting” (attempting to get SWAT teams to raid a residence under false pretenses). Seven members of The Base, a similar fascist group that also promotes terrorism, were arrested for crimes including planning to murder anti-fascists and attack a gun rights rally. The group’s leader, Rinaldo Nazzaro, was revealed to be living in Moscow; his past as a Pentagon contractor led New York Magazine to muse that he could be either an FBI agent creating a neo-Nazi honeypot, or a Russian asset.
Just as the coronavirus situation was escalating in March, NSM (National Socialist Movement) member Timothy Wilson was killed by police as he was heading to bomb a hospital. Jeremy Christian, who murdered two people in Portland in 2017 for intervening against his Islamophobic harassment of two women, was sentenced to life in prison. An army private in the pro-Nazi Satanist group, the Order of Nine Angles, was arrested for plotting to ambush his own unit. And Christopher Cantwell, who in 2017 was slated to speak at the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, was convicted in late September of extortion for making a rape threat.
There were high-profile arrests of other far right militants as well. In October, 13 militia members were busted, including six who were plotting to kidnap the Michigan governor. Numerous Boogaloo movement members were also arrested after they sought to inflame the early George Floyd protests for their own ends: Steven Carrillo was arrested for murdering both a federal security guard during the Oakland protests in May, and in June when he ambushed a police officer outside his home in Ben Lomond, California. An associate was arrested for firing a weapon during the initial Minneapolis protests, while three others received terrorism charges for plotting attacks in Las Vegas.
Social media platforms also cracked down on the far right, although belatedly. Twitter started labeling many of Trump’s posts as “disputed.” Numerous far right accounts were removed from different platforms, though sometimes for coronavirus denial — not fascism or violence. Twitter suspended both former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon (who had been arrested earlier in 2020) and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, who had spent over a decade on the platform. Different platforms suspended conspiracy theorist David Icke, Ammon Bundy and the Oath Keepers, as well as the Proud Boys plus their allies, American Guard. In August, a large Facebook purge was focused on QAnon and militias, but also included some anti-fascists and anarchists. This deplatforming spurred a far right migration to the politically sympathetic platform Parler.
The election brought on more far right action. The right-wing conspiracy theory surrounding QAnon became very influential in the fall, and the president embraced it. Trump also declared that antifa was “virtually part of” Biden’s campaign, who he called a “Servant of the Globalists.” (Accusations of “globalism” are a long-time anti-Semitic dog whistle.) After losing the election, Trump has continuously claimed it was rigged and that he won, fueling aggressive protests by his followers. He even turned on his beloved Fox News, instead promoting the more extreme OANN (One American News Network) and disposing of his sycophant Attorney General William Barr.
Trump brought the far right to a new level of popularity, and it remains to be seen what will happen after his departure. Undoubtedly, some groups will immediately shift to opposing incoming president Joe Biden, and others will continue to maintain that the election was stolen. It’s uncertain if Trump will continue to be involved in stoking this movement, however, or if he’ll retire from politics. It’s possible that after a year or so, without a president to inspire them, the far right will fade to pre-Trump levels (although even those levels were more substantial than many people realize). Some watchers, however, think such a cooling off might take years.
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truthout--2020-12-31--The Year of COVID, Elections and Police Brutality Also Saw LGBTQ Activism

For the past five years , Truthout has looked back at the queer and trans news you might ’ ve missed because corporate news outlets decided not to cover it .
This year , almost all of us were tangled up with the biggest news stories — queer and trans people felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ; the feuds between the rich and powerful in Washington ; the anti-racist uprisings ; and the global warming-fueled hurricanes , tornadoes and wildfires .
This year has reaffirmed what many of us have known for years : Queer and trans liberation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ marginalized people .
More than ever , we can ’ t separate the queer and trans issues from the oppression of anyone who is marginalized .
In 2020 , we continue the tradition of recounting the true stories of queer and trans liberation struggles that corporate media ignored .
As protests in the summer raged against police-perpetrated executions of people like Tony McDade , a Black trans man from Tallahassee , Florida , Pride agency directors had to suck it up and say a few words about Pride ’ s anti-police roots .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Los Angeles Pride announced a protest to show “ solidarity with the Black community against systemic racism and joining the fight for meaningful and long-lasting reform ” of the police .
The protest was canceled when activists pointed out hypocrisies such as L.A.
Pride ’ s lack of outreach to Black trans/queer people , and its letter to the Los Angeles Police Department affirming its 50 year-long “ strong and unified partnership with law enforcement ” as it planned the event .
COVID-19 pushed most Prides onto platforms like Zoom , where it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ verbal statements in support of Black trans and queer lives ; some historically pro-police Pride boards , such as San Diego ’ s , pledged that future events would be free of uniformed officers .
However , Pride boards have generally broken promises when it comes to the Black , Latinx , Indigenous , disabled and/or low-income queer and trans people who are most often targeted by the police .
In the past couple of years , some of the bigger corporate Pride events in the country — Columbus , Ohio and Minneapolis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public stances against the police once they decided that pro-cop , # BlueLivesMatter values were no longer a public relations liability .
About That Supreme Court Anti-Discrimination Decision That Liberals Cheered in June… President Bill Clinton proclaimed June as Pride Month back in 1999 , and since then , the federal government has often dropped some concession to LGBT people ( gay marriage and trans military inclusion came in June 2015 and 2017 , respectively ) .
This year , the Supreme Court ’ s decision that LGBT people should be free from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ applause from corporate media outlets and nonprofits , but as trans lawyer Gabriel Arkles told Truthout , “ Just because discrimination is illegal does not mean it won ’ t happen… Discrimination based on race , religion , national origin and disability still happens ” every day .
Proving discrimination is hard — at least as hard as getting an employment lawyer to pay attention to your case without connections or money .
With an economic depression setting in , the Biden administration ’ s current cabinet roster should spark no false hopes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on domestic and foreign wars , bailing out the biggest businesses , or catering to billionaire donors , while labor protections wither and people who haven ’ t hoarded money will have to get by on the charity of the richest Americans .
Realistically , none of us will know anyone who gets any concrete benefit from the Supreme Court decision , as much as it may have given liberals good feelings about the Court and reinforced beliefs that it ’ s an institution concerned about fairness .
Particularly , queer people working @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers , got nothing , and a new rule from President Trump ’ s Labor Department gives government contractors who discriminate more reason to keep on discriminating .
The Deadliest Year for Trans Women Was Even Deadlier in Puerto Rico Murders of trans people — especially low-income , Black , Latinx and Indigenous trans women and femmes — sets new records every year .
This may be due to there being more attention on trans deaths and more data points to pull from , but whatever the reason , we ’ re not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be paying more attention to the problem of killings of trans people , but as many trans people point out , how many dead trans sisters ’ names do we have to speak until more people actually care about the trans people who are breathing today ?
Left out of the data : The 50 states didn ’ t come close to the relative numbers of murders of trans women in U.S.-occupied Puerto Rico , where most weeks there are one or two preventable deaths of trans people , according to Aleksander V. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the trans/queer-led organizations partnering with mutual aid programs like Brinca Charco to direct attention and protective gear to trans and nonbinary people surviving on the island right now .
The political class has mostly ignored the everyday suffering that exploded after Hurricane Maria ’ s devastation ; hurricane season this year barely made news on the mainland despite the destruction and deaths it brought .
Puerto Rican Gov .
Ricardo Rosselló resigned in 2019 after million-person-strong protests .
( The major catalyst for the protests came from homophobic and misogynist texts involving jokes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Maria exposing politicians ’ enthusiasm for privatizing the island ’ s power grid , and a deceptive , self-serving local and social media strategy . )
But people organizing against U.S. colonialism are in survival mode , working against the influence of corporate and Democratic and Republican profiteers of the shock doctrine .
Political Campaign Spending Goes to Electing Conservative LGBT Politicians People in the U.S. have less faith in the government than in any of the big corporate interests that we have reason to distrust : Pharmaceutical companies , social media platforms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more trustworthy .
And yet there are still so many LGBTQ career politicians who want to become one with the country ’ s most loathed institution .
After the November election , a 20-year-old foundation that exists to elect LGBTQ bureaucrats , the LGBTQ Victory Fund , gifted journalists with a press release in which the organization congratulates itself on helping elect more “ out ” candidates than in any other U.S. election .
The fund and its associated politician training camp , the Victory Institute , claim to be nonpartisan and without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vein of celebrities participating in get-out-the-vote campaigns who don ’ t want to alienate fans and patrons : It doesn ’ t matter who you vote for as long as you vote !
Every election sucks up more resources than the last , and the Center for Responsive Politics reports most members of the House are millionaires .
Obviously , most queer and non-queer people are not rich .
Victory and other gay nonprofits that pivoted to electing gay politicians after gay people could legally get married and join the military attempt to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poverty .
The foundation ’ s social media recently celebrated the elections of “ TWO new lesbian sheriffs !
!
” [ sic ] , and in one of the few races between two openly LGBTQ candidates , it endorsed a gay , white , status-quo lawyer funded by real estate over an Indigenous and Latinx queer socialist .
The fund partners on campaigns with GOPAC ( essentially a mirror of the Victory Fund brought to us by right-wing politicians like Newt Gingrich and Michael Steele ) , which exclusively supports conservative candidates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Buttigieg , who will become the first gay person to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation in January .
The gay magazine Out ( by no means a leftist news source ) surveyed its readers on Democratic primary candidates .
“ Mayor Pete ” came in as their fourth choice .
Major fundraisers for Buttigieg in Chicago and other cities were interrupted by queer and trans activists who acted independently , though a few came to form loose organizations .
The group Queers Against Pete put out a statement listing Buttigieg ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ universities ( and canceling student debt ) and his anti-universal health care/Medicare for All stance as a couple of his many positions that uphold systems that antagonize non-rich queer people .
While mayor of South Bend , Indiana , he helped developers gentrify and demolish low-income neighborhoods , and refused to release tapes related to the murder of Eric Logan , a Black person killed by cops .
Another multi-city effort , Queers Not Here for Mayor Pete , collected some of the writing by queers against the politician .
Like Gay Pride @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Who Tech and Allies moved online in 2020 .
This year ’ s program featured public relations emissaries from corporations innovating new forms of surveillance , drone bombs and ending labor protections .
Multiple Black Lives Matter panels and celebrity appearances by Kamala Harris , Nancy Pelosi , soccer player Megan Rapinoe and Melinda Gates distracted from the ugliness of the industry that spends more on lobbying than any other sector .
BlackRock , Goldman Sachs , Nextdoor.com and the CIA were among the sponsors behind the yearly event , which gives corporate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their overlords as socially progressive , giving panels like “ Life at Amazon : Inclusive Hiring Process ” and “ The Integration of Technology and Finance.
” Symbolic Plaques Are No Substitute for Basic Needs Like Stable Housing In 2016 , the Obama administration officially dubbed the Stonewall Inn the first LGBT national monument , but gentrification threatened that bar , the site of an infamous 1969 anti-police riot , and its owners say they ’ re relying on GoFundMe to keep the place open .
In 2018 and 2019 , San Francisco @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Transgender District , the Leather District ( leather as in the fetish ) and the LGBTQ District .
Funded mostly through taxes , the city created small bureaucracies around the districts , with tax money going to staff and , for example , the symbolic metal plaques that describe leather culture , or the painting and maintenance of lampposts in the Transgender District now decorated with the baby blue , baby pink and white of the original trans flag .
Most of the area ’ s leather bars never reopened after March @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city ’ s longest continuously operating queer bar , the collectively-owned Stud , and the Eagle bar , whose owners worked with developers on a plan to construct hundreds of luxury apartments adjacent to where the Eagle was , which rent for up to $ 5,800 per month .
The community got some plaques and a flag pole , intended to fly a giant flag representing leather culture .
But now it is just a flagless pole .
Housing aid for trans people exists in many major U.S. cities , but most of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vouchers .
Money for these programs could be cut with a politician ’ s pen , and ultimately just ends up in the bank accounts of landlords and/or real estate investment trusts that operate as mega-landlords , owning tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of apartments and flats across the country .
Homelessness has always affected queer and trans people more than most .
Some queer and trans groups worked on preventing an exacerbation of the homelessness crisis that has already begun , despite a federal moratorium on evictions through January 31 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Lesbians In a Transgender Society ) is a trans sex worker-led organization that bought a 12-unit building to house low-income trans people in New York .
House of Tulip is working on a similar project in New Orleans .
In Minneapolis , Share-a-ton was the brief but inspiring squat housing 200 homeless people who worked with volunteers to turn a vacant hotel into shelter that the local government ’ s austerity policies wouldn ’ t provide .
And the anarchist organizers of Seattle ’ s anti-cop Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone ( CHAZ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ police violence against people of color , including all people of marginalized , intersectional identities .
However , police broke the city ’ s own ban on chemical weapons by dispersing the zone in clouds of teargas .
Mutual aid between queers happens every time a queer person sleeps on another person ’ s couch , or helps to cook meals for Food Not Bombs deliveries , or cleans a community fridge at the end of the day .
When officials and institutions with power don ’ t help people during rough times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get what they need .
Artist and activist Tourmaline beautifully describes the power of mutual aid in a piece on freedom dreaming : “ Freedom dreams are born when we face harsh conditions not with despair , but with the deep knowledge that these conditions will change — that a world filled with softness and beauty and care is not only possible , but inevitable.
” Following the Freedom Schools of civil rights battles in the South in the 1960s , Tourmaline writes that “ freedom dreaming isn ’ t just about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we are manifesting in our movements , like police and prison abolition , free universal healthcare , and gender self-determination for all.
” It ’ s about those things , but also small acts : Truthout contributor Dean Spade wrote a fantastic , read-it-in-a-day primer on mutual aid that lays out , for those of us lacking inspiration or imagination , how people in community with each other have always performed mutual aid and how it can help us live through crises and their aftershocks .
Disabled people make up the majority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ law enforcement , and calling 911 is a terrible option for people who cops are more likely to harm than help .
The case for prison abolition — rather than the reform of a rotten system — is even clearer thanks to events like the Portland Disability Justice Collective ’ s November conference that connected mutual aid , race and poverty .
Meanwhile , two books out this year from Truthout staff and contributors describe how reforms to the criminal legal system usually cause more terror for marginalized queers , and/or low-income , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ By Any Other Name and The Feminist and the Sex Offender .
The Oakland and Sacramento chapters of the Anti-Police Terror Project ( APTP ) created alternatives to calling 911 during a psychiatric emergency .
This tool launched in several cities , formed mostly by queer and trans people .
A call , a text or a direct message on social media goes to volunteers who respond to people experiencing mental health crises to APTP ’ s Mental Health First project .
Meanwhile , Visual AIDS launched Strip AIDS , a comic series @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like HIV criminalization , and how detention centers , jails and prisons are the worst place to be during a pandemic , with miserable outcomes for people inside and out of the system .
The San Francisco direct action collective Gay Shame created Abolition is the Floor Not the Ceiling , a project imagining a world where reparations for Black people is more than just a check .
Gay Shame followed this with anti-gentrification actions like a Halloween night street takeover called Night of the Living Next Door , which tied surveillance partnerships @ @ @ @ @ @ @ increased deaths and jailing of homeless people , and housing unaffordability for trans/queer tenants who face the threat of eviction as landlords get richer .
Some of these projects might not exist this time next year , but as long as police-perpetrated violence and inequality continue , radical trans and queer people will keep freedom dreaming .

For the past five years, Truthout has looked back at the queer and trans news you might’ve missed because corporate news outlets decided not to cover it. This year, almost all of us were tangled up with the biggest news stories — queer and trans people felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; the feuds between the rich and powerful in Washington; the anti-racist uprisings; and the global warming-fueled hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires.
This year has reaffirmed what many of us have known for years: Queer and trans liberation is inextricable from the liberation of all marginalized people. More than ever, we can’t separate the queer and trans issues from the oppression of anyone who is marginalized. In 2020, we continue the tradition of recounting the true stories of queer and trans liberation struggles that corporate media ignored.
Anti-Police Protests Translated Into Ongoing Demand for Cop-Free Pride Events
As protests in the summer raged against police-perpetrated executions of people like Tony McDade, a Black trans man from Tallahassee, Florida, Pride agency directors had to suck it up and say a few words about Pride’s anti-police roots. The director of the nonprofit that runs Los Angeles Pride announced a protest to show “solidarity with the Black community against systemic racism and joining the fight for meaningful and long-lasting reform” of the police. The protest was canceled when activists pointed out hypocrisies such as L.A. Pride’s lack of outreach to Black trans/queer people, and its letter to the Los Angeles Police Department affirming its 50 year-long “strong and unified partnership with law enforcement” as it planned the event.
COVID-19 pushed most Prides onto platforms like Zoom, where it was easy for executive boards to make verbal statements in support of Black trans and queer lives; some historically pro-police Pride boards, such as San Diego’s, pledged that future events would be free of uniformed officers. However, Pride boards have generally broken promises when it comes to the Black, Latinx, Indigenous, disabled and/or low-income queer and trans people who are most often targeted by the police. In the past couple of years, some of the bigger corporate Pride events in the country — Columbus, Ohio , and Minneapolis, Minnesota, for example — revoked public stances against the police once they decided that pro-cop, #BlueLivesMatter values were no longer a public relations liability.
About That Supreme Court Anti-Discrimination Decision That Liberals Cheered in June…
President Bill Clinton proclaimed June as Pride Month back in 1999, and since then, the federal government has often dropped some concession to LGBT people (gay marriage and trans military inclusion came in June 2015 and 2017, respectively). This year, the Supreme Court’s decision that LGBT people should be free from discrimination at work got a lot of applause from corporate media outlets and nonprofits, but as trans lawyer Gabriel Arkles told Truthout, “Just because discrimination is illegal does not mean it won’t happen… Discrimination based on race, religion, national origin and disability still happens” every day.
Proving discrimination is hard — at least as hard as getting an employment lawyer to pay attention to your case without connections or money. With an economic depression setting in, the Biden administration’s current cabinet roster should spark no false hopes that the U.S. will stop spending trillions on domestic and foreign wars, bailing out the biggest businesses, or catering to billionaire donors, while labor protections wither and people who haven’t hoarded money will have to get by on the charity of the richest Americans.
Realistically, none of us will know anyone who gets any concrete benefit from the Supreme Court decision, as much as it may have given liberals good feelings about the Court and reinforced beliefs that it’s an institution concerned about fairness. Particularly, queer people working in the underground economy, like sex workers, got nothing, and a new rule from President Trump’s Labor Department gives government contractors who discriminate more reason to keep on discriminating.
The Deadliest Year for Trans Women Was Even Deadlier in Puerto Rico
Murders of trans people — especially low-income, Black, Latinx and Indigenous trans women and femmes — sets new records every year. This may be due to there being more attention on trans deaths and more data points to pull from, but whatever the reason, we’re not moving on what matters. We might be paying more attention to the problem of killings of trans people, but as many trans people point out, how many dead trans sisters’ names do we have to speak until more people actually care about the trans people who are breathing today?
Left out of the data: The 50 states didn’t come close to the relative numbers of murders of trans women in U.S.-occupied Puerto Rico, where most weeks there are one or two preventable deaths of trans people, according to Aleksander V. Johnsen with Colectiva Solidaridad, one of the trans/queer-led organizations partnering with mutual aid programs like Brinca Charco to direct attention and protective gear to trans and nonbinary people surviving on the island right now.
The political class has mostly ignored the everyday suffering that exploded after Hurricane Maria’s devastation; hurricane season this year barely made news on the mainland despite the destruction and deaths it brought. Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned in 2019 after million-person-strong protests. (The major catalyst for the protests came from homophobic and misogynist texts involving jokes about cadavers from 2017’s Hurricane Maria , exposing politicians’ enthusiasm for privatizing the island’s power grid, and a deceptive, self-serving local and social media strategy.)
But people organizing against U.S. colonialism are in survival mode, working against the influence of corporate and Democratic and Republican profiteers of the shock doctrine.
Political Campaign Spending Goes to Electing Conservative LGBT Politicians
People in the U.S. have less faith in the government than in any of the big corporate interests that we have reason to distrust: Pharmaceutical companies, social media platforms and corporate news conglomerates all rate as more trustworthy.
And yet there are still so many LGBTQ career politicians who want to become one with the country’s most loathed institution. After the November election, a 20-year-old foundation that exists to elect LGBTQ bureaucrats, the LGBTQ Victory Fund, gifted journalists with a press release in which the organization congratulates itself on helping elect more “out” candidates than in any other U.S. election. The fund and its associated politician training camp, the Victory Institute, claim to be nonpartisan and without any political agenda, in the same vein of celebrities participating in get-out-the-vote campaigns who don’t want to alienate fans and patrons: It doesn’t matter who you vote for as long as you vote!
How many dead trans sisters’ names do we have to speak until more people actually care about the trans people who are breathing today?
Every election sucks up more resources than the last, and the Center for Responsive Politics reports most members of the House are millionaires. Obviously, most queer and non-queer people are not rich. Victory and other gay nonprofits that pivoted to electing gay politicians after gay people could legally get married and join the military attempt to avoid the intersectionality issue — especially around poverty.
The foundation’s social media recently celebrated the elections of “TWO new lesbian sheriffs!!” [sic], and in one of the few races between two openly LGBTQ candidates, it endorsed a gay, white, status-quo lawyer funded by real estate over an Indigenous and Latinx queer socialist. The fund partners on campaigns with GOPAC (essentially a mirror of the Victory Fund brought to us by right-wing politicians like Newt Gingrich and Michael Steele), which exclusively supports conservative candidates.
The Victory Fund also endorsed Pete Buttigieg, who will become the first gay person to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation in January. The gay magazine Out (by no means a leftist news source) surveyed its readers on Democratic primary candidates. “Mayor Pete” came in as their fourth choice. Major fundraisers for Buttigieg in Chicago and other cities were interrupted by queer and trans activists who acted independently, though a few came to form loose organizations. The group Queers Against Pete put out a statement listing Buttigieg’s opposition to reinstating free tuition at public universities (and canceling student debt) and his anti-universal health care/Medicare for All stance as a couple of his many positions that uphold systems that antagonize non-rich queer people. While mayor of South Bend, Indiana, he helped developers gentrify and demolish low-income neighborhoods, and refused to release tapes related to the murder of Eric Logan, a Black person killed by cops. Another multi-city effort, Queers Not Here for Mayor Pete, collected some of the writing by queers against the politician.
Lesbians Who Tech Give Faux-gressive Cover to Big Tech
Like Gay Pride, the tech industry conference named Lesbians Who Tech and Allies moved online in 2020. This year’s program featured public relations emissaries from corporations innovating new forms of surveillance, drone bombs and ending labor protections. Multiple Black Lives Matter panels and celebrity appearances by Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, soccer player Megan Rapinoe and Melinda Gates distracted from the ugliness of the industry that spends more on lobbying than any other sector. BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Nextdoor.com and the CIA were among the sponsors behind the yearly event, which gives corporate public relations emissaries the chance to paint their overlords as socially progressive, giving panels like “Life at Amazon: Inclusive Hiring Process” and “The Integration of Technology and Finance.”
Symbolic Plaques Are No Substitute for Basic Needs Like Stable Housing
In 2016, the Obama administration officially dubbed the Stonewall Inn the first LGBT national monument, but gentrification threatened that bar, the site of an infamous 1969 anti-police riot, and its owners say they’re relying on GoFundMe to keep the place open.
In 2018 and 2019, San Francisco officially designated neighborhoods of the city as the Transgender District, the Leather District (leather as in the fetish) and the LGBTQ District. Funded mostly through taxes, the city created small bureaucracies around the districts, with tax money going to staff and, for example, the symbolic metal plaques that describe leather culture, or the painting and maintenance of lampposts in the Transgender District now decorated with the baby blue, baby pink and white of the original trans flag.
Most of the area’s leather bars never reopened after March’s statewide shutdown, including the city’s longest continuously operating queer bar, the collectively-owned Stud, and the Eagle bar, whose owners worked with developers on a plan to construct hundreds of luxury apartments adjacent to where the Eagle was, which rent for up to $5,800 per month. The community got some plaques and a flag pole, intended to fly a giant flag representing leather culture. But now it is just a flagless pole.
Housing aid for trans people exists in many major U.S. cities, but most of these programs are temporary, like rent vouchers. Money for these programs could be cut with a politician’s pen, and ultimately just ends up in the bank accounts of landlords and/or real estate investment trusts that operate as mega-landlords, owning tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of apartments and flats across the country.
Homelessness has always affected queer and trans people more than most. Some queer and trans groups worked on preventing an exacerbation of the homelessness crisis that has already begun, despite a federal moratorium on evictions through January 31, 2021. GLITS (short for Gays and Lesbians In a Transgender Society) is a trans sex worker-led organization that bought a 12-unit building to house low-income trans people in New York. House of Tulip is working on a similar project in New Orleans. In Minneapolis, Share-a-ton was the brief but inspiring squat housing 200 homeless people who worked with volunteers to turn a vacant hotel into shelter that the local government’s austerity policies wouldn’t provide. And the anarchist organizers of Seattle’s anti-cop Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) organized and camped out to end police violence against people of color, including all people of marginalized, intersectional identities. However, police broke the city’s own ban on chemical weapons by dispersing the zone in clouds of teargas.
Mutual Aid Gets People Through Terrible Times
Mutual aid between queers happens every time a queer person sleeps on another person’s couch, or helps to cook meals for Food Not Bombs deliveries, or cleans a community fridge at the end of the day. When officials and institutions with power don’t help people during rough times, people come up with ways to get what they need.
Artist and activist Tourmaline beautifully describes the power of mutual aid in a piece on freedom dreaming: “Freedom dreams are born when we face harsh conditions not with despair, but with the deep knowledge that these conditions will change — that a world filled with softness and beauty and care is not only possible, but inevitable.”
Following the Freedom Schools of civil rights battles in the South in the 1960s, Tourmaline writes that “freedom dreaming isn’t just about the big things — the huge world changes that we are manifesting in our movements, like police and prison abolition, free universal healthcare, and gender self-determination for all.” It’s about those things, but also small acts:
When I take a walk down my block, and slow down to touch and smell the blooming flowers, bursting with vitality, I’m freedom dreaming. I am allowing myself to live in a world where nature is a teacher and friend. When I Venmo my friend $25 with a heart emoji, so that they can safely take a cab home from a protest or a date or a doctor’s appointment, I’m freedom dreaming. I am creating a world in which we can all move around safely, without fear of harassment. When I stay in bed all day, luxuriating in rest, moving in and out of cat naps, I’m freedom dreaming. I am living in the knowledge that I don’t have to be productive in the ways capitalism demands of us in order to deserve relaxation and recuperation.
Truthout contributor Dean Spade wrote a fantastic, read-it-in-a-day primer on mutual aid that lays out, for those of us lacking inspiration or imagination, how people in community with each other have always performed mutual aid and how it can help us live through crises and their aftershocks.
Making the Case for Abolition
Disabled people make up the majority of people locked up and terrorized by law enforcement, and calling 911 is a terrible option for people who cops are more likely to harm than help. The case for prison abolition — rather than the reform of a rotten system — is even clearer thanks to events like the Portland Disability Justice Collective’s November conference that connected mutual aid, race and poverty. Meanwhile, two books out this year from Truthout staff and contributors describe how reforms to the criminal legal system usually cause more terror for marginalized queers, and/or low-income, disabled people and substance users: Prison By Any Other Name and The Feminist and the Sex Offender.
The Oakland and Sacramento chapters of the Anti-Police Terror Project (APTP) created alternatives to calling 911 during a psychiatric emergency. This tool launched in several cities, formed mostly by queer and trans people. A call, a text or a direct message on social media goes to volunteers who respond to people experiencing mental health crises to APTP’s Mental Health First project.
Meanwhile, Visual AIDS launched Strip AIDS, a comic series about the ongoing plague that covers issues like HIV criminalization, and how detention centers, jails and prisons are the worst place to be during a pandemic, with miserable outcomes for people inside and out of the system.
The San Francisco direct action collective Gay Shame created Abolition is the Floor Not the Ceiling, a project imagining a world where reparations for Black people is more than just a check. Gay Shame followed this with anti-gentrification actions like a Halloween night street takeover called Night of the Living Next Door, which tied surveillance partnerships between Big Tech and government agencies to increased deaths and jailing of homeless people, and housing unaffordability for trans/queer tenants who face the threat of eviction as landlords get richer.
Some of these projects might not exist this time next year, but as long as police-perpetrated violence and inequality continue, radical trans and queer people will keep freedom dreaming.
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