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Trans News Network
@transnews.network
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Trans News Network (TNN) is a worker-run nonprofit LGBTQ+ newsroom publishing articles that impact trans communities.

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transnews.network
Stonewall was, as the saying goes, a riot. In fact, the working class queer and trans people who fought the police defied demamd by the moderate Mattachine Society and other more establishment groups to "maintain peaceful and quiet conduct."

The reality of that struggle is still important today.
Shortly after the Stonewall riots, according to Susan Stryker’s Transgender History, moderate cisgender gays and lesbians broke off from their queer siblings and formed the Gay Activists Alliance. While they started off more militant than the “homophile” movement that preceded Stonewall, by 1973 the leadership veered away from radicalism in favor of currying favor with the establishment. They pushed out militant activists in favor of working with the political status quo in elections, political campaigning and drawing all their resources towards the gentry. GAA went on to influence the first Pride march years later. Stryker dishearteningly noted how in 1973 trans activist Sylvia Rivera was “forcibly prevented from addressing the annual commemoration of Christopher Street Liberation Day.” While GAA disbanded a year later, their legacy lives on through efforts to whitewash Stonewall and the utilization of the riots’ name to endorse political candidates. This is all in spite of Stonewall’s reality as not a protest, but a violent riot that was widely supported by people in the local community. “Bottles, rocks, and other heavy objects were soon being hurled at the police, who began grabbing people in the crowd and beating them in retaliation. Weekend partiers and residents in the heavily gay neighborhood quickly swelled the ranks of the crowd to more than two thousand people, and the outnumbered police barricaded themselves inside the Stonewall Inn and called for reinforcements,” Stryker wrote. “Outside, rioters used an uprooted parking meter as a battering ram to try to break down the bar’s door, while other members of the crowd attempted to throw a Molotov cocktail inside to drive the police back into the streets.” “Minor skirmishes and protest rallies continued throughout the next few days before finally dying down. By that time, however, untold thousands of people had been galvanized into political action.”
December 18, 2025 at 10:52 PM
transnews.network
Article edited by @davidforbes.bsky.social

These tropes have spread due to bad social science (backed by the U.S. government and establishment) and bad history, especially a whitewashed version of the civil rights movement.

The reality of liberation struggles is more complicated, and instructive.
“The claim that armed self-defense was a necessary aspect of the civil rights movement is still controversial,” Cobb, a legendary journalist and former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) field secretary, wrote. “However, wielding weapons, especially firearms, let both participants in nonviolent struggle and their sympathizers protect themselves and others under terrorist attack for their civil rights activities. Their willingness to use deadly force ensured the survival not only of countless brave men and women but also of the freedom struggle itself.” He lays out a multitude of examples, like the heavily-armed Deacons for Defense and Justice group that mobilized against segregation and worked closely with civil rights organizers. “If we had a picket line, these guys were standing on the corner, on both sides of the street,” CORE organizer Fred Brooks recalled. “Wherever we went it was like a caravan; these guys in their pick-up trucks with their high-powered rifles.” Renowned radical civil rights organizer Fannie Lou Hamer put it bluntly: “I keep a shotgun in every corner of my bedroom, and the first cracker even look like he wants to throw some dynamite on my porch won’t write his mama again.” Cobb wrote his history to counter the ongoing sanitization of the realities of that struggle. He’s honest about divisions within the movement over the use of armed force, but also emphasizes that fears that armed demonstrations and defense would lead to overwhelming retaliation proved unfounded. Instead, in plenty of cases local segregationist governments folded in the face of them. “It may be that ‘nonviolent’ is simply the wrong word for many of the people who participated in the freedom struggle and who were comfortable with both nonviolence and self-defense, assessing what to do primarily on the basis of which seemed the most practical at any given moment,” Cobb concluded.
December 18, 2025 at 10:46 PM
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We're a worker-run trans newsroom that's done *a lot* with your support over the past six months. Every dollar we get goes to journalism and paying journalists fairly.
We’ve done so much since our launch, just six months ago. We played a key role in bringing public pressure to stop the trans medicaid ban, reported on anti-trans bills moving under the radar in congress, investigated queer and trans creators kicked off Itch, delved into how N.C. Democrats passed anti-trans laws, rallied our communities to survive genocide, analyzed pro-trans bills making their way to California’s anti-trans governor, revealed a trans protesters’ harrowing experiences in jail and reported on Catholic bishops’ sweeping attack on trans healthcare. We have much, much more on the way.
December 4, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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We have a slew of great gifts — from stickers to a canvas print — as our way of saying thank you for your support of trans journalism.
$10+: Receive one of our newly designed TNN stickers in the mail $42+: Two unique TNN stickers in the mail, plus a signed thank you letter $100+: Two of each TNN sticker design, plus a wristband delivered to your door $250+: A 8”x10” canvas print of the TNN banner image above delivered to your door This gift is valued at $30, and you must deduct from your tax-deductible amount if you receive it.
December 2, 2025 at 7:23 PM
transnews.network
Radaskiewicz-King was charged under hate crime statutes meant to deter violent symbolism such as nooses or swastikas--implying that a trans symbol is hateful or violent against Catholics. Those charges were dropped.

The judge denied her bail for 'public safety,' despite harming no human.
David Jaros, the faculty director of Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the University of Baltimore School of Law, called the use of hate crimes charges in this case “utterly ridiculous.” Law enforcement had other options besides incarcerating Radaskiewicz-King to protect the community, he said, such as asking her mother to surrender her firearms or using pretrial electronic monitoring. “I think it’s sadly a symptom of the public discourse over trans rights and trans issues,” he said, “but this seems like a gross abuse of the law.”
November 22, 2025 at 8:42 PM
transnews.network
AIDS activists included many trans women and supporters of trans rights. Many are sadly passing away in recent years, after fighting AIDS for decades.

Even still, one activist in hospice care became animated when pleading for trans people to take to the streets and fight for our healthcare again.
Kirk W., an AIDS activist who was in hospice care during his interview, became highly animated and passionate on this topic despite his very poor health. Jordan: Kirk was somebody who did drag as part of his identity, but he was not in any way a trans individual. But he was really forceful in believing that trans people needed to be out there. In the streets standing up for their rights. And this was the strongest language he used in an interview while he was in hospice care. He didn't have a lot of energy, but I think we saw the greatest amount of energy and emotion put behind his sentiments about this.
November 11, 2025 at 6:16 PM
transnews.network
Even some Republicans are finally realizing that the single-minded focus on pushing trans hatred as the GOP agenda isn't working. After spending millions on anti trans ads, Virginia Republicans were wiped out. One is speaking out against the focus on hating trans people over addressing the economy.
The economy was the No. 1 issue,” said former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican. “And having people talking about trans rights and the like isn’t what was moving the needle. [The message] needed to address the economy at this point, and I think the administration and Republican Congress need to give that focus to get this midterm under control.” In the final weeks of the campaign, Earle-Sears blanketed the airwaves with ads characterizing Spanberger as being for “they/them”, echoing messaging from Trump’s 2024 campaign. A spokesperson for Earle-Sears did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
November 9, 2025 at 5:26 PM
transnews.network
Trump's attacks on trans healthcare this year reflect the significant escalation in hatred against queer people in recent years.

But the NIH has long denied queer people healthcare. During the AIDS genocides, over 1000 ACT UP members joined the 'Storm the NIH' protest for AIDS healthcare.
AIDS protesters hold flares and signs during a raucous demonstration at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., on May 21, 1990. (Bob Daugherty/AP)
October 30, 2025 at 5:54 PM
transnews.network
In 2020, the margin of the three swing states that allowed Biden to defeat Trump was smaller than the number of trans people in each of those states.

That doesn't even include the countless cis queer allies and family members voting in favor of trans people.

So no, you can't abandon trans people.
Georgia 0.2% margin Arizona 0.3% margin Wisconsin 0.7% margin
October 28, 2025 at 9:06 AM
transnews.network
Many of these colleges are implementing the racist and transphobic DOJ memo that defines trans people out of existence, a massive insult and infringement on basic rights aimed at the significant trans populations at the universities.

www.justice.gov/ag/media/140...
While compelled segregation is generally impermissible, failing to maintain sex-separated athletic competitions and intimate spaces can also violate federal law. Federally funded institutions that allow males, including those self-identifying as "women," to access single-sex spaces designed for females-such as bathrooms, showers, locker rooms, or dormitories-undermine the privacy, safety, and equal opportunity of women and girls. Likewise, permitting males to compete in women's athletic events almost invariably denies women equal opportunity by eroding competitive fairness. These policies risk creating a hostile environment under Title VII, particularly where they compromise women's privacy safety, or professional standing, and can violate Title IX by denying women access to the full scope of sex-based protections in education. To ensure compliance with federal law and to safeguard the rights of women and girls, organizations should affirm sex-based boundaries rooted in biological differences.
October 22, 2025 at 11:47 PM
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August 13, 2025 at 3:39 PM