Dear Friend,

Each year, on and around November 20th, the Green Party of the United States joins in honoring and recognizing the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), which was inspired by the 1998 murder of Rita Hester. TDOR has several different purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. It is also a day of public mourning to honor the lives of the trans people who might otherwise be forgotten. TDOR reminds cisgender people that transgender people are their sons, daughters, children, parents, friends and lovers, and gives allies a chance to step forward and stand in vigil.

The National Lavender Green Caucus (NLGC) represents the LGBTQIA+ Members of the Green Party. If you are eligible, please consider joining the NLGC here: https://www.lavendergreens.net/join and help our Party grow.

Unlike the two Wall Street parties, the Green Party has always taken the position that we cannot compromise on issues of life or death for LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and other gender and romantic minority) communities. We believe that addressing the deep issues facing LGBTQIA+ communities today require deep solutions. We stand for continuing the struggle for true equality in every way including:

• A comprehensive National Health Plan including full access to mental, dental, hearing and vision services.
  
  
• A healthcare system that will not discriminate coverage based upon sexuality, gender, ethnicity, nationality or income.
  
  
• Increasing funding for HIV/AIDS research towards a cure.
  
  
• A guaranteed living wage and an end to homelessness, which disproportionately affects LGBTQIA+ youth.
  
  
• Support for LGBTQIA+ friendly K-12 educational materials and free education at all levels through college.
  
  
• Ending senseless mass incarceration and the War on Drugs, which also disproportionately targets queer youth — in particular LGBTIA+ youth of color.

From its earliest formation, the Green Party of the United States has been at the forefront of the Queer Liberation Movement. Seven years before same-sex marriage became legal in the state of New York, then Green Party Mayor of New Paltz, Jason West, was arrested after performing 24 same-sex marriages. At a time when both the Democrats and Republicans were silent on gay rights, Greens stood unwaveringly for equal legal protections and to say we continue to lift up the long-overdue struggle to add sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, to the existing Civil Rights Act.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

—Frederick Douglass

No other national political party matches the Green Party's commitment to the liberation of All People, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex. 🌈 Donate to the Green Party today so we can give our candidates and organizers the training and support needed to win that fight!

In Solidarity,
Margaret Elisabeth,
Co-Chair Green Party of The United States
Co-Chair National Lavender Green Caucus

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