In this critical moment, our voices — one a lesbian rabbi raised in suburban New Jersey, and the other, a gay professor raised in Ramallah — draw upon the legacies of Jewish and Palestinian peace activists who have come before us, to call for a new path forward rooted in nonviolence. We reject the binary choices presented by so many in each of our communities – the struggle for Israel/Palestine is not a sports game in which only one side can win and that requires the other to lose. 

There is no way forward in which the other is dehumanized. Our commitment to nonviolence means that language and actions both must be nonviolent and infused with the commitment to see the humanity in each other. As the great American pacifist Rev. AJ Muste said, “there is no way to peace, peace is the way.” And peace is not sustainable without justice and equality. 

Neither of us is naïve. Neither of us imagines this is a kumbaya moment for simplistic slogans about peace. We are each horrified and shattered by the attacks of Oct. 7. We are crushed and outraged by the decades of occupation, the endless targeting of citizens, and state-sponsored violence and daily humiliations. We demand and pray for the return of the hostages. We are outraged by the destruction of Gaza in the spasms of revenge. We are horrified and mourn the death of so many innocent civilians both in Gaza and in Israel in this ongoing cycle of terrible violence. We see and call out and object to the daily violence against Palestinians on the West Bank, the unchecked violence in Arab Israeli communities abandoned by the government, the displacement of Israeli Jews terrified about the attacks from Gaza, from Lebanon, from Iran and from the Houthis.  

We can hold all the suffering of both peoples. We cry out and mourn and scream. We can also acknowledge the profound asymmetry in power between Israel and the Palestinian nation under its control. 

We don’t necessarily agree on everything. But we do know that the way forward is NOT more violence. That every retaliation for a past horror will only bring more horror – it will not bring security or liberation for anyone. There are seven million Palestinians and seven million Jews living in the region, with millions in diaspora communities waiting for the right to return to their ancestral lands. No one is going anywhere, as so many of our friends in the Palestinian-Jewish movement for peace and social justice in Israel/Palestine often say: The only future is a shared future.

We are currently dominated by narratives of revenge and hostility. What is conspicuously absent is the transformative potential of nonviolence, a principle that both of us aspire to as a bedrock principle. Mahatma Gandhi’s words resonate with us: after the horrific Amritsar Massacre in 1919, he proclaimed, “Non-violence is a weapon of the strong.” Nonviolence requires immense strength and resilience. As pacifists, we are certainly not passive. 

We must critically examine the protests that have arisen in response to violence, often labeled “pro-Israel” or “pro-Palestine.” While these demonstrations stem from genuine concerns, they often deepen divisions, feeding the narratives of extremist leaders and factions of both Israelis and Palestinians. Extremists thrive on conflict, instrumentalizing victimhood to justify their actions and to further their own power. This cycle ends up feeding the extremes on the other “side” who point to the extremism as justification for their own. The language used in legitimate and important protest – whether “Pro-Israel” or “Pro-Palestine” must never lose sight of the humanity of the other. 

It is essential for us to challenge the binary narratives that keep us locked in opposition. 

The impulse to retaliate in the face of violence is a deeply human reaction but it is not the way to create a different future. We must create a growing force of Palestinians and Jews who are committed to resisting the extremism in our communities in Israel/Palestine and in the United States to reject the political leadership that is leading us into mutual extinction. We must create a different way forward.

We must develop different muscles. Muscles that are not impulsive acts of violent

revenge, but muscles that insist on separating political leadership from the societies they only pretend to represent. Each of us in our lives has called out the political leadership of our people for abandoning their people. We demand accountability. We will continue to do so for as long as we have breath.  

Our commitment to nonviolence requires courage. We must create spaces where voices of peace are amplified and where stories of those who dare to envision a different future are shared. We must reject efforts that dehumanize, threaten, and use violence in language, slogans, or chants against the innocent. 

Ultimately, the path forward lies in our ability to forge connections — not just between Palestinians and Jews but among all who seek justice and peace in both process and goal throughout our broken world.

There is a tsunami of hate and extremism in our world. Insisting over and over again on the humanity of each of us, one by one, conversation by conversation is the only way forward. In this as in so many things, no one can do everything, but each of us can do something. If we don’t find a way to create the conditions of a shared future, we will only all go up in flames. 

We stand together in the breach calling upon others to join us in demanding a different future from the past and the present. We will not abandon each other. Through our friendship, and our shared commitment to queer liberation, we pray for an immediate end to the bloodshed and for the affirmation of the dignity and sanctity of all lives.

Sa’ed Atshan is associate professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Anthropology at Swarthmore College. He is author of ‘Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique.’ Sharon Kleinbaum is the Senior Rabbi Emerita of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City, the largest LGBTQ Synagogue in the world. She is the co-founder and board member of New York Jewish Agenda and a progressive Zionist dedicated to non-violence.

We are looking at having our ideas of good healthcare turned upside down. This will happen if RFK Jr., whose ideas on healthcare have been widely discredited, is confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

Kennedy thinks vaccines hurt people. He believes a measles epidemic in our country is better than children getting a measles vaccine. Brian Deer writes in the New York Times, during a measles outbreak in Samoa, “Kennedy sent the prime minister of Samoa a four-page letter. In it, he suggested the measles vaccine itself may have caused the outbreak.” He wrote in his role as the chairman of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group. “By the time a door-to-door vaccination campaign brought the calamity to a close, more than 80 children had died.” Imagine him writing that letter as U.S. Secretary of HHS. 

Kennedy supports the discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism. In 2023, he even said the polio vaccine, which has basically eradicated polio, “did more harm than good.” The Times wrote, “Mr. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, has also spent years working abroad to undermine policies that have been pillars of global health policy for a half-century, records show.” 

Today most people don’t even know what diphtheria is, outside of the historical context. If they do it’s most likely because they have scrutinized a childhood immunization schedule and know it’s the “D” in the DTaP vaccine. “Vaccine breakthroughs over the past two centuries have cumulatively made the modern world a far more hospitable place to be born. For most of human history, half of all children died before reaching age 15; that number is down to just 4 percent worldwide, and far lower in developed countries, with vaccines one of the major drivers of improved life expectancy.” So, one has to question how someone like RFK Jr., with his warped view of vaccines for children, will impact their lives. How many will become ill, or die, because of him? 

It’s not just children’s vaccines we have to question Kennedy on. What will he do if we have another pandemic, and there surely will be one. Will he agree the government should support research to develop a vaccine, or will he oppose funding? Will he support the World Health Organization, or will we see the United States withdraw from it? What about the continued research at NIH, which supports development of a vaccine to end HIV/AIDS? What does he now believe is the cause of AIDS? Will he end the studies at NIH to aid in the search for a vaccine to end prostate cancer? Or will he determine it is better to let millions die, rather than develop these vaccines. 

We have to ask whether he will stop Medicare and Medicaid from covering the cost of vaccines for those who want them, and can’t otherwise afford them. Will he work to stop mandates to have children vaccinated before they enter school? These are just some of the questions the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and the Senate Finance Committee, which typically hold the confirmation hearings for Secretary of Health and Human services nominees, should be asking RFK Jr. They must grill him on where he gets his medical information, and what research he bases his positions on, with regard to all these issues. Add issues like his position on removing fluoride from the water, and allowing raw milk to be sold. Let’s be clear: Our children’s lives are literally at stake here. 

It might be interesting to ask him whether he asked Trump if his children were vaccinated, and if Ivanka and Jared have had their children vaccinated. I have yet to hear any media person ask Trump about this, or ask Ivanka and Jared their thoughts on RFK Jr. The committees must ask whether he believes vaccines should be available for children whose parents want them, and whether he will mandate insurance pay for them? 

Yes, RFK Jr. has some positions I agree with. He wants to get dyes out of our foods as California Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing in his state. RFK Jr. has promoted healthier diets for children, more fruits and vegetables, something Michelle Obama has been doing for years. But we must recognize doing these things will be worthless if we let children get ill, or die, by not vaccinating them. RFK Jr. is an embarrassment to his own family with his unsubstantiated claims on a host of issues, and he will be a danger to the children of the nation, and the world, if confirmed. 

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist.

Nov. 20 marked Transgender Day of Remembrance — an international day of mourning where the trans community and its allies come together to honor and mourn those lost to violence, hate crimes, and suicide. Much of this violence is fueled by discriminatory policies and deep-seated hatred against transgender people.

Yet, just two days before TDOR, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced HR1579, a transphobic resolution aimed at prohibiting “members, officers, and employees of the House from using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” The resolution’s definition of “single-sex facilities” goes beyond restrooms to include changing rooms and locker rooms within the Capitol or House Office buildings.

This resolution is a blatant attempt to ban Rep.-Elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly transgender congresswoman, from using women’s bathrooms and locker rooms in Congress. Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) claimed that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) expressed support for the resolution behind closed doors, stating, “He committed to me, there in the conference, that Sarah McBride will not be using our restrooms.” In an interview, Rep. Mike Johnson doubled down: “For anyone who doesn’t know my established record on this issue, let me be unequivocally clear: a man is a man, and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot become a woman.”

Both Greene and Mace repeatedly misgendered McBride on social media and in comments to reporters. On Transgender Day of Remembrance itself, Speaker Johnson declared McBride would be treated as a man under House rules, forcing her to use men’s restrooms or gender-neutral facilities. 

Mace claimed her actions were about “safety,” even suggesting McBride could pose a threat of sexual assault. However, during an appearance on Greg Kelly Reports, Mace went full mask off, calling it “offensive” that McBride could consider herself her equal.

This decision and language is more than offensive — it is outright discriminatory. McBride will have no other choice but to walk to her office every time she needs to use the restroom, unable to access the common bathrooms like her colleagues. Additionally, the resolution jeopardizes the safety of hundreds of transgender staffers, all of whom lack McBride’s visibility or privilege. Trans staffers have long used restrooms matching their gender identity without issue, but this policy opens the door to increased harassment and exclusion, with reports of such incidents already surfacing. 

McBride issued a statement saying that while she “disagrees” with the rules, she will comply. Unsurprisingly, McBride’s compliance was not the end of the conversation. Mace introduced a bill to ban transgender people from using bathrooms matching their gender identity in federally owned spaces, from national parks to major airports. Mace declared on social media, “This fight isn’t over just yet. We want to ban men from women’s spaces in EVERY federal building, school, public bathroom, everywhere.”

Adding to this, Congress’s gendered dress code could also be weaponized to further degrade and bully McBride, targeting her presentation or honorifics. This was never about bathrooms, safety, or fairness—it has always been about control and erasing transgender people from public life. 

Despite these attacks, multiple studies have found no evidence supporting claims that transgender people pose safety threats in bathrooms. Yet transphobic rhetoric dominated the 2024 election, with anti-trans ads like “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you,”, signs targeting McBride at polling places in Delaware, and violent vitriol aimed at dehumanizing transgender Americans.

This tidal wave of hate culminates in the upcoming Supreme Court case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, a case that will determine whether bans on gender-affirming care for youth are unconstitutional. The stakes are high: 27 states already ban gender-affirming care, and 26 have implemented restrictions on trans youth in sports. With Donald Trump’s return to the White House and a Republican-controlled government, the situation doesn’t look great.

In the Delaware State Senate, Sarah McBride championed policies like paid family leave. The idea that she’s a danger to others is laughable. The real danger to others lies in the multiple Republican cabinet nominations with histories of sexual assault and abuse. 

If a respected lawmaker who happens to be transgender is considered a threat, where does that leave the rest of the trans community?

In the wake of Kamala Harris’s election loss, trans people have been used as scapegoats, with moderate Democrats and political pundits alike calling them political liabilities. For the past few weeks, we’ve seen op-eds in the New York Times and Washington Post claiming that trans rights have gone too far and are political bombs. 

How dare they? In the face of violent transphobia in our nation’s Capitol, now is the time to strengthen support for our transgender siblings. The moment the public and political establishment abandon transgender Americans, is the moment we’ve entered the last steps of the waltz into fascism.

The mere presence of a transgender woman in power asking to be treated as an equal has sent the GOP into a media frenzy. Mace has been running to Fox News and Newsmax to attack her future co-worker. She’s been obsessively posting on X (formerly Twitter) about Sarah McBride and “men in women’s spaces.” 

Mike Johnson’s seeming endorsement of a “separate but equal” framework also evokes painful memories of segregationists during the Civil Rights Movement. This behavior is not only unacceptable but shines a light on the long history of white far-right politicians from the South fighting for their “right” to discriminate.

This isn’t a culture war thing; this is a fight for our very right to exist. Transgender Americans are facing a crisis. The incoming administration seeks to define us out of existence: they want us to detransition, to hide, to live in fear. They want us to remain in the closet. 

For many, the closet is deadly. Trans people already die by suicide at higher rates, denying us the right to exist will only skyrocket the mental health crisis in America. Since Nov. 5 alone, the Trevor Project, a crisis organization for LGBTQ youth, reported a heartbreaking 700% increase in calls. People are dying now, and now is the time to protect trans people. 

Defending McBride is the easiest way to signal support for trans people. This is about more than supporting one congresswoman — it’s about standing for the safety, dignity, and respect of every transgender American. We need leaders who will defend us in the face of the fascistic far-right.  

As trans people, we recognize the emergency facing our community and are screaming our lungs out to a party that is considering abandoning us. It’s been said again and again but we need each other now more than ever.

LGBTQ voters pay attention to which representatives support and fight for their right to exist. According to the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey’s Civic Engagement data, 82% of eligible transgender individuals are registered to vote. In the 2020 presidential election, 75% of eligible respondents reported voting, compared to 67% of the general U.S. population. Furthermore, initial exit polls showed that LGBTQIA+ voters overwhelmingly supported Kamala Harris.

The Democratic Party is at a crossroads: Will they fight for equality or allow the GOP’s attacks to stain their legacy and lose a vital and engaged voting bloc? 

The truth is stark: transgender Americans deserve to exist without fear. This fight is about more than politics — it’s about life and death. In the reality we woke up to on Nov. 6, trans people and LGBTQ rights in general are on the chopping block. 

Democrats have the chance to make history by standing on the right side of it. The fight for trans liberation is far from over, but this moment demands strong, progressive leadership. The future of the party — and our country—depends on it.

Vienna Cavazos (they/them) is the Diversity Lead and LGBTQIA+ Public Policy Specialist at Bulletproof Pride.