logo
‘Profound alarm': US veterans agency roiled by fight over anti-discrimination provisions

‘Profound alarm': US veterans agency roiled by fight over anti-discrimination provisions

The Guardian19-07-2025
The US Department of Veterans Affairs has enthusiastically joined Donald Trump's war on DEI – demanding that staffers report colleagues who engage in diversity initiatives, banning LGBTQ+ pride flags from VA hospitals and shuttering an office investigating why Black veterans are more likely to have their mental health disability claims rejected.
Last week, the VA secretary, Doug Collins, tweeted that 'VA is now squarely focused on Veterans – not out-of-touch, woke causes such as DEI and gender dysphoria treatments.'
Collins's pronouncement comes as he faces tough questions from US Senate and House members in the wake of a Guardian report that the agency had quietly removed language from its hospital bylaws that explicitly barred discrimination based on patients' marital status or political views.
Seventy House members wrote to express 'profound alarm' that doctors and other VA medical providers 'will now be able to refuse treatment' based on veterans' political views or whether they are unmarried, widowed or part of a same-sex couple.
Collins and his agency have pushed back with a series of puzzling statements, saying the bylaw changes were merely a 'formality' and were required by a Trump anti-transgender executive order banning 'gender ideology extremism' – even though the Trump order says nothing about marital status or political affiliations.
Especially novel – given the VA and the Trump administration's adamant anti-DEI stance – was the agency's argument that the bylaw changes did not matter because unmarried or politically active patients would still be protected by a 2013 Obama administration DEI directive.
Kayla Williams, an Iraq war veteran who is a former VA assistant secretary for public and nongovernmental affairs and former director of the VA's Center for Women Veterans, said the agency's explanation 'doesn't make any sense'.
'If this change isn't going to lead to any of the things we're worried about, why would they make it?' she asked. 'They're talking out of both sides of their mouth. You know they don't like Obama policies.'
The VA told the Guardian the directive 'remains in effect' and that 'under no circumstances whatsoever would VA ever allow any employee to refuse to provide appropriate care to any eligible veteran'.
The VA declined requests to make Collins available for an interview. On Tuesday, the Guardian sent the agency a five-page email that included 19 questions and details of the issues examined in this story. The VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, responded with a 126-word statement that ignored nearly all of the Guardian's questions. The statement said the Guardian and the story's author 'are purveyors of disinformation with a history of maliciously false reporting on Veterans issues. Nothing they say can be trusted.
'Here is the truth: Under Secretary Collins, VA doesn't tolerate discrimination against Veterans or VA employees on any grounds, and multiple federal laws and VA policies prohibit discrimination,' the statement added. It cited federal code sections that address discrimination in employment and cover overall healthcare eligibility and enrollment practices at VA, but are silent on the subject of discrimination involving veterans who are patients.
The statement also cites the VA's Obama era anti-discrimination directive. The protections for veterans included in the directive include language that forbids discrimination based on 'gender identity and transgender status'. But advocates say the agency is actively discriminating against transgender veterans under Trump by denying them many healthcare services.
In the same document that ordered changes to the medical bylaws, VA leadership also required hospital directors to 'remove' education and outreach materials 'that provide information about gender identity, gender diversity or gender inclusivity'. Physical items like posters and brochures 'may be discarded', according to the document. Archived and inactive digital material 'may be automatically restricted', the document says, as part of efforts by the VA's technology unit to 'identify and hide documents'.
The Guardian asked the VA about the directive to remove and restrict records. The VA did not respond.
Doron Dorfman, a law professor at Seton Hall who specializes in healthcare discrimination, said the medical bylaw changes were especially concerning because – unlike protections for race, sex, age, national origin and disability, which are enumerated in federal law – the Trump administration can wipe away rights for equal medical treatment on the basis of marital status and politics by rescinding the 2013 directive.
The nearly 100 members of Congress who have signed letters complaining about the changes indicated they were not satisfied with the agency's assurances.
Senators led by Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the Senate veterans affairs committee, and the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, called the revisions 'deeply dangerous and pernicious in practice and principle'.
Under questioning from Senator Patty Murray during a 24 June public hearing, Collins reiterated his position that the bylaw changes were meaningless.
'Nothing was changed that actually affected' protections for veterans, he said.
'When you take words out, people hear them,' Murray, a Democrat from Washington state, pressed. 'Therefore, I'm asking why don't you put them back in?'
Collins refused. 'No,' he said. 'I can't believe we're still talking about this … No one is being discriminated against at VA.'
After the hearing, they continued the argument over social media – with Collins accusing Murray of 'lying' and Murray replying: 'Did you or did you not explicitly REMOVE language requiring health care professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics & marital status?'
Collins's social media comment about DEI being an 'out-of-touch, woke cause' came in a separate exchange with Representative Ilhan Omar, in response to the Minnesota Democrat's charge that the agency's plans to cut 30,000 staffers will 'devastate veterans who depend on timely care and benefits'. Collins touted the rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion programs as one of the 'commonsense reforms' that were allowing the agency to better serve veterans.
Collins has also pushed back against the Guardian – appearing on the conservative outlets Fox News, Newsmax and Barstool Sports to denounce the news organization's reporting on the bylaw changes. He called the story 'fabricated', 'ridiculous' and 'false and unbelievable'.
Both the VA and White House demanded a retraction. The Guardian amended the story with additional context provided by the VA after publication, but did not retract it.
VA officials took a similar tack in March when the Advocate, a national LGBTQ+ publication, revealed the Trump administration had 'quietly reversed' an agency policy ensuring gender-affirming care for transgender veterans. The agency's press secretary, Kasperowicz, demanded a retraction. 'No such policy change has been made,' he said.
Three days later, the VA publicly announced that it had reversed the policy and declared that it was ending gender-affirming medical care for transgender veterans.
'All eligible veterans – including trans-identified Veterans – will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they've earned under the law,' Collins said. 'But if veterans want to attempt to change their sex, they can do so on their own dime.'
The agency said the move was required by Trump's 20 January executive order titled 'Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government' – the same order that the agency is now citing to justify the hospital bylaw changes. Trump's executive order declares that there are 'two sexes, male and female' that are 'not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality'.
A lawsuit filed on 9 June by a transgender veteran with the backing of the Yale Law School's Veterans Legal Services Clinic alleged that her hormone treatments had been wrongly discontinued.
Four days after being sued, the VA reversed itself, and agreed to resume the veteran's hormone therapy. The veteran then dropped her suit before the court of appeals for veterans claims – leaving the underlying legal issues unresolved.
'It should not require a federal lawsuit for VA to fulfill its obligation to provide healthcare for veterans injured during service,' law clinic member Hillary Browning said. She said the VA 'should reassess any decisions terminating or denying gender-affirming care for other transgender veterans'.
Representative Maxine Dexter, a Democrat from Oregon, and a physician who worked for eight years at VA hospitals, said she saw the changes in the medical bylaws and the removal of protections for trans veterans as part of a larger plan to politicize the VA. 'As doctors we're supposed to treat the patient in front of us, whoever they are,' she said.
Legal experts say the recent changes to the VA's medical bylaws created a murky situation where individual medical officers and patients will be left to themselves to interpret what is legal and what is not.
Dr Ken Kizer, the former head of the VA healthcare system, said the changes opened up the possibility that doctors could refuse to treat veterans based on their 'reason for seeking care – including allegations of rape and sexual assault – current or past political party affiliation or political activity, and personal behavior such as alcohol or marijuana use'.
The legal experts and veterans advocates said the impact of the revisions would probably fall hardest on female veterans, LGBTQ+ veterans and those who live in rural areas where there are fewer doctors.
After the bylaw changes were publicly reported, veterans in multiple states told the Guardian that they worried whether their own recent problems accessing care were linked to the rollback of explicit anti-discrimination protections.
Air force veteran Domonic Medley, 43, who is gay and lives in Dothan, Alabama, said he had to drive four hours roundtrip to Montgomery to receive routine injections of prophylactic HIV medication after staff at his local clinic said they were 'unable' to administer the jab. He suspects discrimination.
'I'm not asking to undergo open heart surgery in my small, community-based clinic,' he said. 'I'm asking to receive a very simple injection, which just happens to be most commonly prescribed to gay men.'
After the Guardian's story was published in June, Medley complained to an infectious disease specialist at the VA in Montgomery. The doctor tried to set Medley at ease, saying the prescribed medication might be 'unfamiliar' to clinic staff, but added that he 'was never made aware of any reason why the dose could not be given'.
The doctor also told Medley she had since been notified that the 'medication could be given locally by the nursing staff at the Dothan clinic with some pre-planning'.
In April, Carrie Sutton, a 13-year navy veteran, received a call from a wellness coach from the Department of Veterans Affairs' 'whole health' team. The coach asked her: 'What do you want your health for? What brings you joy and happiness?'
Sutton, a former cryptologist who served a tour combating pirates off the coast of Somalia, told the coach she wanted her family and community to feel safe, but she added that she was upset by the plans to lay off tens of thousands of VA workers. Sutton wanted 'to not have the VA gutted, to be able to have VA care and that VA employees feel safe', her medical record shows.
Soon after, Sutton's appointment with a neurologist near her home town of Conesville, New York, was cancelled. She could still receive treatment for service-connected migraines and fibromyalgia, the agency said, but her permission to get treatment in her community had expired and would not be renewed. Sutton, a survivor of military sexual trauma, would now have to drive more than two hours roundtrip to a major VA medical center to see a doctor. Sutton believes she was punished for speaking out.
'I have to think it was what I said,' she said. 'I can see no other reason why.' She filed a complaint with the patient advocate at her VA medical center.
The VA declined to comment on Medley and Sutton's experiences, despite signed releases from both veterans. 'I'm not really surprised they didn't actually address the issue,' Sutton said. It 'seems to be the current trend in the country right now. There is no transparency.'
Lois Weithorn, a professor at the University of California San Francisco School of Law, said denials of care might ultimately have to be addressed through litigation, but that the changes to the medical bylaws 'could cause substantial delays in the provision of care to veterans, and create difficult obstacles for sick veterans who must challenge denials of care'.
The VA runs the nation's largest integrated healthcare system, serving 9 million veterans a year across 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics.
Like any large hospital system, the VA has long struggled to ensure benefits are provided equitably. A 232-page report, published by the agency in 2022, found that Black and Native American veterans received significantly lower quality healthcare than non-Hispanic white veterans, while female veterans over 65 years old faced 'large gaps in quality' compared with male veterans in the same age group.
The report also found 'female veterans of reproductive age' reported far worse patient experiences than male veterans of the same age group, while Black, Asian and Hispanic veterans reported worse experiences than whites.
Disparities have also been endemic when it comes to the provision of benefits. A 2023 report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found the VA was far more likely to deny disability claims filed by Black veterans than white veterans.
Under President Joe Biden, the VA worked to confront these problems, including deploying a team within the VA's Office of Equity Assurance to address the disability benefits issues for Black veterans.
In March, the VA 'liquidated' the office of equity assurance, placing staff on administrative leave, according to the investigative news outlet ProPublica.
The VA said the office was being liquidated because there was no longer discrimination at the VA.
Under Collins's leadership, press secretary Kasperowicz told ProPublica, the VA 'treats all veterans and beneficiaries fairly and equally, so the Office of Equity Assurance is no longer needed'.
Richard Brookshire, a former US army combat medic and co-founder of the Black Veterans Project, called that statement 'laughable'.
Brookshire, an Afghanistan war veteran, noted that during the first Trump administration, the VA produced an internal report that found just 43% of Black veterans' post-traumatic stress disorder claims were approved compared with 57% for non-Hispanic white veterans. The report provided a detailed analysis of where disparities were greatest based on a long list of factors, accounting for the veterans' income, age, education, the state where the veteran lived and the war where the veteran served.
'They know this is happening,' Brookshire said. 'They just don't want to do anything about it.'
Veterans and VA employees said the Trump administration's clampdown on diversity efforts had created a chilling effect with far-reaching consequences.
In Seattle, Iraq war veteran and former army intelligence sergeant Selena Coppa said she spent almost half of a recent therapy session talking to her therapist 'about their own fear of getting fired because they had participated in various forms of political activity'.
Staffers' concerns rose two days into Trump's second term, when then acting VA secretary, Todd Hunter, sent an all staff email that asked VA workers to report colleagues who are 'using coded or imprecise language' to 'disguise' diversity efforts.
'Failure to report this information within 10 days may have adverse consequences,' the email said.
In the months that followed, Coppa said, posters and pamphlets providing information on sexual health, disease transmission and suicide prevention disappeared from the women's clinic in Seattle. Rainbow flags have also been removed and some of the most caring clinicians have quit, Coppa said.
'What's going to be left and who's going to be left?' she said. 'It's like a grim horror movie' that also affects the healthcare available to straight veterans.
The women's health medical director at another VA hospital, in California, said basic information about women's healthcare – including posters and pamphlets – was also removed from her hospital. Half of the staff of the women's clinic had either resigned or are looking for work, she said. 'You can't erase the word 'gender' without impacting women,' she said, requesting anonymity to avoid being publicly attacked.
The Guardian asked the VA about reports of disappearing pamphlets, loss of staff and low morale at VA women's clinics. The agency did not answer.
Experts say the lack of gender-affirming care will have a major impact on trans veterans' mental health, experts say. VA researchers have found elevated rates of suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender veterans – with trans veterans dying by suicide at more than twice the rate of cisgender veterans.
The VA did not answer a question from the Guardian about the mental health impacts of ending gender-affirming care.
In Pittsburgh, transgender navy veteran Rayven Greer lost her therapist, when he resigned.
The therapist, a licensed clinical social worker, said he could not ethically continue to treat Greer because he had been instructed that, consistent with Trump's executive order, he had to refer to his patient by her birth name and gender in his clinical notes. The therapist spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared online attacks and unwanted political attention to his new employer.
Greer, a survivor of military sexual trauma who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, said she is now struggling to create a relationship with a new therapist in an atmosphere where her identity as a trans woman is being held in question.
'I get 'sirred' all the time,' she said. 'It's very obvious that I look like Rayven. I use she/her pronouns, but they refuse to follow that.'
The VA's updated clinical practice guidelines for treating trans veterans direct staff to address veterans by their preferred name and pronoun, saying that doing so 'demonstrates respect', but Greer said that hadn't been her experience. VA clinicians regularly refer to her as a 'MALE' in her VA medical record.
The VA did not respond to questions about Greer's care, despite a signed release from the veteran.
Harold Kudler, a psychiatrist who served as a top VA mental health official under Obama and the first Trump administration, said the changes at the VA were not small matters.
'A psychotherapist who can neither be present nor genuine with patients is seriously compromised,' Kudler said. 'By creating an environment in which neither veteran nor clinician feels safe in speaking frankly and honestly, there can be no new understanding, no growth, and no healing.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

‘Let them destroy each other': Democrats planning Epstein-focused town halls in GOP districts
‘Let them destroy each other': Democrats planning Epstein-focused town halls in GOP districts

The Independent

time16 minutes ago

  • The Independent

‘Let them destroy each other': Democrats planning Epstein-focused town halls in GOP districts

Democrats are once again planning a blitz of town hall meetings in Republican-led communities, though this time they are armed with a new and polarizing topic: Jeffrey Epstein. The issue of the so-called 'Epstein files' — including the details of high-profile people associated with the disgraced financier and sex offender — continues to divide the GOP, with some calling for further transparency and others, including the president himself, urging people to move on. 'Let them destroy each other. If we have to throw a log on the fire, we'll do it,' one House Democratic aide told The Hill. Further fuel for such fires followed a report from The Wall Street Journal that revealed the alleged existence of a 'bawdy' 50th birthday card from Trump to Epstein. The president has denied the validity of the letter and has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch, WSJ 's parent company Dow Jones and the two journalists whose bylines appear on the story. During the town halls, Democrats will reportedly attempt to marry the Epstein fallout with their previous attack lines, including broken promises by Trump and the GOP to lower costs for working families. Tax cuts and an apparent refusal to share information of those allegedly associated with Epstein demonstrate the GOP's protections for the super wealthy, Democratic officials argue. 'Everything that House Republicans have done, everything this administration has done since Donald Trump took office, is in defense of the elites,' Democratic whip Katherine Clark told The Hill. The outlet points to scheduled visits to Republican towns by Democrats in coming weeks. On July 31, Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan is scheduled to speak in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin — the hometown of his GOP counterpart Derrick Van Orden. Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost has also planned a series of meetings, including a July 26 town hall in Dayton, Ohio, with Senator Chris Murphy, and another event with Senator Elizabeth Warren in Nebraska at the end of August. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who launched a series of 'fighting oligarchy' rallies with Senator Bernie Sanders earlier this year, is also reportedly eyeing additional travel to Republican hotbeds while Congress is on its summer recess. The plans appear to already be rattling some Republicans. 'Democrats are still pretty determined to hijack our town halls and try to prevent us from having this conversation with our constituents, so I would encourage them to use other means,' National Republican Congressional Committee chair Richard Hudson told The Hill. Meanwhile, the Epstein saga shows no signs of slowing down after the financier's ex-girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche twice last week. During the in-depth interviews Maxwell answered questions about '100 different people,' her lawyer said. According to The New York Times, Maxwell has made it clear that in exchange for information she wants a reduction of her 20-year sentence or a pardon. When asked by reporters about a potential pardon for her, Trump replied: 'I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I haven't thought about.'

Can Democratic socialists get Zohran Mamdani across the finish line?
Can Democratic socialists get Zohran Mamdani across the finish line?

The Guardian

time34 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Can Democratic socialists get Zohran Mamdani across the finish line?

Was it his charisma, communication skills or his captivating short-form videos? His high-profile endorsements or his clothing style? These elements were said to have contributed to Zohran Mamdani's record-setting success in New York's June mayoral primary. But another major factor in his win may have been his ties to the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Known for its endorsement of the Vermont independent senator and socialist Bernie Sanders's run for president, as well its role in electing the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the group has re-energized US left political movements in recent years, even while eliciting critique and fear from conservatives and some Democrats. In Mamdani's campaign, a stunning 60,000 volunteers knocked on 1.6m doors across New York City, home to 3.6m housing units. The effort reportedly led to conversations with a quarter of all New Yorkers who voted in the primary. Though the campaign has not yet released data showing how many of those volunteers were mobilized by NYC-DSA itself, Gustavo Gordillo, a co-chair of the chapter, says his organization turned out thousands. Though other organizations, such as the grassroots political group Drum Beats, also brought out volunteers, he said the chapter had an 'unparalleled field operation in New York City'. 'New York City DSA formed the heart of the field team,' he said. But the road ahead for Mamdani, who is a state assemblymember, may still be bumpy. Mainstream Democrats have been slow to embrace the democratic socialist, who ran on universalist material policies like a rent freeze and fast and free buses. In the past, centrists and conservatives have defeated DSA primary winners in elections that looked eminently winnable, such as India Walton in the 2021 Buffalo mayoral race. And rightwingers have already launched heavy smear campaigns against Mamdani, with polls showing the race could be tight. Fellow Democrat and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, whom Mamdani defeated, switched to an independent party run just to stay in the game, and incumbent Eric Adams is vying to keep his seat. The Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf, a centrist, said: 'Mamdani's primary victory in the nation's cultural financial and media capital is the greatest challenge faced by traditional Democrats in more than 50 years. 'The future for the Democrats is unclear,' he said. Asked if mainstream Democrats should embrace the young socialist, he said much of the base the party needs to energize to win elections in New York and elsewhere is moving to the right, and 'will not accept' a socialist. Even so, NYC-DSA says it is ready for the battle, and if Mamdani wins, it could catapult the group from the sidelines to the center of the party. 'The opposition is in total disarray right now [and] their fragmentation is only going to be a source of weakness,' said Gordillo. 'We're ready to mount an offensive campaign that replays a lot of what succeeded in the primary with the army that we've amassed.' When formed in 1982, DSA had 6,000 members nationwide; that number grew modestly over the next 25 years. Then, in the mid-2010s, in the wake of democratic socialist Sanders's run for president – and Donald Trump's subsequent 2016 presidential victory – membership began to soar. Today, DSA boasts 80,000 members who oppose capitalism and advocate for the public ownership and democratic control of key sectors and resources such as healthcare, and the shift of power to workers from corporations. Though socialism was once a dirty word in the US, especially after crackdowns on socialists and communists in the 1950s, more than half of young Americans hold a positive view of it today, according to the rightwing Cato Institute thinktank. Though DSA factions have often sparred over the role elections and endorsements should play in the movement, the group has increasingly entered the sphere in recent years. The national group is supporting candidates in municipal elections from Ithaca, New York, to Atlanta, Georgia, with local chapters backing additional candidates in Boston's mayoral race, council runs in Richmond, California, Detroit, Michigan, and others. In Minneapolis, a DSA-backed mayoral candidate, state senator Omar Fateh won his primary this month, ; unlike Mamdani, Fateh has also won endorsement from local party officials. The New York City chapter, now home to 10,000 members, began prioritizing elections in 2017, creating an electoral working group. Since then, it has secured two New York City council seats and six New York state assembly seats, including Mamdani's, which he has held since 2020. Another 250-plus DSA-backed officials hold office nationwide, including progressive 'Squad' democrats in Congress: Rashida Tlaib and Greg Casar, and Chicago's mayor, Brandon Johnson. NYC-DSA employs a methodical volunteer model for each of its endorsed candidates. It has also been highly selective about who it chooses to support. 'You have to go speak to multiple branches of the chapter, talk to the electoral working group, go through multiple rounds of votes within DSA,' said the DSA-backed New York state senator Jabari Brisport, who represents a Brooklyn district. The robust endorsement pays off, Brisport said. 'When you're running with a DSA endorsement, you really have a whole operation of dedicated volunteers who want to advance socialism,' he said. 'They help with everything from field organizing to comms to fundraising.' For NYC-DSA, electoral campaigns are not only focused on single candidates but also on building support for their movement, said Phara Souffrant Forrest, another DSA state assemblymember from Brooklyn. 'When DSA campaigns for a candidate … we're organizing their district around shared values like housing justice, healthcare for all and workers' rights,' she said. The chapter does not use paid canvassers, though Mamdani's campaign hired roughly 50 for specialized outreach. 'Our main asset, which money can never buy, are volunteers who are passionate, who feel ownership over a campaign because the win would be personal for them,' said Sarahana Shrestha, a DSA assemblymember representing a south-eastern New York district. Her campaign brought in many voters who had otherwise 'given up on electoral politics', she said. DSA members appeared to do the same in the mayoral primary, mobilizing thousands of new voters. Some DSA endorsees – such as Ocasio-Cortez, who the group supported in her 2018 campaign – receive DSA backing upon request once they have launched their campaigns. Others, like Mamdani, are 'cadre candidates' who have strong pre-existing ties to the organization and are recruited by and from the chapter. Since joining NYC-DSA in 2017, Mamdani has been deeply involved with the organization, helping lead other electoral campaigns and working closely with the chapter on his successful 2020 assembly run. Once in office, Mamdani became an integral part of NYC-DSA's socialists in office committee, designed to facilitate chapter communications with elected socialists. Today, many of his staffers are chapter leaders. And when launching his mayoral campaign, 'he said that he would not run at all if he did not receive our endorsement,' the NYC-DSA organizer Michael Thomas Carter wrote in Drop Site News. 'While the coalition that coalesced around his campaign was much broader than NYC-DSA, in this very direct sense our organization is responsible for his mayoral run,' he wrote. This commitment to the chapter has been a throughline in Mamdani's career, said Gordillo. 'He's been really tested to learn how to exercise leadership while also being accountable to a base, because he's done that in DSA pretty often,' he said. Mamdani has championed some NYC-DSA campaigning efforts he did not pioneer, such as the successful fight for a bill to expand publicly owned renewable energy, which Gordillo helmed. But he has been a leader on other initiatives, such as the 'Not on Our Dime!' bill, which aims to pressure Israel to follow international law and on which he was the lead sponsor. (Ending US support for Israel's military is a key issue for DSA, whose national organization ended its support for Ocasio-Cortez and former New York congressman Jamaal Bowman over insufficient support for the issue.) That back-and-forth has continued through the mayoral campaign, with the chapter's political operatives also helping him make connections and shape his platform. 'He met with our Labor Working Group a lot to learn more about what were the top demands for different unions where we have a lot of member density,' said Gordillo, who is a union electrician by day. Mamdani won more votes than any other mayoral candidate in New York City primary election history. Brisport said that's a testament not only to the power of NYC-DSA's organizational skills, but also to the popularity of their political values. 'Clearly there is something in the air that is shifting, because open socialists are running for office and winning, showing that our ideas are good, workable things that people actually need,' he said. Mamdani's embrace of the democratic socialist label has been a boon for NYC-DSA, with about 4,000 members joining since he launched his mayoral campaign. It will also be a test for the chapter and for American socialism. 'Zohran ran as an open democratic socialist and the billionaire class, the most powerful forces in the world and in the city, are aligning against him,' Gordillo said. 'They will be finding every moment to amplify anything that they can say is a mistake or a failure, and because he ran in a way that was so tied to the movement, I think that any of his shortcomings will also be attributed to us.' The chapter is now preparing to mobilize volunteers around the general election, but also organizing to support Mamdani's key policies like a proposal to increase taxes on the rich. The organization is prepared to hold Mamdani accountable to socialist values, but also to communicate his successes to the public, said Gordillo. 'We will make sure that the billionaire class and corporate interests can't just fearmonger about him, or hide it when he fulfills his campaign promises,' he said. 'The fate of the left in New York rests on the success of the Mamdani administration, so ensuring that there is a successful mayoralty is going to have to become our top priority.'

Photos of a wildfire near Athens as homes burn
Photos of a wildfire near Athens as homes burn

The Independent

timean hour ago

  • The Independent

Photos of a wildfire near Athens as homes burn

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store