I’ve known cartoonist/writer Dana Simpson for seventeen-plus years now. She is one of the finest comic artists I know; her comic, “Phoebe and her Unicorn,” is gaining tremendous traction with families and children everywhere. And she’s transgender. When she tells kids this, she states that they react as if she had stated her shoe size. It’s indicative of the marvelous progress that the LGBTQ+ community has made in this country.
But it’s threatened. It’s threatened because people chose to die on a Goldman Sachs-emails hill instead of a humanity hill. It’s because people chose purity over empathy. It’s because we were complacent in the concept that all the progress we made would still be here when we wake up tomorrow.
Today, she posted a wonderful post on her Facebook page, and I know she wouldn’t mind if I reposted it here. Before anyone says that I’m preaching to the choir, reading diaries that distinctly tried to cut down the Democratic Party as something unworthy of our support makes me not think so. We need to be on board fully with the Democrats, because yes, “the other guy’s going to fucking kill us” is a good enough reason. If they don’t message well enough to your liking, take up the message and broadcast it to the skies and the earth. Take up the mantle. It’s not about what the DCCC or what-have-you says in their emails. It’s not about them. It’s about helping them prevent any more dark headlines about women, people of color, Asians, Latinos, the LGBTQ community, and other similarly disenfranchised groups.
Get on board with the Democrats. For the sake of the powerless.
I guess this is the kind of post you find yourself getting up at 6 to write because hell, ain't like you can sleep with this on your mind.
My more or less constant fear, frustration and sadness, lately, is a sense that we've reached the end of a window of history when rights for people like me (really, rights for anyone who's not a cis het white male Christian with money) were expanding. Maybe for the foreseeable future.
I think people don't properly understand that. I think there's a sense of false security, that's destined to be shattered in various ways in the coming years, that our victories are secure, that the momentum is still with us.
And it's probably true that popular acceptance of LGBTQ+ people will continue to become more prevalent. Some of that trend is irreversible. (I sincerely hope.) There's a decided age gap on this stuff; as the older generations die off, the percentages are going to reflect that.
But it's worth noting that gigantic majorities of the public support stuff like universal background checks and other gun control measures. It means absolutely nothing unless people who advocate that position have the political power to act on it. We didn't get any new gun control laws after Sandy Hook--hell, a lot of states actually loosened them--because of who was in power. Raw support numbers among the population really do not, by themselves, achieve legislative victories.
From that standpoint, if you're an LGBTQ+ person, the 2016 election was absolutely pivotal. And the good guys lost it. And that is going to have consequences.
Think gay marriage as a national thing is secure? The vote was 5-4. One of the 5 was Anthony Kennedy. Who is making noises about retiring. If he does, and we get another Gorsuch or Alito in that seat, Obergefell is liable to fall.
It isn't going to matter that a majority supports gay marriage. We don't vote on that nationally. The courts gave us gay marriage. And the federal courts, including but not limited to the high court, are about to be stocked with right wing assholes. With lifetime appointments. Neil Gorsuch is less than ten years older than me. So...maybe we'll se another friendly court when I'm 80? I guess we'll all just bide our time until then?
And trans rights as a major national issue is a VERY new thing. Gay people at least achieved some gains nationally that will take some time to roll back. The Obama administration did some good things for trans people--Hillary Clinton's state department made some changes to how gender markers on passports work that Sec. Clinton never gets enough credit for--but the Obama Justice Department didn't issue those "trans kids get to use the bathroom" guidelines until 2016. There wasn't a lot of substance there yet. So we're visible enough to be targets of hate, but unprotected enough that we're at the mercy of those in power. (Trump rescinded those guidelines immediately.)
I had been holding out hope that after we got a couple Clinton supreme court justices, we might get a ruling that trans rights are basic rights that states are bound to follow. In the heady days of a couple years ago, even a year ago, that certainly seemed possible. Now I know I'm never going to see it.
Red states like Texas and North Carolina and Mississippi are going to continue to pass horrible laws forcing little trans kids into the wrong bathroom. Especially if the blue islands within their borders (Charlotte, Austin, etc.) try and do anything good for us.
Meanwhile, lefties and Dems talking about "why the Democrats lost" are going to keep bringing up "identity politics," which is inevitably going to mean "we need to shut up about trans rights, it's a losing issue" (among other things).
I miss my sense that we were winning, or even moving forward. This is why, before the election, I was running around with my hair on fire, going "look, I understand you want a $15 national minimum wage and Clinton is only talking about $12 or whatever...THERE ARE OTHER THINGS AT STAKE HERE." People like me don't have the luxury of holding out for perfection. We were finally getting somewhere. We thought.
Now I guess we have to watch it burn. There are a lot of people I can't really forgive for that.
I mean, I personally will probably be all right. I live in a very blue state that seems to be willing to fight. All my documents are updated (unless they start applying a different legal standard, I'm legally as "female" as anyone else is). I'm white, and I hate that that helps, but it does in this society (LGBTQ+ people of color really get the short end culturally). I generally "pass," which is its own kind of privilege (I'm in the 30% or so of trans women who have never been hassled while trying to use the bathroom). I have economic privilege as well.
And my marriage probably isn't threatened; I got married before national same sex marriage was a thing (on account of how my marriage isn't same-sex; on paper we're straight, ha ha ha) and we'll still be here being married after Neil Gorsuch strangles marriage equality in its crib.
Unless they impose a national bathroom law (in which case I'm sorry, I'm leaving the country) or start rounding us up and putting us in camps, I'll be here, doing the stuff I do.
But a lot of people more vulnerable than me are going to get hurt badly. It's stressful knowing that we're all at their mercy.
I miss the feeling that things were getting better. And I hate feeling like that feeling might be gone for good.
Progress isn't inevitable, and it isn't permanent when we achieve it. In Germany in the 1920s, gay and trans people were getting bolder and more visible, standing up for their rights, and the future looked bright. Then the Nazis came to power and murdered them all.
I don't think we're on the verge of getting murdered by Nazis (although I wish THAT were clearer). But we are probably about to get blown back years. It's already underway.
People, please, for the sake of all that is good, you need to support Democrats in elections. Actual human rights are at stake. Please stop this while we can still stop some of it. If we still can.
Thank you for reading.