I don’t know what comes next. I don’t know what to expect. It’s serious. It’s real this time. Prepare for the worst-case scenarios and do not assume anything. A lot has been said about how this administration plans to handle queer rights. It could mean anything. No level of institutional violence against trans people is off the table as of now. Medications can be banned, non-conformity with assigned roles can be criminalized, conversion therapy can be accepted as widespread policy. I don’t know. The end result is it’s not good. Whatever this change in power means for us, it’s not good. I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of what’s at stake here.
That being said, as escape and resistance efforts materialize, this community will support them. We will persevere as queer people have always had to. When the systems fail us, we rely on each other. Grassroots efforts will come together in the coming weeks and months. I encourage people to do what they think is right and to do what they think will keep themselves and their families safe. We have to stay together and we have to love and protect each other. No matter what happens. Unity and queer power doesn’t stop now. Today is a day to mourn the loss of a safe world for so many queer people. Tomorrow, we should begin to steel ourselves for resistance.
I hope the best for everyone. This community is here to support us all as this unfolds. I’m so sorry. I wish there was more I could say or do. The waves of anxiety and fear have been washing over me for the past couple of hours. Let’s mourn together, I guess. And get ready for what comes tomorrow.
There’s some crisis lines in the sidebar I encourage anyone to make use of if you’re unsafe right now. Those are all explicitly trans affirming support lines.
America was a democracy, but we had late-stage capitalism that was terminal. Neoliberalism was the scam that conned generations of Americans into clinging to flawed political institutions and capitalism long after they had demonstrated themselves to be ineffective.
Neoliberalism was so deeply rooted in the minds of the American people that they rejected socialism, the means of their liberation, without learning what it was and allowed fascism to flourish in their minds instead.
But we aren’t all dead yet. So as long as people are still alive we can organize against fascism. It may even be possible to take our democracy back. A good place to start is to tell people how great socialism and democracy are.
If they were so great, they wouldn’t need the PR.
What people need is organization and mutual aid to help them survive another Trump admin.
People can only hold one set of beliefs in their heads at a time. By not fully internalizing neoliberalism as a scam people are unable to internalize socialism as the answer to their problems. They can’t accept systemic change or wealth redistribution if their institutions are infallible.
And with all the people pining for a dictator that agrees with them, democracy needs all the love it can get.
Yes, because instead of socialism and democracy we got late-stage capitalism and christo-fascism.