LGBTQIA+ People Are Not Going Back

Per this action from Julia Serano, I am standing up and adding my voice to the collective scream. I think everyone with a heart whatsoever had some feelings on November 5th. I know that I certainly did. But I don’t think it was the shocked wailing that I saw around so much of the internet. The election was a coin toss, and it fucking came up tails. There are people that are motivated by hate and anger, and there have always been a lot of them (seriously, look around, even at “your side”, and see the ratio of people who seem to be motivated by helping someone, versus punishing something bad [even if it is objectively bad]). That this avatar of punching at people who were already hurting came to the top isn’t surprising so much as “same shit, different day” in a lot of ways.

Also unsurprising to me was Seth Moulton’s now infamous op-ed. As I wrote in my tepid endorsement of Harris, I very much expected the Democrats to cave on trans rights in the event that Harris lost. What shocked me, though, was to see the first trans woman to sit in Congress to passively accept a bathroom ban that would bind all of the congressional staffers that don’t have their own private bathrooms along with her. I am skeptical that this decision will buy her any peace or grace from the people who would stomp on her, and Nancy Mace is already out there trying to extend the bathroom bans beyond the capitol walls, and sneering at trans people publicly. But it should be extremely obvious to literally anyone who is looking — the current House, despite a losing presidential ticket, now stands at 220-214, with one unresolved seat, and three house members leaving due to Trump’s cabinet shenaniganery. They don’t control everything, and even a small number of moderate Republicans can block legislation. There is no fucking reason whatsoever for Democrats to not offer a united front in the face of what is coming, to all of us, to immigrants, to the people trying to survive in “liberal cities”, to black people facing policing, and yes, to trans people. All told, Donald Trump barely won, and this congressional majority is slim in both houses. This is not the time to cave, especially if there was any belief in those platitudes about “democracy [being] on the ballot” last month.

All that said, I personally have no fucking desire or inclination to go back into the closet, back into hiding, or to ever shut up, no matter what Donald Trump says, and no matter what the Democrats do. The cost to becoming who I am has been high, and they are so desperate to add to the tab but without ever specifying why and what for. I will continue to write to my Representatives, I will continue to write in this space, and even if they continue to try to hurt me, I will yell out what they are doing for all to see and make them look me in the eye while they do so. I will do what I can to maintain a resilient community that uplifts everyone in the place where I live. And I will live out the rest of my life as a woman named Zoë, no matter what a bunch of assholes in suits think of me, no matter what anyone does or says. Everyone has the rights to their body and their selves, and we have earned that for ourselves, and we will not recede, and if politicians fail to take care of us, we will take care of each other.