To my LGBT community:
I have been sitting here for hours trying to figure out how to start this letter to you, my family.
I would like to look back two years removed from the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision, and be able to write only about how far we have come and how assured our continued progress is. I would love to be writing to express great pleasure in seeing naivety in the eyes of our youth, and be unworried that their naivety was in jeopardy. Unfortunately, as close as I was to being able to write that utopic letter, Donald Trump is President, Mike Pence is Vice President, and the Republicans control not only Congress, but the majority of state legislatures.
It isn’t hyperbolic to say that every right we have attained is on the verge of being taken away, or limited, again. Dangerous anti-LGBT legislation in Texas, Tennessee, and Executive Orders out of the White House, have already shown that the momentum of progress is again shifting to those that require our humanity to be boiled down to political talking points, and sermons, in order to maintain their false sense of moral superiority. Unfortunately, the gay marriage decision was never meant to be an ending point in this struggle, but another starting line on our long race for full equality.
So what do we do now?
First, we remind ourselves just who we are, and what it means to be LGBT in the United States. On one hand, it means, sometimes, being thrown out of our families, churches, and/or jobs because of who we love. It means being a target of hate and violence that every year causes this community to attend to many funerals for those lost to murder, and suicides. It is waking up to find out another politician has introduced a piece of anti-gay legislation.
On the other hand, being LGBT means being a part of the most diverse minority group in the country- a community that is a part of every race, religion, and socio-economic group. Because of this, we are some of the strongest humans within the borders of the United States. Whether transgender, gay, lesbian, or bisexual, nearly of all of us have experienced some form of ridicule, or judgement, because of how we talk, dress, who we love, and/or how we live. And how do we handle it? We gather to dance, we fall in love despite the consequences, and we fight for the next generation to have it better than we had it.
Secondly, we have to unite! If you divide a minority against itself, you slow or stop progress, and at a time when our government is controlled by a party that still has anti-gay legislation in their platform, we cannot afford a moment of division. Our community is beautifully diverse, and this should always be a point of pride! We can no longer allow intersectionality to leave us distracted by infighting. Somewhere within the collection of our different experiences lays the answer of how to make sure that the next line on our race for equality is a final finish line.
And just so I am clear, I do not believe that the final finish line has disappeared in the haze of distraction- based politics. In fact, despite their best efforts, it is still clearly visible! However, the only way we can cross it is the active participation of every single one of us! This, like 1970, is our summer to make it known through Pride parades like DC’s Capitol Pride, that we will no longer allow the LGBT community to be a conciliation for a vote, a way to stuff political coffers, or a moral pawn on their policy chest board! This is the summer that our Pride events will clearly display the unity and strength of this community. With bravery, all of us must once again exit the closet loud and determined to never allow someone to tell us our humanity is less than anyone else’s!