LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back
A message of solidarity
It has been a few weeks since the election, and Democrats have begun pointing fingers in every direction, desperately trying to find a reason for why they were unable to secure the presidency out of the hands of Donald Trump. There have been many headlines, post-mortems, commentaries and editorials trying to nail down exactly why Kamala Harris was not able to beat Teflon Don. However, so much of the commentariat has almost unanimously decided that the primary factor in her loss was apparently because she was too “woke,” too progressive, and too reliant on “identity politics.”
To which I say, what campaign were they watching?
Because that wasn’t the campaign I experienced.
Harris maybe believed in rights for transgender people in her deepest thoughts and prayers, but she certainly did not run on that. In fact, she mostly ignored us. The one time she was asked about trans people point blank,[1] she responded with a very restrained answer in which she promised to “follow the law.” Given the staggering 669 anti trans bills proposed in the US in the past year, of which 49 have passed in the states, this does not exactly inspire confidence.[2] If anything, the Harris campaign took LGBTQ+ people for granted, and LGBTQ+ people voted in overwhelming numbers for the Harris campaign.
Perhaps it would be a good time to remind the Democrats that perhaps we are not as reliable as they think we are.
The board is being set, the pieces put in place
I will give Harris two compliments though. She chose a hell of a running mate, and at the beginning of her run, she coined an all-time great slogan: “We’re not going back.” It signaled to the voters that Trump would be a step backwards for the country, and not in the “Make America Great Again” way that the right wing imagined it would be. It proposed at the very least the image of a forward, progressive movement, even if her actual policy proposals were very middle-of-the-road, “Nothing will fundamentally change,” centrist Democratic ideas. Still, despite that, it was a good move that attempted to signal early on that Harris was going to be a departure from the status quo...a signal that turned out to be walked back and backtracked throughout the ensuing two months of election politics.
That said, I still like it. In fact, a lot of people like it, especially folks within the LGBTQ+ community. Because what we have so far is only the start of what we could be, and it is so very fragile. Marriage equality was supposed to be the compromise, the beginning of queer rights and true queer liberation, not the end point. But we can’t go back to before.
What we are facing in the 2nd Trump administration is nothing less than the rolling back of rights and freedoms that were hard-earned for queer folks, women, immigrants and anyone who isn’t a white cis-het man. This will come couched in language of freedom, patriotism, and faith, wrapped in a golden American flag. What we are facing is American-style fascism, and it is going to require opposition.
Frankly, the Democratic Party, as the opposition party to MAGA Republicans, are ill-equipped to handle the task at hand. They misunderstand their opponents to a laughable degree. They think that they can keep playing the same old games of democracy that they have tried to play for decades, not realizing that the rules change when the opponent changes. The Republican Party today is not the same party that are used to dealing with. The Republican Party is no longer the restrained, small-government, sensible moralists that they were before 2015. No, the party has been reforged in the fires of MAGA and have completely transformed into the party of Trump. Like it or not, that is what the facts are. And like it or not, Trump is a fascist.
Do not take my word for it. Take Umberto Eco’s, in his typology in Ur Fascism.[3] Trump ticks every box in that typology. Take Jason Stanley’s word, who explains in plain language just how fascism works.[4] Or hell, despite the fact that Trump lies about almost everything, you can take it from the man himself, and that “Hitler did some good things.”[5] But you know, it is funny to me that the first place I encountered the idea that Trump was a fascist was Cracked.com, all the way back in 2015.[6] They had him pegged back then, when it was a joke. Now, it’s not at all a joke.
Trump was hamstrung in his first term because he does not know how government works. He was an agent of chaos, and he liked to have a room full of people fighting around him. Now? Now he has an entire slate of people that are poised to get things to happen, including Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025.[7] He is going to do whatever it takes to remake America in his image. And it will leave a bodycount, no matter what happens.
The Fight Ahead of Us
Yet, the Democrats think they are still playing by the old rules. They are counting on norms that Trump doesn’t care for to enforce rules that Trump doesn’t want to follow. They are going to have to play hardball. But by all early estimates, they are not up to the task. Not with the attitude they have now.
The first salvo has been fired, too. Oh, you think it will begin on inauguration day? It happened last Wednesday, when Rep. Nancy Mace took aim at incoming Rep. Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender representative.[8] Mace is putting forth legislation to force trans people to use the bathrooms of their assigned gender at birth (AGAB), rather than their actual gender. McBride may be her outward target, but she aims to ban all trans people from using the right bathrooms in federal buildings across the country. Rep. McBride has responded, in an attempt to not take the bait as a “distraction” from the real issues Americans face, to be “above the fray” as it were.[9]
While I appreciate her desire to appeal to the better angels of our nature, I have to say that what it actually does is, in effect, buckle at the first fight of the new administration. Trump and the Republicans spent the better part of a year campaigning against trans people, using us as a wedge issue to divide Americans, and they simply do not care about what is fair, just, or right. There are no better angels in their nature to appeal to when their entire platform for the past campaign was hate. They hate trans people, and whether or not Republican voters hate us or not, that’s what the Republican Party has made clear.
McBride, and the Democrats, have shown they are trying to play by the old rules, but the old rules no longer apply. They are willing to sacrifice trans people first, humiliate themselves by cowing to this attack, and leave the rest of us out in the cold. This is an effort to demonize us, and they fell for the bait, whether they know it or not. They didn’t even try to fight it.
Well, they may want to play it that way, but I have no intention of doing so.
The Ultimatum
If the Democrats choose not to defend LGBTQ+ people, then it’s on us to make sure they know that we have lost faith in them.
First, I want you all to know I plan on writing to my congress representative, my senator, anyone who represents me, to fight for us LGBTQ+ folks. We aren’t going to tolerate any backpedaling on LGBTQ+ rights. We showed up for them. LGBTQ+ folks showed up in droves (86%) to fight and vote.[10] We need to let them know that they can’t count on us if they don’t fight for us.
If they do not defend us, if they let the Republicans roll back rights for LGBTQ+ people without a fight, then they won’t have my vote next election.
I’ll find another party, one who will fight for us.
Yes, I know that means that in the US system, that is “throwing my vote away.”
I don’t care.
They won’t take us for granted next time.
I stand with my fellow queer people. I urge them to do the same. Write your representatives. Tell them what the plan is.
Because if they won’t stand up against fascism, then what good are they to us?[11]
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[1] Important context, of course, was that this was in the Fox News interview, which most likely fully intended to twist every word she said against her, and she was in combat mode during that interview. Still, what she could have done was stick to her principles and defend trans people. She notably did not do that.
[2] See
https://translegislation.com/
for more detailed breakdowns.
[3] See https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism.
[4] You can purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Fascism-Works-Politics-Them/dp/0525511830.
[5] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-said-hitler-did-some-good-things-and-wanted-generals-like-the-nazis-former-chief-of-staff-kelly-claims
[6] See https://www.cracked.com/blog/why-comparing-donald-trump-to-hitler-makes-perfect-sense
[7] https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-11-30/trump-appointees-project-2025
[8] See https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/nancy-mace-defends-anti-trans-bathroom-bill-says-absolutely-targets-sa-rcna180805.
[9] https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/sarah-mcbride-trans-women-bathroom-nancy-mace/
[10] See https://www.them.us/story/lgbtq-voter-turnout-election-2024-kamala-harris
[11] This has been my part in a much larger conversation, started by Julia Serano. She asked us to stand together, and I want to do my part. Read her blog here: https://juliaserano.substack.com/p/planned-action-for-lgbtq-and-allies