Grow Brighter

Trans Voices In Trump's America #3

it’s been one hell of a week and it’s certainly been a week that feels hopeless for many of us queers. it’s hard right now. and i don’t know what to say about it, and i don’t have the energy (or the knowledge for that matter) for a long eloquent deconstruction of national politics, so this is a ramble named after a video game quote.

the time we live in is one where we need to come together, and we’re going to need to stick together over the next four years. mutual aid, grassroots organizing, and community solidarity have never been more important, particularly for us youths and queers. and the good news is there is no shortage of people in the United States who are working to make those things happen. and the even better news is that we all can start it ourselves if no-one else has in our community. all it can take is a single conversation. there are more people who are willing to be kind than there are people who are willing to be hateful.

the fascists have won the presidency and the congress but they have not won the fight for the soul of the place we live, nor have they won the silence/destruction/deaths of queer people. they will never win until every last one of us is silent or gone and that will never happen. they will never win, and they cannot win because the fight to perpetuate fascism is the fight to eat oneself alive until there is nothing left. the fight to perpetuate fascism is the fight to destroy oneself, to deprive oneself of everything that makes humans wonderful. the fight we queers fight every day is the fight to uplift. the fight to love. to laugh. to experience joy. to exist and to exist so brightly that our oppressors cannot ignore us. enough of us are in the light now. and we’re not going back into the dark closet. we’ve had enough of closets, thank you very much, and we’re ready to help our erased queer siblings come out of theirs.

please, grow brighter. live more as yourself to the degree that is safe for you. it doesn’t even have to be external. it can be internal, it can be anonymous, it can be any way you feel is safe and that you feel is right. but most of all, keep living. don’t just survive. LIVE. living as an american queer is an act of resistance. it shouldn’t have to be, but it is. don’t just live to spite our oppressors— live for yourself. life for the time when we can all live to our fullest, both externally and internally.