Keep Moving Forward

Trans Voices In Trump's America #6

Things are bad. Pretty damn bad. But we’ve had it bad before, and we’ve gotten through it. We’ll get through it again. 

This isn’t the first time the government has been against us. It just feels worse because we’d made so much progress that they have more they can take away. I remember when we couldn’t get married. When you couldn’t legally change your gender. And we moved forward. And, despite what it feels like, most people have moved on with us. The people shouting so loud are a minority. Most people want to let other people just live their lives, and don’t care what we get up to. 

The conservative government shouts so loud (and takes these ridiculous actions against us) because they listen to the other loud voices. The people who don’t care about us don’t speak up because it doesn’t occur to them to do so. 

I don’t know what to do from here except to keep moving forward. It’ll be hard, we won’t get anything done quickly, but we live here and we deserve to do so. We deserve to be listened to. We deserve to fight for a home that respects us. 

Many LGBTQIA+ people are leaving. Either moving to blue states, or even other countries. I can’t blame them. It isn’t safe here, now. One of my partners is talking about moving to Germany, the other is thinking Thailand. Many of my trans friends have already left my home of South Alabama. And like I said, I don’t blame them.

I can’t leave. I don’t have the money or the skills to get citizenship in another country. I’m disabled and can’t work and can’t support myself. I live with my father because I need his help to live. And with his health conditions, he needs mine as well. I can’t leave him. 

But even if I could, I don’t think I would. This is my home. And I’m going to fight.