Bonus video! How you can defeat despair after an awful election

Let's not support "centrists" who sacrifice trans or any other LGBTQ folks (or any non-LGBTQ folks) in order to court votes. Solidarity is our superpower. No one gets left behind. As individuals, we can't do much, so it's good to join a group. Mutual aid groups, climate action groups, socialist groups, labor groups, whatever causes resonate with us the most. Let's understand that we'll need to push for and support a general strike, since "voicing our concerns" doesn't hold much power even with most elected Democrats. Our labor and our money are our most powerful tools.

I was in the first group of eighteen year olds who were able to vote in a Presidential election in 1972. My parents had always been interested in politics and we discussed “the news” at the family table. So, it seemed natural to me to work to elect George McGovern, the anti war candidate, for President. I worked prior to the primary and walked and canvassed prior to the general election as a freshman at UCLA. Well, I don’t think there was ever a worse shellacking that a Presidential candidate took as the one McGovern did! And it was so disheartening that Tricky Dick was re-elected! But, eventually, he slipped up and he either had to resign or he was going to face impeachment and indictment! I know times are difficult now, and I know that Trump is much worse than Nixon ever was! And, I know the current Republicans don’t have a spine among them! But, we will get through this! We have to! It’s the faith we get from the comradery of No Kings, or like minded family, or friends or even podcasts! Many of us queer people don’t have children or grandchildren, but we know the importance of protesting and being vocal! And we can unselfishly do it for other people’s children and grandchildren! And, of course for future generations of queer kids!

It's so easy to give in to despair with everything that happening. Progress that is painstakingly made over the course of years can all be brought down in a moment with one court decision, one election, and/or one charismatic conservative politician aided by what feels to be a largely apathetic populace. I don't even live in the U.S, but there have been times over this past year in particular, where the casual cruelty that being pushed, legislated and enforced by our American cousins.. it just takes your breath away. It really would be so easy to just shut it out, tell people that "I don't follow politics", and just concentrate on the everyday minutia of just living a life, and sometimes, I really just want to do that. I haven't though. Not because I'm special, but just because I honestly don't think that even I tried, I wouldn't be able to turn the dial from "I care" to "I don't give a shit". So, I'm going to just keep caring. I'm already gearing up for a series of Pride presentations that me and a few students will be putting on at some very Catholic schools in my area early in June. Why? Because they let me put my foot in the door there a few years ago, and they have not yet been able to shove me back out of it yet. Will they this year? Maybe. But I'll just find another way to get my foot in door again, because there a kids in those schools who are just as Queer as the kids in the public ones, and they deserve to get the same pro-Pride message as any of them. That's my thing that I can do, and no matter what the winds may blow my way, it will still be the thing that I plan to keep doing.