With the trump x Spence duo about the man the White House, the LGBT community should be bracing themselves for a shift in their experiences during Trump's America "made great again" campaign.
LGBT Realities Aren't Safe in the White House
Sitting in a bar in the U.K, me and my friends attempted watch the whole coverage of the U.S elections. Live-streaming the Sky News coverage, we quickly gave up. Partially because of exhaustion, mostly because there wasn't enough alcohol. Heading back home and sleeping through this who-will-Florida-vote-for situation, I awoke to a new world.
Donald Trump was now the 45th President of the USA. Folks shouted into the echo chambers of social media. Using all the caps locks and emoji's they could deploy to articulate their feelings about this.
For anyone reading this, brace yourself. We're in for an assault on LGBT rights and many other identities disfavoured by society. rally the troops. SOS. Red alert. Red will be the only colour for sometime that we can expect to see from the rainbow.
LGBT Anxieties Over Trump Are Real
The Obama moment of queer politics wasn't 100% peachy, but saw gay marriage, non-binary genders and same-sex adoption all legitimated through the law.
Enter the Trump era. Though flagged as the most gay-friendly, Elton John loving Republican out there, with a vice-president like Mike Spence, we must be wary.
This is a guy who said that gay marriage would kick off a societal collapse. Well, I guess he isn't completely wrong there.
Pence's plans on disassemble Obama's protections of LGBT peoples. The Republican platform passed numerous anti-LGBT provisions, such as opposing a ban on 'gay cure therapy'. Running smoothly with a bill to affirm 'religious freedom' exceptions from anti-discrimination laws.
Yikes. Suddenly, Trump's flip-flop on gay marriage seems like a cold comfort.
What Should We Expect?
The rolling back of many LGBT rights that many progressive movements have battled so hard for renders Queer America a troubling place to live and navigate. The direction of liberation groups have been jettisoned and stagnated, in the face of anti-transgender laws been supported in local state control and the deadening of the Democratically-supported Equality Act.
Right now, just a few days into this new political era, we don't know what to expect. Right now, all we can do is lift ourselves from mourning, glitter up, and get ready to stand up and fight.
