LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back
This morning I woke up to snow on the ground. Everything outside seems magical. While waiting for the school bus, my younger child began drawing hearts in the snow, the way one writes in the sand on the beach. She made heart after heart, a message of love calling out to anyone who notices.
The snow isn’t much — probably not even an inch. And yet the whole world looks different.
We often think changing the world takes something large. We find the thought of enacting change too complicated and overwhelming, something beyond our capabilities, and so we sit and wait for someone else to take action—someone with more power or more knowledge or more . . . something, anything than we have.
But here’s the deal—change is made with small, everyday actions. . . or small, everyday inactions. It doesn’t take much to change the landscape.
Right now LGBTQIA+ people need your small, everyday actions. We need you to see our message of love in the snow. We need you to see us.
States across the US have enacted anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation in recent years, particularly targeted at the transgender community. If you’ve been following this page for long, you know how that has impacted my family. The president-elect has made clear that he plans to push this awful legislation to the federal level. And with both the House and the Senate, they have the ability to do so. But only if we don’t do anything, only if we don’t refuse to go back.
Today I am joining Julia Serrano’s action, our collective message. I’m asking you to join us in contacting your representatives. Here are Julia’s words
If you go to the Congress.gov Find Your Members website and enter your zip code, they will provide the names and phone numbers for your congressperson and senators. If you additionally wish to contact your state legislators, you can find them via 5calls.org by entering your zip code. The specific page I linked to there provides a script produced by 5calls for opposing anti-trans legislation at the state level. Some of you might find it useful in its own right (especially with 2025 state legislative sessions around the corner) and/or as a template for this action.
Our elected officials need to know that we want them to do everything in their power to defend LGBTQIA+ rights. Our calls, our small, everyday actions — they may seem like nothing. But it doesn’t take long for your action and my action, and the actions of so many people working together to snowball.
Will you join me?