Dateline: Winter, Somewhere in Trump Country
Soulmate and I are holed up in the tastefully furnished large house that is her parents’ abode. Plentifully supplied with food and holiday cheer, the home boasts a warm fire that somewhat compensates for the unwelcome necessity of our disguise. For here, I am still a guy. Soulmate is my opposite-sex wife, and nothing has changed. The elders are in denial—my late parents would have been also—and I am a nice person.
This sucks.
So kids, you thought you missed all the excitement of the Stonewall era? Now’s your chance. It’s likely going to be even more “exciting” than what my generation had to deal with in the 1980’s. Back then, we dealt with relatively sane people who merely thought we all had AIDS. Today, we deal with more than a few who have swallowed neoreactionary philosophies without question and consider us the bacillus of all unwelcome social and economic change.
This sucks more.
It’s damn scary too and we’re just getting started. It’s a good thing that you really cannot choose your sexual or gender orientation. I imagine our fabled recruiting skills would be taking a sharp nose-dive otherwise. We should take pride in being labeled as troublesome changemakers however. This puts us in good company. There are synagogues and African-American churches full of such radicals who have scared the pants off traditional America in generations past. I guess it's our turn now.
Here's the good news: more of us are at peace with who we are and know that we are on the right side of the history to be written by future generations. It’s small compensation, perhaps, for The Tribe having to DEFCON 2, but good news is hard to find at present. There was a reason why the Brits threw a huge celebration after Dunkirk...because there wasn’t much else to celebrate. They were still alive and kicking and raised a few pints to acknowledge the fact. I guess it's our turn to do that also. Responsibly, of course.
Coming out and standing up to be counted has always been a courageous thing, even in the good times. A new generation, unfortunately, may soon be discovering that pride or political courage sometimes carries a steep price. Many of us have outed ourselves permanently on the Internet or social media by now, and it's awfully hard to run into the woods for cover when all the trees have been cut down for a better view. This is where those of my generation and earlier may be of assistance. We need to pass along a simple message to our younger siblings:
“Stand and fight! We have seen much of this before and there are no more closets to hide in.”
The Rainbow Army has always been the commando of American progressive culture. We are the first to fight in its defense, and we never willingly leave the field of battle. This is because our freedoms, and often our very lives, depend upon the victories of this side. We will need to continue subordinating our personal politics in favor of this progressive stance for the foreseeable future as we further align our movement with the greater game. This “Solidarity” movement of like-minded Americans from diverse backgrounds will go far to check most of what our adversaries may desire.
All we have fought for, and the freedom we have gained, in recent years is now under direct threat. So-called traditionalist Americans who support official policies to hinder, arrest or expel people of different faiths or backgrounds from themselves have managed to grab power for at least two years. We now know that the Alt-Right backers of the Republican Party campaign were planning their angle of attack for three years before the election, probably cribbing ideas from the Joseph Goebbels playbook of hate, amongst many others.
The acolytes of the Dark Enlightenment obviously did their homework...for the November scoreboard does not lie. Theirs was the Nixon “southern strategy” of our time, with our community as its main enemy. As Ms. Sulam correctly pointed out in her column last month, you have to grudgingly admire their willingness to openly stand behind their views for all to see…even if we prefer the views openly proffered by Justice Jackson at Nuremberg instead, wondering if a certain courtroom could be made available for future use.
I came across a Facebook post in the days following the election that many of you may have seen. Her identity is being withheld here for privacy reasons, but she did fly the transgender flag as her icon. It read:
“First they came for the Muslims and we said ‘not this time motherf***ers!”
Nailed it.
Now get ready. The real fight is just beginning and it will be for all the marbles going forward. Paraphrasing Mr. Churchill: We now have the honour of being the Alt-Right’s main and foremost enemy.
We should not disappoint them.
Julie Chase is the pen name for a local 40-something trans woman. A graduate of The University of the South at Sewanee, she loves butterflies, strong women and the Austrian School of Economics.