I was up late last night and am guessing many of you were, too. This morning, as we got the kids off to school, my wife Meghann and I told our 10-year-old that Donald Trump had been elected President. Sometimes figuring out how to share hard news with kids is also a way to distill it down to what matters most. Here’s what happened, here’s what we know about who we are and our values, and whatever you are feeling right nowis OK.
As a starting point, this message is sent with a lot of love and care. Please take care of yourselves, lean into your support networks, and check in on your people as we all absorb this news.
Let’s be clear: This result is grim for so many and for our country. We now enter an uncertain and uncharted era, in which a President-Elect staked his flag on the side of authoritarianism and hate. There’s no way to say that other than plainly.
We have lived through tough times, and those who came before us and upon whose shoulders we stand have certainly done so. I draw strength from that on a day like this. And the work of love and justice is timeless: It keeps going because it must. We keep going because we must.
We know the road ahead is going to be tough. And we know that one thing that will be essential – and will help – is being connected. Connection is as essential as the air we breathe to making it through life’s toughest times, to fully experiencing life’s greatest joys, and to finding the path forward together.
And that’s where we’ll start as we move forward. With connection. For folks in Western NC, we hope you’ll join us at our LGBTQ+ Resource & Supply Center tomorrow from 11am – 5pm. We have stood this weekly event up as a way to support our community through the crisis of a natural disaster; and now it is also a place where we can gather as we take one step and then another, forward together. We wish all of you could join us, but wherever you live, we hope you can find ways to experience connection in the days ahead.
Our work at the Campaign for Southern Equality is more urgent than ever – and we will always be here to fight for the lived and legal equality of LGBTQ+ Southerners. That includes ensuring trans youth and their families can access the medical care they need, protecting LGBTQ+ youth in schools, and resisting every single attack on our dignity and humanity. It includes preparing to face a hostile federal government and a Supreme Court case challenging state bans on healthcare access for transgender youth. Through our Trans Youth Emergency Project, we’re helping families of trans youth navigate these awful bans – please take a moment now to channel your rage and sadness into something meaningful: Donate to help us get trans youth to the healthcare they need, no matter what.
While we’re sobered by the national results, we are also finding hope in some of the important victories from this election cycle. North Carolinians decisively elected Governor-Elect Josh Stein, a longtime champion of civil rights and ally to our community, and rejected the vehemently anti-LGBTQ+ views of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, one of the most extreme and hateful elected officials in the country. Sarah McBride will be the first out transgender member of Congress, and Julie Johnson will be the first out LGBTQ+ representative from Texas to serve in Congress. These results and many more matter – because they mean that people will be in office at the local, state and federal levels who will fight like hell for our rights.
For me, last night’s results feel like a body blow, but they do not feel like a shock. Here in the South, we live each day in a reality in which many things are true at once: dangerous political forces focused on tearing communities apart; deep and real relationships with people with whom we vigorously disagree; the ever-present past entangled in our families, our lands, our hometowns; and – also – flashing visions of a future that can be as all of us live into who we truly are, who we love, and the values that anchor and guide us.
I know this is really hard.Take the time you need. And when you’re ready, join us – to connect, to speak out, organize, and never stop showing up on the side of justice and love.
At CSE, our team will do what we’ve always done in hard times: Show up with love every day. Keep our focus on the work to protect the dignity and equality of all LGBTQ+ Southerners, and pivot where we need to in order to respond to crises like this one.
With love, support, and a relentless hope for a better world,
Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara
Executive Director, Campaign for Southern Equality
