Make America Straight Again!

There has been a whirlwind of emotions swirling around our heads and hearts since the shock of Tuesday's election hit us like a sledgehammer to the temple. Many fears and concerns have arisen since Trump wrapped his meaty little hands around the title of President Elect, including the fears of his purported wall, the ban on Muslims, immigrants, and refugees, degradation of the Black Lives Matter movement, and of course, his promise to repeal Marriage Equality. Hand and hand with his VP Mike Pence, the GOP elected candidates have sworn to work together to set the human rights clocks back 75 years.

While I am terrified at all of these prospects, I know there are pitfalls, legislative loops, protests, and filibusters that can stop many of Trump's proposed bills from being passed, in spite of the Republican control of Congress. However there are issues beyond the power of Congress that are in far more danger than the promises Trump will eventually break.

In June of 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States voted for Marriage Equality, securing equal rights to homosexuals throughout the nation and barring any future president, Senate, or House of Representatives from overturning the ruling. Only SCOTUS can undo their own decisions, and we felt secure under the steely protection of the highest court in the land. What we hadn't anticipated that when SC justice Antonin Scalia died, Congress would not permit Obama to nominate a replacement, which is the right of the sitting president. They reserved the right of the nomination to the future president, confident that the GOP would manage to regain control of the presidency. Now that Trump has taken the crown, he has presented a long list of conservative justices that he will nominate for the job. And all he needs is a Republican dominated Congress to get his nomination elected, which he now has.

Now Scalia was a conservative, but as the court had a liberal majority at the time, replacing a conservative with a conservative was not an immediate threat. Unfortunately many of the justices are elderly: Ruth Bader Ginsberg is 83, Anthony Kennedy is 80, and Steven Breyer is 78. Both Bader Ginsberg and Breyer are liberal, whereas Kennedy is a balanced Republican who maintains an objective approach to most issues. As time marches on for these justices, rumors and reports of retirement are looming in the air, along with legitimate concerns for eventual passing-ons given their chronological progression in life. The loss of these justices during the Trump Administration will undoubtedly secure a 6-3 or a 7-2 (god forbid an 8-1) court imbalance tipping the scales of justice in favor of the conservatives. This, of course, is just the first step in a lengthy process that could eventually endanger the Marriage Equality ruling, but all Trump really needs is one more justice to retire or die to accomplish the platform he and VP Pence have promised to the country.

From the get-go, Trump had been utilizing his platform to speak out against all laws passed that have permitted the LGBT community to progress to some semblance of normalcy in a heterosexist and heterocentric society. This includes the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, DOMA, Marriage Equality, and many other laws and bills that guaranteed protection against job discrimination and hate crimes. Trump and Pence argued that these laws infringe upon the rights of Americans to practice their own religions without fear of persecution. They have vowed to force transgendered individuals to use their "biologically appropriate bathrooms" or their birth-gender bathrooms, and have backed laws that would permit discrimination based on religious beliefs. Pence himself has vetoed and amended laws against generalized hate crimes because they included language that protected LGBTs in the past. In a move more frightening, Pence cut funding to an HIV treatment facility, arguing that federal dollars should not be given to "organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that spread the HIV virus", and stated more money should be spent on treatment to assist individuals "seeking to change their sexual behaviors."

So let's dissect that last statement for a moment, because some may argue it can be interpreted in many ways. Changing sexual behaviors could have met that people could change their behaviors by practicing safe sex, or getting tested for HIV before engaging in sexual relationships, or consulting with their doctor about leading a healthy and safe sex life with an uninfected partner. But that tiny line preceding this statements sets it pretty clear for us, because no HIV treatment organization "celebrates" behaviors of unprotected sex, sharing needles, refusing to get yourself tested, or screwing your partner without any precautions or cares about infecting them. Not one. So we can only assume these behaviors are really referring to gays, and teaching them how not to be gay in order to avoid HIV (because straight people can't carry this disease). So essentially, Pence was refusing to help HIV inflected individuals unless they were willing to undergo treatment to stop gay behaviors, aka Conversion Therapy.

Conversion Therapy is, at its core, treatment to reprogram the homosexual brain to either suppress its natural urges toward the same sex, or to even teach the brain a sexual appreciation for the opposite sex. Historically, this has been attempted in many ways, including chemical castration, physical castration, electro-shock aversion therapy, medicinally induced aversion that made patients physically ill when having a biological response to sexual stimuli (think A Clockwork Orange), and other forms of physical abuse. Conversion Therapy has been denounced by the American Psychiatric Association and is banned in five states in America, but never fear, because our Vice President has argued for these interventions in the past and withheld HIV treatment from people who refused to get themselves "fixed."

So here's the main concern: after years of fighting for equality, our next President has vowed to repeal every single act that has affirmed our position as human beings in this nation allegedly built on equality. The Vice President is essentially a proponent of violent and aggressive therapies to cure the gay out of America. Once the conservatives dominate SCOTUS, only a few more steps need to be taken to ensure we're never equal again. First someone must bring a lawsuit against the state arguing that their religious beliefs have been infringed upon by allowing some flaming queen in San Francisco to get married. Because this is Post-Trump America, they will not have to prove much. Once this lawsuit gradually gets elevated to the Supreme Court, the court has to decide whether or not they will hear the case. Given that they owe their careers to this extremely anti-gay administration, I doubt they will refuse. At this point, they will vote, and gay marriage will be no more.

This is of course a lengthy process which could take years, but if Trump is able to deliver a conservative ruled Supreme Court, he doesn't have to be president if and when a new lawsuit finally gets to SCOTUS, Until another justice retires or dies and the next president is able to elect a liberal, we're in trouble, and I believe that while this will be difficult to achieve, it is by no means impossible. With an administration that is so geared toward and amped up on hatred, bigotry, homophobia, heterosexism, and just plain ignorance, I am scared for myself and my fellow gaybugs and butterflies (that's LGBs and Trans, respectively).

And this America, is why the Rainbow movement is terrified today.

Trump supporting the LGBT community just days before the election 

because he realized he needed us.

Oversung Heroine

When Caitlyn Jenner first came out as a transgendered woman, there were many predictable responses from the less educated right and even some from the middle who are still finding their feet when it comes to understanding gender identity issues. For her bravery in facing a very private decision in a very public manner, she was dubbed a hero and was awarded the Glamour Magazine's Woman of the Year award, among other notable acknowledgements. Following this, there was a tidal wave of backlash that swept across the internet, some of which trickled onto my Facebook feed as many argued that "a man dressed as a woman is no hero." They posted photos of courageous soldiers carrying their wounded brethren across the battlefields to safety, lamenting "this is a real hero!" One man even returned his wife's posthumous Woman of the Year award to Glamour Magazine after being sickened by the publication's choice to honor a trans woman. He stated it was insulting to his wife's memory, who perished during rescue efforts in the 9/11 attacks, and to many other past recipients. The definition of a hero has become more and more subjective as time goes on, but does Caitlyn deserve to wear the crown?

As society has progressed, step by step people have overcome their ignorance and their fear of the unknown and the misunderstood. We have taken great leaps in the human rights movement as people have gradually come to comprehend the "homosexual condition." Previously society believed we had a defective brain, that something didn't connect properly or develop properly, that something was wrong with us. Now they know that the the homosexual heart loves exactly the same way as the straight ones do, that homosexual love is as deep and profound and devoted as heterosexual love can be. But the next obstacle appears to be a bit much as many who are strong supporters of lesbians and gays still believe transgendered people to be defective with poor brain connections or limited neurological development, or possibly mentally ill. You're a hero if you find the courage to come out of the closet, but you're sick if you find the courage to adopt your true gender identity.

Caitlyn Jenner faced no easy task when she decided to come out as a female. She was mocked, attacked, and harassed. Petitions were signed to have her gold medals from the Olympic games revoked. She became the butt of every comedian's joke in late night talk shows, and she has added one more rock to the pile of "things gone wrong in America" arguments. But in spite of her own courage and bravery for her personal journey, I will say that as a public figurehead, Caitlyn Jenner is no hero.

After coming out as transgendered, the LBGT population rallied around her and adopted her as their mascot. Following her spread in Vanity Fair magazine, Caitlyn set hearts pounding and tongues wagging as people cheered her on in her very public transition. She landed a reality show chronicling her new life which often features her previous reality TV brood, the Kardashians and Jenners, and as previously mentioned, she began collecting awards and making speeches and public appearances all over the US. But the party was over when Caitlyn made an appearance on the show of America's favorite lesbian hero, Ellen Degeneres.

Identifying herself as a "traditionalist," Caitlyn admitted that she disagreed with gay marriage years ago and felt marriage should be between a man and a woman. She allowed that now she "doesn't want to get in the way of anyone's happiness," but sounded so reluctant in this, it was painfully obvious she negotiated her stance to avoid offending the gay, married talk show host sitting a few feet from her face. Tackling the terminology of matrimonial equality, she rescinded, "if that word marriage is really so important to you, I can go with it." Like I mean, if I have to, I guess I can deal with it. Strangely, the transgendered star adopted many arguments that conservatives like her have used against the LGBT community in order to support her own stance against her own community. She wept and demanded her own rights as a trans woman but couldn't comprehend why our rights as homosexuals were critical too. But she didn't stop there.

Months later, Caitlyn raised eyebrows again when she announced that she would be supporting GOP candidates in the presidential elections, in spite of the fact that they are all staunch opponents of LGBT rights and the human rights movement as a whole, and many are not that great for the gender equality movement either. Today, Caitlyn has announced that she wants to be an ambassador to Ted Cruz, a very conservative candidate who has publicly stated he would work to end federal equal marriage laws and would stop anti-discrimination laws protecting trans people. She argued that even though he does not have a great position on trans issues, he's "very nice" and if he becomes president, she would like to work with him to help him understand the trans community and the obstacles they face. Instead of gliding on some hopeless prayer that we can change his lifelong and deeply rooted Evangelical beliefs against LGBTs, wouldn't it just be better to keep him from getting elected altogether? Though she hasn't quite given him her full endorsement yet, the only other front-running Republican candidate left is Trump, so with her promise to endorse the GOP, either way we're screwed.

Caitlyn is famous because she is trans. Caitlyn is rich because she is trans. Caitlyn is being worshipped because she is trans. But Caitlyn is anti-gay marriage and has repeatedly announced her support for political candidates that have openly argued against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender rights. This shining, glittering, rainbow-filled community has embraced you and lifted you up onto this pedestal in hopes that you could be their voice, and you repay them by arguing against their rights and backing the people who could soon have the power to take those rights away. Taking the publicity, the fame, the awards, and the money that the world has handed you in being publicly trans, then refusing to help the LGBT communities where and when it means the most does not make you a hero. It makes you a money-grubbing publicity whore.

Let's get one thing straight: in this world that is inundated with negativity and fueled by criticism, it takes so much courage and insurmountable bravery to face the backlash you get for being yourself, which pours down on you in cascades of hatred day by day. To wake up every morning and challenge the archaic societal norms knowing you will be harassed, attacked, and mocked is no easy feat. Many don't survive. Leelah Alcorn committed suicide when her parents refused to accept her as a female and isolated her from her peers by taking her out of school when she refused to live her lie as a boy. Even after her death, her parents refused to acknowledge her as a female and buried her under her male birth name. Lucia McCalip just took her own life a few days ago with pong seeds after being bullied and attacked by her peers. Her mother referred to her by her male birth name and only shared photos of her as a male with the press, also indicating possible acceptance issues at home. This life is not for the weak of heart, and transgendered people are heroes, but let's shine the light on the true heroes and heroines and forget these shady oversung heroes. Me personally, I'm all about Team Jazz.