This is not my first column of 2020, but that is only because in early January, I wrote a “Good Riddance to 2019” piece where I recounted some of the awful things that happened last year.
Of course, that was back in the blissfully naive days before 2020 said “hold my beer” and showed all of us exactly how bad a year could be. To my credit, I did end that piece by saying that 2020 didn’t look very promising, but that was because I anticipated a Supreme Court decision that would strip trans people of legal employment protections, and Trump’s reelection prospects looked very promising.
That being said, nobody, save for possibly Bill Gates, foresaw a crippling and deadly worldwide pandemic or the economic calamity in which we find ourselves today. If the polls are to be believed, these events, along with his reaction to police murdering Black people and the resulting Black Lives Matter protests, combined with scandals too numerous to recount in my 900 word limit, have exposed Trump to a majority of voters as the self-interested buffoon we on the left always knew him to be.
The results of his indifference and incompetence have been nothing short of tragic. Yet, despite proving over and over again that he is no ally, mysteriously, he still has his supporters in the LGBTQ+ community.
The delusion that Trump’s LGBTQ+ supporters have that it is down to their dubious ability to be a free-thinker and see “both sides” that escapes the majority of the queer community, would be funny if it didn’t have such dire consequences. Just because a person questions a rational group consensus does not mean they are somehow more liberated. It is probably more indicative that they are a white binary gay person who has largely remained unscathed during a fascist administration that, in reality, has also tried unsuccessfully to take them down. Being a contrarian in the face of overwhelming evidence, just makes them a useful fool oblivious to their own privilege, and a dangerous one at that. It takes a special kind of lack of self-awareness to be a lamb in favor of lamb chops.
Trump has fostered a cult ideology modeled on organized crime that prizes unquestioning loyalty above all, and blinds its queer followers to the fact that his administration in no way supports the LGBTQ+ community. It’s easier to remain blind than to face a scary reality that he has come for everyone, except them, so far. They cling to a Trump photo op where he once held a Pride Flag, if upside down. They claim he is the most gay-friendly Republican president just because he says it is so, which is both questionable and a very low bar.
In truth, his policies have especially singled out the trans community. This year alone, his Department of Health and Human Services attempted to roll back regulations protecting trans people from discrimination in healthcare and defining gender as a matter of policy to be based only on biological sex at birth. His Department of Education is attempting to implement a policy against the inclusion of trans kids in school athletics. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is attempting to implement a policy allowing shelters to legally turn away trans homeless people.
We also mustn’t forget that he directed his Department of Justice lawyers last year to argue at the Supreme Court, that case law extending trans people protections on the basis of sex discrimination was unconstitutional. This was the case I presumed would lead to a negative decision for the trans community in 2020, but in a surprising bright spot in this dumpster fire of a year, actually resulted in a resounding and far reaching victory.
To not care about these attempts at trans discrimination speaks to an astounding level of selfishness, which not coincidentally, mirrors the values of Trump himself. Quite a slap in the face to the memory of trans activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera on whose sacrifice rests the very rights that allow for this callous self-interest. However, what should at least alarm the rest of the LGBTQ+, even if his supporters within our community won’t acknowledge it for what it means, is that he simultaneously attempted to strip those same protections from gay people in a separate case he also lost. Like I said, he is coming for all of us.
In my lifetime, I have seen many government administrations do terrible things to the LGBTQ+ community. From Reagan allowing scores to die of AIDS rather than acknowledge a public health crisis primarily affecting American gay men, to Clinton legally defining marriage as only between one man and woman by signing DOMA. Frankly, all of it is indefensible, but Donald Trump purposely promotes cruelty by espousing it as policy.
That is not something I say either lightly or without careful consideration. Come November, I hope we are able to end multiple national nightmares by resoundingly sweeping him and his enablers out of office, but if we don’t, those of you in the queer community who voted for him will deserve what you get.
Melody Maia Monet has her own YouTube channel where she answers lesbian and transgender life questions you are afraid to ask. You can find it at YouTube.com/MelodyMaia.
