Never Before in America Have Our Very Lives and Civil Rights Been Been So Uniquely Threatened
Marchers at Sunday’s 48th annual NYC Pride have added an additional element to this year’s celebration: Resistance.
The efforts to resist President Donald Trump, his supporters in Congress, his enablers in the media, and his policies and behaviors are a natural fit for a community who has had to fight for every right, every advance, and every ounce of recognition. And we’re far from done. We are fighters by necessity: we have faced oppression and opposition at every turn.
Donald Trump’s agenda represents a clear and present danger not only to our civil rights, but to our very lives. That’s not hyperbole. And while it is more tangible and evident for the LGBT community, that clear and present danger exists for literally everyone in America.
The GOP health care plan which Trump supports, for example, will literally lead to the deaths of thousands. The LGBTÂ community, where many of those living with HIV/AIDS will find themselves without the safety nets put in place by Obamacare and even previous health care programs, especially Medicaid, is exceptionally at risk. People with pre-existing conditions, from HIV/AIDS to diabetes to cancer, to mental health challenges will find their health care costs skyrocketing should the current legislation become law.Â
After decades of real discrimination and oppression, many in the LGBT community are finally finding occupations and communities where we are treated equally, but many within our community, transgender women of color in particular, are not. And Trump’s policies and actions harm the LGBT community, at times the most. From eliminating life-saving health care, to revoking guidance protecting the civil rights of transgender students across the country, to scaling back or dropping civil rights actions by the Dept. of Justice and Dept. of Education, to appointing the most virulently anti-LGBT cabinet in modern history, to embracing the religious right and enabling their anti-LGBT hate to be elevated as normal.
From changing the face of the Supreme Court – possibly overturning Obergefell and Roe v. Wade, to turning away refugees and immigrants from war-torn countries and deporting the undocumented to countries where their deaths are all but guaranteed, LGBT people, especially LGBT people who are also ethnic minorities, are at great risk.
That’s just for starters.
So, let’s be thankful for today’s Pride, and let’s be thankful for all those who are part of the Resistance. Because never before in America have our very lives and civil rights been been so uniquely threatened.
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Image, top, via Gregg Gonsalvesâ€/Twitter
Editor’s note: Many people and groups hold many different policies and beliefs. Inclusion above is not necessarily an endorsement by NCRM of any particular person, group, agenda, belief, or statement.