By Gwendolyn Ann Smith
As I write this, it is late autumn. The weather, just recently still as warm as summertime, has turned cold, and the day was a rainy one. Winter is well on its way.
The 2016 Transgender Day of Remembrance has been over for about two hours local time. This year, 295 people worldwide were honored, with 27 of those being in the United States.
Just a couple weeks ago, Donald Trump and Mike Pence ended up as our president and vice president for the upcoming four years. In the aftermath, we've seen an increase in hate crimes against minorities, including against transgender people.
Meanwhile, many Democrats and Democratic allies are hand wringing, looking for people to blame for the loss. One of their targets has been transgender people, claiming that they pushed too fast, too soon to see rights recognized in this country.
I would argue that the battle was not one we chose, and that it wasn't us who initiated the bathroom battles that had dominated some of the discourse over the last few years.
In short, these are trying times — dark times as we stare down the next few years. Those who have gotten past the need to finger point and scapegoat, the push is on to secure what we can. Resources are being pooled to help transpeople gain identity resources that may be lost under the incoming administration, as even the most optimistic amongst us expect transgender rights gains acquired during the Obama Administration to be lost.
I'm one of those few, lining up hurried appointments to gain a U.S. Passport. It's not that I'm off to vacation in Puerto Vallarta: laws allowing me to update the gender marker on my federal documents are very much threatened right now, and could be lost as soon as Jan. 20. My time, as they say, is short.
These are times when it is seductively easy to lose hope. I want to crawl into a hole for a while, bar my door against the cold, and let pain and grief envelop me like a thick blanket. At the very least, I find myself feeling like all my efforts to this point were for moot, as I see fights I championed on the incoming government's chopping block while even more anti-transgender violent murders get tallied up than ever before. It causes me to pause, and wonder what value there is in continuing to fight.
Yet I also know that many other friends of mine are facing the same feelings, and we're all realizing the same thing. I am not alone in this struggle, or is anyone else.
The fight for transgender rights predates me, goes before the Transexual Menace, stretches back before the Stonewall Inn and Compton's Cafeteria, and well beyond Christine Jorgensen. It goes past Lili Elbe and Earl Lind, and down the centuries. Those of us facing the next four years are only picking up the well-worn weapons of those who came before us — and our gains will be the armor worn by our future generations.
The setbacks we're facing now, that we will surely suffer through over the next presidency, are — in a grander scheme — only an issue for now. We have lost hard battles before, even some that may cause our bleak views of the next four years to pale in comparison. In the 20th century, we faced the Nazi regime burning Hirschfeld's library and marching LGBT individuals to death camps alongside other minority groups. We watched thousands of transgender people murdered, and countless more beaten into submission and silence.
What's more, we as a community are not alone. In spite of those who would like to see trans rights cut and left adrift from the larger LGBTQ movement, we need to stand together against an administration that would surely like to see gay and lesbian youth face electroshock therapy as much as they'd like to criminalize trans restroom use. We also have potential allies elsewhere, as this future administration gears up against people of color, against Muslims and Jews, against women, against protestors, and even against late-night television and Broadway plays. This is a time when we can — and should — rise up together.
It is autumn, and winter is right around the corner. It is time for us to grab our coats and fight off the chill. It is time to reach out to our friends, and a time to push back against hatred and discrimination.
This is not going to be an easy time. I don't feel it is truly hyperbolic to assume that we may see our rights — and the rights of many others — in tatters within very short order. This is not going to be a walk in the park for anyone but the wealthiest and privileged amongst us, and even then I'm not altogether convinced.
Even as we have faced hardship and setback, we have come back, stronger. Our struggles in the past have led us to where we are today, and our continued struggle will help keep us moving forward even as those who hate us try to strike us down physically and legislatively.
We need to stand as one. We need to say that we will not go back; that any right left unsecured is one right we will demand. We can — must — move forward.
One day, maybe sooner than we may think, winter will fade away, and the first buds of spring will appear. That day, we rise, and stretch towards the sun and justice. Until then, we continue to fight on.
