Yep! Told my family that once they strip me of my disability, I will be priced-out of society: I won't be able to afford my house anymore, I won't be able to afford my bills, and I will likely lose everything. And I'll likely have nothing to live for.
They tell me I'm overreacting and that there are "checks and balances" in place to prevent them from doing that stuff. I just point at Roe v Wade and they tend to change the subject.
How is that not an achievement?
Because the Dems let the GOP gut it to get it to pass. The ACA as it is now, and as it was passed back then, was not what we were promised, and we still haven't gotten the ACA we were promised.
In fact, Harris dropped support for M4A and didn't campaign on it, so is that an achievement too? The Dems giving up the fight before it even started? Like they did during this administration, literally bending over any time the GOP put up any kind of resistance to any of the Dems legislation?
Have you considered, y’know, participating in the party?
Yes, just like the over 100,000 protest votes in Michigan during the primaries to protest the Palestinian genocide.
The DNC gave Michigan Muslims/Arabs the middle finger and said "We don't need your votes, and we're not changing course on Palestine."
The DNC threw trans people under the bus literally the day after they lost the election, and continue to tell us that the reason the DNC lost is because they were too woke.
In 2016, we tried to get Bernie to be our candidate, and Clinton and the DNC did everything in their power to ensure that wouldn't happen, because the DNC knows best. 🙄
Same in 2020, they had Bloomberg and Warren siphon votes off Bernie to split the progressive vote and seal the nomination for Centrist-Joe, who had to borrow policies from Bernie's campaign to be popular enough to beat Trump. And then spent four years not enacting any of those policies.
Like, I'm so tired of hearing how it's our fault, the voter's fault, for the DNC being a shitty party. Hundreds of thousands of people protest voted during this primary, and the DNC ignored their voices, and now you're condescendingly making a comment about people not being more involved with the party?
What a load of horse shit. The voters don't need to engage with the party, the party needs to engage with voters, and since they raised over a billion dollars and spent a majority of it on Clinton's 2016 political consultants... I'd say they have the resources to get off their fat asses, leave their liberal white porcelain towers, and come fucking talk to their constituents for once and figure out why they don't represent us.
Oh, I forgot, because they're too busy raising campaign money instead of changing campaign finance laws, and they're too busy rubbing elbows with their colleagues across the aisle instead of getting things done, OH, or they're on one of their numerous multi-week vacations at one of their second/third/fourth residential homes while their constituents are guaranteed no vacation time period. God, it must be so hard relating to a populace you literally share nothing in common with, why won't the filthy poors just realize they're inferior to these liberal elite who know best for them.
Or are we supposed to go participate as a PAC, should we all just be billionaires, since they're the only ones the DNC will listen to?
"Participate," what a joke.
I got out in 2017 partially because I'm trans and Trump was coming into the oval office. He had made it clear that trans people would not be welcome in his military, and I wasn't going to risk being discharged because of President Bone Spurs.
The military held him off last time, but I'm not as hopeful this time. And I just wanted to throw out there: I personally believe the GOP is going to use federal funding to essentially strip LGBTQ+ people of their rights and healthcare access. It's going to be the Minimum Federal Drinking Age Act of 1984 again, where the fed is gonna say, "Sure, you can offer gender affirming care in your state... If you do, you won't have access to XYZ federal funding anymore."
And the states will let it happen.
Arm yourself, surround yourself with those you love and can trust, and just hope I'm wrong. Pray if that's your thing.
But we have to face the reality that we are a representatively small, marginalized group within a marginalized group (each LGBTQ+ letter is when they're all on their own) that neither political party has an active interest in protecting. We will be the first "others" after the "illegal" immigrants (or simultaneously, who knows). When the quality of life of our fellow citizens begins to be threatened, we will absolutely be thrown to the wolves. "Preferring a negative peace with the absence of tension to a positive peace with the presence of justice", white moderate, that whole thing.
And even within the LGBTQ+ community, there are letters of it that do not support the other letters (LGBdroptheT, TERFs, Bi-erasure, etc). So be aware that even amongst the LGBTQ+ community, there will be those who look to scapegoat the T just buy a bit more time from the leopards.
I'm pessimistically hopeful that maybe, just maybe, the DNC will be able to recover a bit politically at the federal level during the midterms and stave off the worst of it. But I'm also not naive in the idea that laws, customs, and norms are going to stop the GOP from trying to enact things. And even should that happen, the work isn't done: we need to be a core tenet of the DNC's platform, or they don't deserve our votes or support.
I should also point out, I am not saying January 20th Trump is sworn in, and January 21st Congresswoman McBride is the first trans person marched into an oven. That's why I said they're going to budget us out via healthcare services, they're not going to outright make trans people illegal on day 1. It's going to take time, but I do believe it's going to happen, or at least that's how they're going to try to do it.
We can hopefully get around to the other things eventually
I've heard this every election cycle my entire life, particularly from the DNC. "We can't have that because of some arbitrary norm that we have to respect and adhere to that we could totally change, but, oopsies, would ya look at that, we lost the majority, so give us money and elect us and we promise this time we'll get to it! Eventually, after we handle all this other stuff that came up since the last time we got absolutely nothing done to help you, but we promise, this time, for real."
but we can't do it all at the same time.
Says who? We make the rules, it's our government, where in the Constitution does it say "You may only enact legislation that incrementally changes things for the better over the course of decades, assuming none of it is undone?"
so just be happy that we've seen anything happen.
Why? When it doesn't change anything, and it's just going to be undone, why should we be happy about that? Why do we have to keep being "happy" that nothing is changing for the better? Why do we have to keep applauding and cheering and supporting this bullshit when it means absolutely nothing?
This is like someone telling you they're cold, and you light a match and hold it between you both. When they ask why you don't use the match to light some of the logs and paper littered around the room for more warmth, you let the match burn out and tell them they should be happy you did something.
Like, wow, they're still cold, the resources are still scattered around the room unused, the "fire" burnt out shortly after it was lit, and now they're not allowed to complain about it either.
Ringo Starr: "And Henry would stay there, forever and for always. I think Henry got the punishment he deserved... Don't you?"
Thomas the Tank Engine music plays as credits roll
Guess the gloves are coming off, god damn...
So is it fair to the family not to mourn?
How many families of Holocaust victims were given the privilege and closure of mourning and burying their loves ones?
I agree that no person is at fault for the actions of their family or their ancestors, but, their family's actions do no negate the consequences of those actions. Seeing what people like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini did to their own people, nevermind what they did to those of other countries... Do their families have more right to mourn their loss than the people do who suffered at their authoritarian hands?
I would argue no, because life isn't fair, but also because the amount of suffering enacted should not be met with honor or remembrance or respect. The family of authoritarians can mourn in their heads, if they do choose, but I would argue they should choose not to. There's no "separating the art from the artist" when it comes to authoritarian genociders. Mourning their life isn't just mourning the loss of them, but the loss of everything they did in their life as well.
If you've lived the kind of life where people are debating the morality around whether or not you deserve a funeral, I'd say you don't deserve one.
This is why, despite me being on and off hormones over the last 7 years due to life/insurance/bullshit reasons, I haven't put much effort into trying to get on them again since Biden dropped out. (I currently don't have insurance, but I do have VA Healthcare access, which, we'll get to).
Our access to healthcare isn't protected, and at least for trans people, our rights and protections don't seem to be a platform priority for the DNC beyond lip service. The GOP has made it a defining part of their social platform, and made their intentions and goals clear. The majority of what we've gotten from Biden has been empty platitudes on various LGBTQ+ days of remembrance, pride, or visibility.
The day after the election, at least two Democratic congressional members felt comfortable enough to go on live today and basically parrot GOP talking points about trans people. They placed the blame for their loss at the feet of one of their most marginalized constituencies, and again, felt comfortable doing so. We are a token group to the DNC, they'll take our money and support but do little in the way of protecting us federally.
Which brings us to the VA: for anyone who doesn't know, the VA offers gender-affirming care to veterans. They actually offer more services beyond just medications than you'd initially assume (like voice training, certain surgeries, certain electrolysis/laser hair removal, etc). They do not cover SRS/GRS though, they legally aren't allowed do. SRS is explicitly excluded from their standard benefits package.
And with the Trump admin coming back in with Project 2025, I have no doubt the VA's gender affirming care services will be one of the first things on the chopping block. So I tabled those plans because I don't see me having access to my hormones after January next year. And since I've gotten gender affirming care there before, and it's documented I'm trans in my file, my heart is just filled with joy knowing the P25 shitstains will likely be pulling all of that info to use to deny myself and other veterans our other VA benefits (like disability, retirement, GI Bill, etc).
Groups are challenging this, but it's still illegal. Which, I guess, brings me to my final part (and the part that really scares me): they're (the GOP) going to use the budget to make us illegal, to make medically treating trans people illegal outside of conversion therapy or chemical castration or whatever. And our "allies" are going to stand by, watch, and let it happen.
In 1984, the US government passed the Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act, legally mandating the drinking age in the US at 21 years old. At the time, states dictated their own drinking age, and it ranged from 18-21 at the time. A lot of states (and people) were against the act for plenty of reasons: military service at 18 but no drinking till 21, voting at 18 but no drinking, individual rights, etc.
But it passed, and y'know why? Because any state that refused to enforce the new drinking age would lose out on federal highway funding money. So the states rolled over and accepted the new act.
And they'll do the same thing to LGBTQ+ people to force states to bend the knee, and since money is all that matters to anyone in this world, the states will bend. The GOP has every branch of government now, the judiciary, and plenty of billionaire-owned media to push their narrative.
Idk what they'll tie it to, maybe they'll be lazy and just use highway funds again, but I guarantee that's their means to the end. And everyone around us, our "allies," are going to let it happen. Because our access to healthcare, or even just basic rights for LGBTQ+ people, that doesn't affect our allies. But all of a sudden XYZ funding they rely on could be pulled if LGBTQ+ people have rights, and they're going to turn their back on us, close their eyes, plug their ears, etc.
How do you think the average Fox viewer is going to feel when the shoes host tells them if John is allowed to be Jill, then they (the viewer) will lose their Medicare/Medicaid coverage? What politician, regardless of party, is going to say "We will protect trans people, even if it means we lose federal funding for school lunches, so we'll be cutting those or we'll raise taxes?" "Is letting little Johnny play on the girl's soccer team worth losing infrastructure funding? More at 11."
Some of you are gonna say, "But Blitzø, don't you think you're being a little alarmist?" No, I don't, because we've seen this happen before. Nazi Germany didn't start throwing Jews in ovens in 1933, it was the hundreds/thousands of small, incremental steps that led the victims to their graves. The Nazis started with plenty of other groups before they moved onto Jewish folks, and there's that whole "They came for the socialists and I said nothing because I'm not a socialist," thing.
I had a very close friend already do it, years ago, when North Carolina passed the first bathroom ban. His company was sending him to either TX, NC, or like ME for 6 months of training, and he had some say in where he could go. I told him TX because I'd lived there and thought he'd like it, and ME is too close to our home state. He asked why not NC, and I told him I personally wouldn't want to give a state that's hostile towards trans people my tax money. His response, verbatim, "Yeah, but, that doesn't affect me."
Hell, look at what just happened in Minneapolis: two trans women were physically assaulted by five guys at a train station while the crowd cheered the attackers on. No one intervened to break up the assault, and no one came to defend the two women who confronted the guys about their trans slur usage. Just think about that... Numerous people tried to intervene in the George Floyd murder, with many recording the assault and demanding the police back off.
And then in the same city, 4 years later, a crowd cheers and offers no assistance while two trans women are verbally, and then physically, assaulted and then left unconscious on the train platform.
Anyway, this comment is turning into a soap-box dissertation, but, I don't see things going well for the LGBTQ+ community over the next four years, and I don't see the states doing much to be a bulwark for our rights. Hopefully I'm wrong, but...
Hell, they'll probably make us pay back the economic impact payments we got during the last pandemic.
I would say rightfully, yes.