Many people from the LGBTQ community can agree that this election week has been quite emotional. No matter where people stand, people across the country are sharing their opinions. And, our LGBTQ community is making sure their voices are heard too.
These queer women and organizations shared their post-election thoughts and opinions with Tagg Magazine.
Feel free to tell us what you think.
We are met with the incredulous truth that exactly half of the country – nearly 60 million people – have voted to secure a platform defined by white supremacy, misogyny, racism, classism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. We have just lived through a campaign that rose in direct response to the power, momentum and incredible groundswell of OUR movements––our insistence that we will not sit silently and take death after death, the criminalization of our bodies, or the dispersion of our people. Our successes are being met with vitriol fueled by fear. – Astraea Foundation
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I’m devastated. The decades of LGBTQ progress we’ve made and the incredible strides by President Obama can all be erased in the blink of an eye over the next four years. I’m worried about my future and the future of many that I love. – Jenn T. Grace, LGBT Business Strategist, Professional Lesbian
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While I don’t think Hillary would have taken large steps to improve the lives of Black queer people, I do understand that the problems for us under a Trump regime, in particular with regard to the Supreme Court, will be felt for generations. That said, I am not wholly shaken up because I am watching a similar thing happen on the micro level in my hometown of Detroit.
While some would argue how queer friendly it is there, I have seen huge improvements with regard to how we are treated. We are currently living under historically conservative and anti-queer legislation/leadership in Michigan; it’s scary to think about. But in the queer community, I can see we look out for one another way more than we did when I was younger, and our allies on the outside seem to be wrapping their arms around us. Granted, I can only speak to my experience and what I observe, but I truly do believe something happened when the world came crashing down upon our little big town. Those of us who still have love for our home, and our people, we stick together and weather the storm. Speaking specifically to the Black Slave-African Americans here: if we can survive trips across oceans chained to corpses, years of abuse and involuntary servitude, and the tyranny of Jim Crow and Black Codes, we can survive whatever this decidedly orange man has in store for us. We just have to stick together. – Dainty Dandridge, Co-producer of Chocolate City Burlesque & Cabaret
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I am still numb. I have not watched her concession speech yet because I keep telling myself this is not our reality. But this is our reality.
Our reality is that an overwhelming number of white women who voted, chose bigotry over equality. It is our reality that the next four years are dangerously unscripted as there have been no concrete plans laid out except for the dismantling of what we have spent the last eigh years building. It is our reality that as we speak, white cis men are energized with a visceral hate for anyone who ever called attention to their privilege. It is also our reality that many of us are already experiencing whitelash and further marginalization. It is also our reality that Black women showed up for our freedom and voted when so many didn’t.
I don’t have the answers for everyone. But I am choosing to draw the line in the sand and clearly define where I will stand. I am standing on the side of those who would be further marginalized as a result of this administration. If there was ever a time to support Black, Brown, Trans and Queer led organizations, the time is now. – Michelle Dowell-Vest, Author and Podcast Producer
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To say it’s been an emotional past few hours would be understatement. I feel like we, as a community of feminists and game changers have been gutted.
This morning I lay wrapped in my great grandmother’s quilt, eyes full of tears with my cat Lucy and felt a stillness and a call I’ve heard before. A call to speak up, to share my story, to be strong when I feel uncertain. So there is only one thing for us to do to fight back, and that’s to amplify the voices and the stories of the women who are breaking barriers and ceilings everyday with their work. – Erin Bagwell, Dream, Girl Film
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In the 24 hours after the election I went through the first four stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining (if only we’d x,y,z), and Depression. But I know that I will never stop grieving this new administration because I will never reach the final stage: Acceptance. I can’t accept a man whose stances are in direct contradiction of my interests as a black, gay woman—a man who before today had zero days of political experience. And I’m not just mad because of my own story; I’m mad for what reactivating the Keystone Pipeline while simultaneously defunding the UN’s climate control initiatives will mean for our environment. I’m mad because his school choice program will decimate urban public schools. I’m mad because he thinks walling ourselves off from foreign nations (literally and figuratively) won’t hurt our international diplomacy. And I’m mad because his election has empowered a camp of separatists who now feel safe and protected in making their disdain for other cultures and communities widely known. I will not take this sitting down. – Jordyn White, Washington Prodigy Women’s Football
