Balance in 2026

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

Yesterday evening I volunteered at a fundraiser for a group that helps transgender people with limited means flee red states and move here to western Washington.

The event highlighted an inherent tension in the group's efforts. With all the official and unofficial threats against trans folks right now, the group considers secrecy paramount. But fundraisers require publicity. How the hell do you publicize an event you can't talk about?

The answer is very carefully, and I'm pleased to say the room was mostly full last night. But obviously we could've brought in many more donors with unshackled publicity. It's a tough balance to strike.

One attendee told me she wanted to shout out before the program began, "Will the FBI informant please stand up and leave?" I would've added, "Please donate before you go!"

The 2026 Notion of a Silver Lining

 

Mean M. T. Greene

Image:  Wikipedia

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Batshit-GA) has reintroduced her bill to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and make it harder to access gender-affirming care for transgender adults.

The "Protect Children's Innocence Act" would make it a felony for doctors to treat trans youth. It would also ban federal funds from being used for gender-affirming care, ban medical schools from teaching about that care, and ban anyone who's offered such care from immigrating to the USA.

Thorough, but the relentless conspiracy theorist did miss one thing. So nobody tell her about the transgender space lasers.

This Week's Quote

 

Image:  Wikipedia

If you have to make laws to hurt a group of people just to prove your morals and faith, then you have no true morals or faith to prove.

George Takei

Source:  AZ Quotes

Awareness

Image:  Katie Rainbow at Pexels

It's Transgender Awareness Week, and every transgender person in America is aware that his or her life just got harder thanks to the election results.

How can the rest of us help? I'm glad you asked. 

Over the last few years, as state legislatures began targeting trans folks, some faith communities noticed. I'm a Unitarian Universalist, and my Seattle church is involved in a national effort to help transgender and gender-divergent folks escape red states.

We're a kind of aboveground Underground Railroad. Perhaps we should be called Thomas the Transgender Tank.

Anyway, my minister said that calls from frightened trans folks escalated after the election, which is no surprise. So we who are helping with the local endeavor realized we needed to up our game.

During both services today, a transgender congregant laid out how dire the situation is around the country. The money that was donated to the collection plates will be divided between the national Pink Haven Coalition and our local branch. I staffed the info table and was gratified to see church members signing up to join our group, work on fundraising or provide housing.

The refugees, whether individuals or families with kids, lack the resources to move across the country, so we'll help with temporary housing, grocery cards, info on medical and social resources, etc. And someone should probably be there with smelling salts when they first get a load of Seattle prices.

As the service I attended wrapped up today, our resident mezzo soprano launched into "You'll Never Walk Alone," and we were encouraged to join in. I did, and tears began to fall. Damn that Rodgers and Hammerstein.

I know all too well how hard it is to watch the news these days, or to do anything but fume. Unfortunately, time is tight, as wretched individuals will soon be coming for innocent people. This is what I'm doing about it. What can you do?

Faster, Higher, Gayer

Image:  Facebook

Progress marches on. And surfs. And dives. And dribbles.

The 2024 Paris Olympics were the gayest Games yet, according to Outsports, which counted 199 out gay, lesbian. bisexual, transgender, queer and nonbinary athletes.

By contrast, the 2012 London Summer Games had 23 openly gay and lesbian athletes, and we thought that was darn good at the time.

In Paris, Team LGBTQ captured 43 medals, placing it seventh in the total medal count. (Maybe Team LGBTQ should compete as a nation. Heaven knows we already have a flag. Depending on the nature of our anthem, every medal ceremony could turn into a dance party.)

What particularly pleases me is that Team LGBTQ's medal haul bested every single country that criminalizes being gay. That's a big rainbow raspberry to all of them.

There were so many stories at the Games, ranging from the misinformation-fueled furor over an Algerian boxer's gender to the fact that more than half of the champion U.S. women's basketball team was openly LGBTQ.

But the story I want to highlight, before these Games fade into my iffy memory, is that of 25-year-old boxer Cindy Ngamba. Born in Cameroon, she moved to the United Kingdom at age 11. She was granted refugee status in 2021, because in Cameroon she could go to prison for being gay. Ngamba won a bronze in Paris, making her the first ever athlete competing as a refugee to clinch a medal.

Ngamba was the flag bearer for the Refugee Olympic Team. Obviously that team made a good choice. Obviously Cameroon didn't.

This Week's Quote

Image:  Facebook

We’ve made progress on LGBTQ+ equality, like Obergefell establishing marriage equality 9 years ago.

But let’s be clear: we’re still fighting against divisive rhetoric, discrimination & harmful legislation targeting LGBTQ+ Americans, especially trans youth. Onwards with pride.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Source: X

Survey Says

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Yesterday evening, as I sat down to watch the news, I just had a feeling I'd regret it.

Sure enough, PBS brought me a story about a major survey that found support for LGBTQ rights has, for the first time, gone down in the U.S. 

Note to self:  must avoid the Sunday news if I don't want to start the week depressed. Or bitchy.

The Public Religion Research Institute interviewed over 22,000 adults in 2023, and found that support for same-sex marriage dropped two percentage points, and backing for non-discrimination protections dropped four points.

The CEO of the Institute said the downward tick surprised them. I can't say it surprised me, not with all the anti-LGBTQ legislation hovering about, but it was still hard to hear. I had to watch comedy for the rest of the evening to compensate.

The drop, said the CEO, was "largely driven by party polarization." She noted that her team "saw much deeper declines, for example, among Republicans in terms of their support for these issues, whereas Democrats tended to stay relatively stable."

This would be the moment to crack that Democrats are always more stable, but I won't.

She continued, "And I think what's happening is that you see many Republican leaders in red states, really trying to amp up the volume, so to speak on LGBTQ rights, and really trying to claw back some of those rights across the country."

And really being complete assholes.

The CEO finished, "And I think that's had a spillover effect nationally in terms of the attitudes of Republicans, especially on issues with respect to LGBT rights."

The red states have floated a cloud of bigotry across the country that other Republicans are getting high on. I never thought I'd write these words, but it's a shame Nancy Reagan isn't around to urge people to Just Say No.

I'm Confused

Image by Raquel Candia from Pixabay

There's been a settlement between plaintiffs and Florida officials over the infamous Don't Say Gay Law. Shannon Minter, the legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, declared, "This settlement is a huge victory for our community, both in Florida and nationally."

Meanwhile, the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed the agreement is "a major win against the activists who sought to stop Florida's efforts to keep radical gender and sexual ideology out of the classrooms."

Both sides triumphed? I guess the title of the most magical place on earth has shifted from Disney World to Tallahassee.

Take the Pledge

Image:  Facebook

Unless you've been living in Donald Trump's armpit the last couple of years, you know that red states have been pumping out all kinds of anti-transgender legislation. It's against that backdrop that the National Center for Transgender Equality last week released its 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey.

In the survey of over 90,000 people, 47 percent of respondents had thought about moving to another state because of the anti-trans goings-on in their state capitals. And five percent had actually moved.

It's appalling that transgender people feel the need to pack up and flee their homes. I call on every cisgender lesbian, like myself, to support our transgender brethren in their hour of need by pledging not to tie up all the U-Hauls.

Bye Bye

Image:  Facebook

Two days before the New Hampshire primary, Ron DeSantis has ended his presidential bid.

All that time he spent as the governor of Florida burnishing his ultraconservative credentials, and he didn't even come close to dislodging frontrunner Donald Trump.

Geez, just how many civil rights does a fella have to take away before he gets to be head caveman?

Targeted in 2023

Image by Prawny from Pixabay

NBC News reports that 75 anti-LGBTQ bills across 23 states became law in 2023.

Republican state lawmakers tripped over themselves to restrict queer rights, introducing over 500 bills. That made 2023 a record-setting year for legislation targeting the LGBTQ community, and I trust the Guinness Book folks have been alerted.

Since only about 15% of these bills became law, some argue we're coming out ahead. I get that, but the preponderance of bills feels like a tsunami of malevolence. A hate spate.

Most of the new laws restrict gender-affirming care for youth. The next most popular bar transgender students from playing on the correct sports teams, followed by limits on classroom instruction on LGBTQ issues. The rest of the laws restrict trans bathroom use in schools and drag performances in front of minors, and generally carry on as though Chicken Little took over the PTA.

The bottom line is most of these efforts are aimed at the most vulnerable in our community:  transgender kids. This allows conservatives to claim they're all about protecting children, when they're doing the opposite. They dismiss the known realities of gender, and penalize the parents who want their kids to live.

This week Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, an actual Republican, vetoed a bill that would've restricted gender-affirming care for minors. As a result, DeWine is now being called a "child mutilator."

I suspect Chicken Little handed out some speed-laced cupcakes.