Hello. I wish I wasn’t writing this. I don’t even know where to start. Trigger warning for discussions of mass shootings, hate crimes against LGBTQ people, and Transgender Day of Remembrance.
This morning, I woke up to news alerts of a shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs. The AP, CNN, and Washington Post dominated my notifications as I shut off sleep focus. I felt like I had been punched in the gut, but honestly, I wasn’t surprised, nor was I shocked. I was (and still am) infuriated and I am heartbroken.
The state of LGBTQ+ affairs (primarily all the right-wing LGBTQ hate) and gun laws in the US allow this to happen. There are so many more that we don’t know about, they don’t hit the news. I was just talking with Andrew Gurza, a gay and disabled person, for their podcast the other day and remarked something along the lines of “I’m pretty careful when I go out because I don’t want to be hate-crimed.” It’s so sad and so utterly infuriating that these things happen every single day here in the US, to people just trying to exist. We should not have to fight to be ourselves or to love who we love. We should not have to fear for our lives when we do so. But, we do.
There are no words, no thoughts that I can muster that describe how utterly fucked up everything is right now. We should not be staring death in the face every time we go out, or have to make calculated decisions about if we can hold our partner’s hand in public. We should be protected. But, we aren’t. The Equality Act is still sitting on a desk. The Senate passed the marriage equality bill, but the House has yet to vote and they regain a GOP majority in January, so that’s not happening. There is so much that should be done to protect us that simply isn’t.
And, today, on Trans Day of Remembrance, yet another shooting, more lives lost, and more comrades aren’t here with us anymore because bigotry rules in America…
Derek I. Schmitz 