Become Dangerous

Vol. 54

In This Issue: ESSAY | TAKE ACTION | FINAL FRAME

For a long time, I bought into the popular line that the GOP’s attacks on transgender people like myself were a “distraction” from the many real and pressing issues facing Americans. Fundamentally, it’s true that campaigning to take away rights from any group of people is time that could be far better spent on working to ensure things like affordable housing, healthcare, food, childcare, fixing bridges, filling potholes, fighting climate change (!) and so on.

But calling Republican attacks a “distraction” is no longer accurate, I think. It is itself a dangerous distraction, a capitulation to the distorted, disgruntled imagination of bigots. Given how much money the GOP has spent on anti-trans attack ads in the past year, how much time they’ve invested in writing and passing anti-trans laws, and how much breath/text/ink they’ve spilled spreading lies and fear-mongering about trans people, I think it’s fair to say, as in the words of reporter Erin Reed, that it’s become their “main event.”

And we do ourselves a disservice to call it or treat it like anything else. Because those currently dedicating themselves to erasing trans people from public life will (and have a long history with) simultaneously have their attention on all the other ways they like to oppress and control people, too.

There’s a whole poem about this, and it remains as true today as when it was written in 1946.

Though they hate the word, rightwing attacks are always intersectional—which is to say, we are all connected. Our rights and responsibilities and fates are all tied together, whether we see it or not. LGBTQ+ people exist within and throughout all other demographics, and often face disproportionate oppression and violence for living at those intersections (i.e. Black and Brown trans women are far and away the disproportionate targets of violence). We are canaries in the coalmine.

So I can’t say I was surprised to read that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine today signed SB104 into law, which bars trans (and, by proxy, gender non-conforming) people from using the bathroom facilities that align with their gender in any/all colleges or universities, public and private. He did this despite having vetoed previous bills to restrict trans participation in sports and gender-affirming care (vetoes that were ultimately overturned by a committed Republican state legislature and with urging by Trump). The bathroom ban was snuggled into an otherwise decent bill to help dual-enrolled students earn college credits. It didn’t take much to get DeWine to fold on the issue. They all seem to kiss the ring, in the end.

This is the first major anti-trans bill to pass in a state since the presidential election. It will not be the last. There are currently 586 pieces of anti-trans legislation filed and pending across the country in 2024 alone. Extreme anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ laws have already been passed in several states, with Florida and Texas standing as the worst offenders, including literal bounties placed for “catching” trans people using bathrooms that don’t match their sex assigned at birth. Other states have passed laws to legally erase trans people, prohibit the updating of birth certificates or driver’s licenses even with a court order, and so on.

What may have begun as a convenient political scapegoat has very clearly become a violent obsession for many on the right. Ignoring them, or placating them - as certain pundits, journalists, and some Democrats have delusionally called for - will not make the problem get better or go away. That’s simply never how this has worked.

As Erin Reed writes:

Though these and other Democrats have framed anti-trans bills as a distraction, Republican actions tell a different story. Many state legislatures, along with Donald Trump’s recent presidential campaign, have made targeting transgender people a central focus. In the past two years, over 1,000 bills aimed at the LGBTQ+ community have been filed, and Republicans poured over $215 million into anti-trans ads. Early actions in Congress and states like Ohio suggest that these bills are not a sideshow—they are the main event.

I am no longer willing to assume that Republicans will simply move onto something else if we ignore them and pivot to talking about meat-and-potatoes issues.

Because while Senator-elect Sarah McBride may be able to use the private bathroom in her office, the interns, staffers, volunteers, and visitors at the Capitol don’t have that same privilege. She is not the only one with a target on her back. She does happen to have outsized power and a platform from which to speak. More importantly, though, Democratic leadership is failing her (as it has consistently failed its most progressive members, like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who have endured relentless threats to their safety and integrity for years) by refusing to take a clear stand on the matter.

A few Democrats have made forceful statements of opposition to the ban, including (thankfully) my own Rep. Mark Pocan. But McBride said she would “follow the rules…even if I disagree with them,” which is simply a gobsmacking position to take, given the stakes. I’m more angry with party leadership, however, for continuing to cling to their talking points that refuse to engage with how dangerous and damaging rules and laws like these are to everyday people, in addition to their own members. Worse are those who have tried to pin blame on trans people (among other minority groups) for their own electoral losses. Can you blame people for their lack of enthusiasm for your party when you throw your base under the bus? When you run almost entirely on vibes instead of bold, progressive policy that actually makes you distinct from the opposition, instead of, essentially, the diet Republican lite?

Republicans are the ones who made identity politics their whole jam, not LGBTQ and/or racialized people who simply want to be left unmolested to live our damn lives in freedom and peace. Perhaps their obsession is a symptom of having cut ties with any real culture or heritage or meaningful identity of their own, all in the name of precious white supremacy. Certainly, the lashing out against any person or people daring to live authentically and outside of patriarchal norms and binaries comes from a place of deep-seated fear and self-loathing. But you’ll forgive me if right now I’m less interested in psychoanalyzing bigots and more interested in protecting the people they’re trying to kill or entirely erase.

(And anyway, there are a lot of amazing people out there who are doing the hard and important work of thinking deeply and critically about our country’s core wounds and how to heal them.)

There are times when it’s incumbent upon us to engage in good-faith discussions with people who are otherwise well-meaning but who’ve been led down dangerous paths by clever propaganda. There are times when we must use our whole throats to call out injustice and lies, and stand in solidarity and love with those who are being victimized by them. Sometimes those two things must happen at the same time.

I’m thinking of a conversation I recently had with colleagues, where we were debating whether “assume good intentions” was the correct norm to set for our team, vs. what had been suggested by myself and another, to “be aware of and understand intent but to prioritize impact.”

I was taught for a long time that “assume good intentions” was the more moral, compassionate path. But the phrase has been weaponized too many times to let people off the hook from the harm that their actions or words cause. I’m not arguing that we should demonize or dehumanize people who make mistakes or cause harm, even though they didn’t mean to. I have fucked up, for sure, and benefitted enormously from people willing to let me make amends and correct my shit. But part of that process was me recognizing that the people who I had done harm to did not owe me grace simply because I meant well (or, distinctly, hadn’t explicitly meant ill). I had to be willing to own up to my misstep, to apologize and seek repair, in order to earn that grace.

Doubling down, getting defensive, and being unwilling to do the work of personal improvement only helps to perpetuate harm. That goes for everything from the personal to the political. And it’s why we must continue to harangue everyone, from our elected representatives to our relatives, to do fucking better. Let that harangue come from a place of love–for our people, all people–and higher expectations for each other to step up and speak out whenever and wherever we’re able.

Republicans and those allied with their bigotry are the ones who picked this fight. It’s exhausting and cruel and utterly unnecessary, yes, but we have to fight it now. The alternative is too dire.

So I’ll turn to words shared by the writer and activist Margaret Killjoy: “I ask not to be safe from my enemies, but to be dangerous to them.”

Trans people are a tiny minority but we represent–and we are the living embodiment of–the kind of radical possibility and imagination and freedom that all people should have. We are a tiny minority and so we also need your help. We need each other. We need fierce, creating, loving imagination for what could be.

The main event is here, now, whether we like it or not–and only our collective power and solidarity can alter the storyline from one of despair and hate and harm to one of joy and healing and triumph. That’s dangerous to those who seek power for power’s sake, and who cling to oppressive thinking in order to gain it. Let us be dangerous.

Once more I turn to the words of radical thinkers and writers for further inspiration. In her book Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown explains that before all else we are creatures of imagination. “We are in an imagination battle,” she writes:

Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown and Renisha MacBride and so many others are dead because in some white imagination, they were dangerous. And that imagination is so respected that those who kill, based on an imagined, radicalized fear of Black people, are rarely held accountable. Imagination has people thinking they can go from being poor to millionaire as part of a shared American dream. Imagination turns brown bombers into terrorists and white bombers into mentally ill victims. Imagination gives us borders, gives us superiority, gives us race as an indicator of capability. I often feel I am trapped inside someone else’s imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free.

What do you imagine is possible? Why does it look that way? Could it be more? Who told you it has to be this way? Let’s show them what we’ve got.

Take Action.

Celebrate Black Friday by shopping entirely small/local. Fuck Amazon and Walmart and all the exploititive, union-busting corporations working hard to make 5 people richer than every country combined. What small business owners, sole proprietors, and/or local operations can you support with your dollars this week (and always)? Here are a few suggestions:

• A Room of One’s Own is Madison’s top-tier, queer-and-trans-owned independent bookstore and you can even order from them online. They just dropped their annual (gorgeous) holiday catalog, which you can get for free, and which includes meticulously thought-out recommendations for all kinds of readers.
• Head to Etsy.com and use the search filters to look for small artists/makers from your neck of the woods, and/or made by LGBTQ+ / BIPOC folks.
• Support Black-owned businesses.
• Support Indigenous-owned businesses and artists.

Alternatively, you could join your local Buy Nothing group and find ways to trade, give away, repair/mend, etc. the things you need.

Winter is coming in Gaza and the people there are in dire need of the proper supplies and aid to help get them through it. Please consider making a donation, in any amount, to support the on-the-ground work of groups like the Middle East Children’s Alliance or Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.

Consider also donating to your local food bank. In Madison, that’s places like Goodman Community Center, Second Harvest, Badger Prairie Needs Network, River Food Pantry, and/or check this comprehensive list.

Final Frame.

I turned 43 on Monday and got to spend a couple of days with dear friends/loved ones in what has become one of my favorite places in the world—a friend’s small cabin on the shore of the Wisconsin River. I’m so incredibly grateful for the community of people and plants and animals and earth all around me.

‘Til Next Time.

I love you. Take care of each other. Take a nap, drink a glass of water, go outside if you can. Free Palestine. xoxo