Queer transcends legality.

Don’t get me wrong, political changes are concerning. They deserve to be taken seriously. Politics for politics, lies for lies.

Queer has always been, if it’s in the margins, if it’s in the hole punched in an ID card, if it’s in the lies that tumble from lips to keep you safe. Maybe some people don’t remember awkwardly-fumbled names and the secret of the self, waiting from the strength of grace, waiting from the strength of truth, to show. Understand that your own truth, open and glowing and brightly shining, is yours to ellide. Your words need first to serve you.

We knew, waking up this week, that politics would steal, that politics would dethrone. But politics is not morality. While convenient when they’re near, politics isn’t truth.

Let us avoid yesterday’s mistakes. Let’s not clutter our homes with fear. Let’s not fill our information networks with paralyzing words. Instead, let’s arm each other in solidarity to safe action. To mundane action. And in a little way, to revolutionary action. Because these things are about change, and they are about creating a way to be where you are safe, and where you can bring your change with you. 

Ask yourself, maybe even write it down; today:

• Where are your lines?
  • What activities and environments will you quietly abstain from?
  • What will you loudly abstain from?
  • What, when you see it, will force you to act?
• What actions can you do you do when these lines are crossed?
• What actions will you do when those lines are crossed?
  • Do yourself the service of honesty here.
  • If you needed to do those today or this week, could you? If not, what do you need to do to make it so those can happen?

Now, take with you those actions, and those actions that create actions. They might be organizing documents or setting aside money. They might be finding a network of safe friends to be with. They might be anything.

But today, I want you to think of your actions, and of the actions needed to support those, and to keep in your mind when you will act.

Politics and policy can change, but who you are doesn’t need to change. You can get away with just adapting a little.

Go off, be punk, love each other, and make the world boring and safe together. We were here before this, and we will be here after this.