For Pride Month, defiant intervention
Our forebears stepped up, and so must we
A recent op-ed by Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David decried the surge of state legislative efforts to scapegoat transgender youth and criminalize parents and doctors who help them. He called for “defiant intervention,” but did not suggest hurling bricks through windows.
Some doctors will likely defy the baseless bans and challenge them in court, as others defied and challenged anti-sodomy laws decades ago. Defiance depends on one’s point of view: right-wing culture warriors who target trans youth are defying not only science but public opinion.
The spike in transphobic hate crimes, however, reminds us that intolerant rhetoric can have disproportionate impact, as with the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in an effort to overturn the results of the presidential election. Intervention is very much needed to defend our trans children from those who substitute emotional heat for medical expertise.
I met my sisters for lunch last week after a long separation caused by the coronavirus. One of our conversation topics was stupid congressmen, specifically Louie Gohmert of Texas. He thinks global warming is caused by solar flares and changes in the moon’s and Earth’s orbits rather than by burning fossil fuels. Dear Congressman, if you are staying long in your alternate universe, please say hello to Evil Spock.
What to do with politicians who put the interests of oil and gas industry donors ahead of saving the planet? I am tempted to say put them in an unstable orbit and watch what happens, but that’s a big payload, and I don’t want them landing on people who didn’t vote for them. What else? Get your favorite dimwitted official so drunk that he drowns in his soup? The question then is how much whiskey and chowder we need to make this country governable again.
Sometimes defiance takes the form of an irreverent remark. It is a small thing, but saying the emperor has no clothes can make a difference. In resisting misrule, mockery has its place.
A most consequential intervention last year was by Darnella Frazier. The Pulitzer Board awarded her a Special Citation on June 11 “For courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice.” Her video was also instrumental in the conviction of Floyd’s murderer.
Another critical intervention is preserving and sharing our history. A finalist for this year’s Pulitzer Prize in History was Eric Cervini’s extensively researched and absorbing biography of gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, The Deviant’s War.
Remembering is our victory over the dark. June 12 was Loving Day, the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1967 ruling overturning state laws against interracial marriage.
Richard and Mildred Loving had defied Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law and were arrested in their own bedroom. Their victory in that case inspired marriage equality activists decades later.
June 12 was also the fifth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando. Three days earlier, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation, already passed by the House, designating Pulse a national memorial. President Biden pledged to sign it into law. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proclaimed June 12 Pulse Remembrance Day and ordered state flags to be flown at half-staff, which was small comfort considering he vetoed LGBTQ funding in the state budget and signed a bill banning trans athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s school sports.
It is a relief to have a president who supports LGBTQ equality after one who sought to define away Supreme Court rulings he disliked, like the Bostock decision. Rather than offering mere lip service, Biden has taken executive action to reverse anti-gay and anti-trans actions by Trump. On June 12, Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated that support when she and husband Doug Emhoff joined DC Pride marchers walking down 13th Street toward Freedom Plaza.
Another June anniversary is Juneteenth, observed on June 19, commemorating the day in 1865 when enslaved Africans in Texas learned of their emancipation. Republicans defile that legacy with state laws making it harder for black people to vote.
An intervention we can all join is making sure Democrats do not lose the House or Senate in the 2022 midterms; because if the GOP assault on democracy succeeds, we may never get it back.
Richard J. Rosendall is a writer and activist at rrosendall@me.com.
Copyright © 2021 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.
