Queering Red Waves: Election wins and persisting transphobia
Let's make America queer again, but to do it, we need to be honest about what the GOP's successful homophobic campaigns says about us, as a nation.
Last week’s recap:
“It’s what’s wrong with America, mansplaining white gays dressed as Jafar and people with last names like Desantis about to ruin the world” -Nat says, from “Generic White Men: Gay Halloween Party Edition.”
Oh hey folks,
Well, I’ll be damned. Yeah, democrats (as of writing this) are on track to lose the House, but memes of the red wave that wasn’t have warmed my heart. As I’ve watched the election results roll in this past week, my faint hope for democracy glowed a little bit brighter. Things still aren’t great, by any means. But the red wave turned out to be a rainbow wave, or at least, a rainbow sprinkling.
For the first time in US history, LGBTQ+ candidates were on the ballot in 50 states. Out of 714 out LGBTQ+ candidates who ran last Tuesday, at least 436 won their race. We also now have 2 lesbian governors, too boot.
See: NPR’s “The midterms are being called a 'rainbow wave' of LGBTQ candidate victories”
With that said, I don’t think this is by any means the end of the GOP’s election-winning strategy of demonizing the LGBTQ+ community, most especially trans people. I’ve been watching education headlines closely for the past five years, and other than an ever-widening feeling of despair, I’ve also literally see what starts as education policy (or politicking as is the case for Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” campaigning), quickly flowers into widespread legislative moves.
I’ve somehow found myself an accidental politics junkie, because what I’m seeing start in the classroom is now having very real-world consequences. Florida banned trans health care. Tennessee Republicans are trying to criminalize drag now that they’re safely re-elected (read about it here). This summer, I wrote about Tennessee Gov Bill Lee winning July’s Generic White Man award, where I talk about why sometimes mockery is the only salve for my cynical soul.
Trump Gays, like this month’s recipient of the Generic White Man Award, Jafar, don’t see this as a problem. Disappointing white women, like J. K. Rowling and my hometown villain Marjorie Taylor Greene, have doubled down on their disgusting and inhumane “beliefs” about trans people.
And we’re fooling ourselves if we think the GOP will stop with just curtailing trans right to exist without the endless trolling of society, the government, and medicine telling them, over and over, in a myriad of ways, that they have no right to exist.
Speaking of trashy trolls and election polls, as per usual, Georgia’s here trying to drag us all into their own hell.
Hometown gossip: What Marjorie Taylor Greene’s re-election says about my people.
When I saw that Marjorie Taylor Greene won my native Floyd county by a landslide of 66%, I couldn’t help but tip my hat to all the rich, educated Republicans who donated fiercely to her opponent. And then remind them: it was all too little too late, like a bad curse, once invoked, a monster like Marjorie Taylor Greene is as unstoppable as they are nasty.
Why Marjorie Taylor Greene is a troubling sign of something much bigger:
The thing that concerns me most is that, in following her moves in the events leading up to the election last Tuesday, I tracked how most of her energy was spent spreading aggressive lies about drag queens and trans people.
This is also the exact same political tactic Ron DeSantis has been spearheading down in the literal taint of America (Florida). In case you missed it, it’s now illegal to give a trans kid hormones in Florida. How did this start? It starts with “don’t say gay” and ends in the repealing of gay marriage and so much more.
Anti-trans hate and blatant homophobia are a big part of what got Marjorie Taylor Greene re-elected, despite literally everyone hating her and her husband filing for divorce after her multiple extramarital affairs were made public (as I wrote about here). For a people like those of Georgia, whose hatred of women is nearly as deep as their hatred of Black people, I think we all cautiously hoped that slut-shaming would end her in a way that it never has for male politicians. Such as, say, oh, Walker, who’s been caught with his pants down so many times he might as well have a credit card on file at Planned Parenthood.
Such as, say, oh, Walker, who’s been caught with his pants down so many times he might as well have a credit card on file at Planned Parenthood.
But Marjorie Taylor Greene’s hate is just too delicious (as is that of DeSantis et al). It’s because it justifies and perpetuates white shame, the most dangerous ethnicity for shame to inhabit. As writer Teju Cole famously tweeted: “I deeply respect American sentimentality, the way one respects a wounded hippo. You must keep an eye on it, for you know it is deadly.”
That also holds true of what it was like to grow up gay in the region whose heart Marjorie seems to have captured. Growing up in a regressive and repressive region of Georgia, as an outspoken lesbian (whether I claimed that identity at the time or not), I learned very early to be acutely aware of what was an appropriate behavior for my gender. This is mostly because I was forever transgressing it, if not in appearance and who I dated, then certainly in attitude and my big fat mouth (no surprise there).
Thank god we have more queers in office than we did last week, because I think Ron DeSantis stands an excellent chance of becoming the U.S.’s next president.
Until next week,
Allison
To counter all this anti-Trans bullshit: If you haven’t already, I really recommend Alok’s writing and their instagram. Here’s what they posted this week (that I would have shared with Jafar if I followed him on insta):