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Resistance and Solidarity in the Era of Trump
One Justice Movement
By Janson Wu
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What we now know as Pride grew out of acts of resistance across the US, from San Francisco to Stonewall, to Boston. GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), too, started as an act of resistance: a legal organization formed in Boston to fight back in the courts against pervasive anti-LGBTQ discrimination. In our earliest days, we fought an anti-gay police sting operation at the Boston Public Library, and defended a Boston man charged with disorderly conduct for posting Pride fliers around town. We went on to fight for the rights of those dying of, and eventually living with, HIV, for the rights of transgender people, for queer youth, and for LGBTQ families.
Almost 40 years later, we’re still up for a fight. Good thing, because we’re now in one of the fights of our lives, against an administration that has shown itself to be no friend to our community.
“Ask the gays,” Donald Trump said during his campaign. “Then tell me who’s your friend.” He didn’t ask ‘the gays’, but supplied his own answer by appointing anti-LGBTQ Mike Pence his Vice President. Then, after the inauguration, Trump’s Department of Education withdrew its support for transgender students. The Department of Health and Human Services removed LGBT elders from the National Survey of Older Americans. Trump has proffered a decimated budget that will endanger the health of people living with HIV.
LGBTQ people from other vulnerable communities have experienced even more direct hits by this administration. Immigrant and Muslim communities are experiencing unprecedented fear and uncertainty. The rights of women are being openly undermined. The very foundations of our democracy are shaken.
The scope and scale of what we’re experiencing, and what lies ahead, can feel overwhelming. It is easy – and understandable – to feel powerless right now. But we do have power, and we’re obliged to resist. We can rest and restore when we need to, but we cannot retreat. So how can LGBTQ people fight back?
The first and most important principle in the Trump era is solidarity, a deep understanding that our fate is entwined with the fate of every person under attack. When they come for immigrants, they come for LGBTQ people. When they come for women, they come
for LGBTQ people. When they come for Muslims, they come for LGBTQ people. And the inverse is true: when they come for LGBTQ people, they come for everyone.
Sticking together – solidarity – is how we will fight and how we will win. Our strength lies in our numbers, and in our unity. We saw this on January 21, the day after the inauguration, as millions took part in the Women’s March to express their resistance to this administration. That the march was intentionally intersectional made it more expressive, more powerful, and more undeniable.
Solidarity is important not just in the domain of politics and policy, but also in the domain of service, as we care for ourselves and each other. I recently had the honor of speaking at a Stand with Planned Parenthood rally in Boston. Planned Parenthood clinics provide culturally competent care to transgender people. They are often an area’s only provider of HIV tests. GLAD is proud to stand with Planned Parenthood, because they stand with us.
If solidarity is the principle, what are the tools? They are the tools that we have always had at our disposal: elections, courts and the law, direct action, philanthrophy, and dialogue and public persuasion.
Elections matter. There are elections in our immediate future – mid-term congressional elections, state level elections, and local elections – that will make a difference in our lives, and in the lives of all vulnerable people. In many ways, this is an opportunity to return to what my colleague Jennifer Levi has called the LGBTQ community’s “home court”: local action, speaking with our neighbors and friends about local and state issues.
Making our voices heard by voting and communicating with our elected officials is key to our democracy. Folks have been doing this consistently since January 20, and I think we can see that it makes a difference – even if every victory is not total. There are ballot questions that will demand our attention, such as the attempt to repeal the hardwon Massachusetts transgender public accommodations bill in 2018. And we are not just on defense at the state and local level. There’s proactive legislation that we can support, such as that on conversion therapy and criminal justice reform.
Courts have tremendous power to protect us and to advance our rights, especially when legislatures are failing. Lawyers and judges have become the superheroes of the moment, and the superpower they possess is our Constitution, which thus far has hobbled the Trump administration’s attempt to enact what can only be called a Muslim ban.
Congress may be unlikely to pass the Equality Act any time soon, but we can continue to make progress on nondiscrimination protections in state and federal courts. It matters who sits on our courts, and we cannot stand by silently or idly as they are packed with judges who do not interpret our laws and our Constitution to extend equal justice for all. We can still make actual progress through the courts – and, again, not just play defense.
Direct action, from marches to civil disobedience, is experiencing a necessary and powerful resurgence. The honorable history of direct action can be traced from the suffragists chaining themselves to the White House fence, to the march on Selma, to the powerful performative protests of ACT UP, to the energizing and illuminating actions of Black Lives Matter.
Marching together in the streets shows vulnerable people that they are not alone, encourages our allies to do the right thing, and bolsters our own morale. It also puts our opponents on notice. The community rally in Post Office Square immediately following the Trump administration’s withdrawal of school guidance proclaimed loud and clear that we won’t stand for treating transgender students with anything but full equality. Marches and actions like these, large and small, national and local, are keeping our movement energized, focused, and in solidarity with one another.
Philanthropy is the fuel that allows LGBTQ non-profit organizations to run at full speed. Many people I know responded immediately to the election by making their first donations ever to organizations that support immigrants, fight Islamophobia, advance Latinx rights. These gifts, whether small or large, help advocacy organizations sustain their work. And I can tell you as a social justice executive director, these gifts are morale boosters for people on the front lines of this fight. These times call on all of us to determine what we can give.
Finally, none of these tools are effective without dialogue and public persuasion. It is only when we do the hard work of having face-to-face conversations with reasonable people who disagree, that we help perfect our society. And persuasion often takes the form of simply being out, functioning in our jobs, in our schools, and in our lives. We’ve all seen the incredible impact courageous transgender youth like Gavin Grimm have made on hearts and minds across the country, even in this past turbulent year.
The great organizer Cesar Chavez said, “Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.” What Chavez is describing is hope, that indispensable ingredient for every social justice movement.
Because of what we have already achieved, because of what we know how to do, because we are powerful and resilient, I do have hope for LGBTQ people, for all vulnerable communities, and for our country. When we march, we march in pride, in resistance, and in hope.
Janson Wu has been Executive Director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders since 2014. He previously worked for eight years as a GLAD attorney focusing on LGBT elders, family law and parentage rights, employment benefits, transgender rights, and marriage equality. Janson is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
