Years ago, one of my co-workers owned Huskies—one male and one female. The female liked squirrels. More specifically, she liked eating squirrels. To that end, she would spend weeks lying in their backyard as the squirrels came and went. She wouldn’t bother them, and the more comfortable they became, the closer they would get. Once one was close enough, she would pounce, eat said squirrel, and then go back to being docile, waiting for the next opportunity to get a snack.
Part of me has been equating the queer community to the squirrels and anti-queer organizations and individuals to my co-worker’s Husky. Over time, we’ve become more and more complacent as we feel increasingly integrated into the general populace. We are being seen in the workplace. Our history is being recognized. Pride celebrations bring out our allies and often the surrounding community. To the extent that we’ve let our guard down, even as anti-trans efforts have ramped up. “That doesn’t apply to me,” so we’re okay.
Now here we are, getting eaten.
But imagine if the squirrels had come together and simply pounced on the Husky as a group. What a difference that would have made—at least to the squirrels.
As we move into the new Trump era, Republicans appear hell-bent on moving queer liberation backward. Whether it’s the latest trans-bashing executive orders or proposed legislation across the U.S. that would push us back into the closet, conservative and “Christian” organizations would prefer we simply didn’t exist. To the point where couples who have been married for years are wondering if their marriages will be annulled by the Supreme Court.
Except we have something the squirrels didn’t—social media. Although there’s a part of me that’s now distracted by picturing squirrels on tiny iPhones, pulling up the latest app to show them where the good nuts are.
Squirrels aside, social media does give us a leg up when it comes to organizing events or making the public aware of what’s happening—not just in the U.S., but worldwide. As one friend noted, “…digital/social media activism has definitely increased the speed and reach of spreading information…” Protests that might have taken weeks to pull together now take days—literally. Within days of the new administration scrubbing transgender references from the Stonewall National Monument website, people showed up to protest that erasure.
However, the same friend suggested that protests and advocacy are taking on a lot of different forms, resulting in less in-person activity and more online engagement. Organizing boycotts, donating to groups supporting queer rights, educating others—not so much a protest as helping to build the resistance to take on anti-queer attacks.
Because I am of that age, I always think back to the AIDS crisis and how ACT UP challenged the federal government over healthcare and the development of drugs to combat AIDS. What if social media had been around at that time? Would protests have been significantly different? Larger? Happening more frequently because what might take weeks to organize could be pulled together in just a few days? Could the Reagan White House have ignored the crisis for as long?
Advocacy and protesting are no longer local. Groups aren’t just connected to one city or one location. A chapter in New York isn’t relegated to activities in their region alone. What’s happening there is connected to cities across the U.S. How we protest and advocate isn’t being made up as we go along but is now being shared. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel because coordinated efforts are possible without even having to pick up a phone. Even more, what is happening here can be shared globally.
But what if the squirrels in my co-worker’s backyard had been able to organize? Or reach out to squirrels outside their own group? I’m not sure what that would have looked like, but I’m picturing herding cats. Quite difficult.
However, I like to think the queer community could do better, despite potentially competing agendas. Because we are a little more than a month into the Reign of King Cheeto, and I’m already tired of feeling like I’m being eaten.
It’s time to pounce.
