Queer Lives Are Under Attack
To be completely honest, this article has seen many variations, edits and changes. In the days following the Club Q attack in Colorado Springs, I wanted to write a piece about Queer art, and life, discussing how beautiful it is to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Some ideas included an essay called ‘Lessons I learned from the Art of Drag’, and a collection of poems titled ‘My Queer Body is a Form of Art’. The truth is, writing something poetic, where I brush upon Queer life, to then write a blurb about violence, only makes the uncomfortable conversation easier to digest for those who do not have to live systemic oppression on a daily basis. It perpetuates ideas of passive allyship, and it ignores the brutal truth: that Queer Bodies and Queer Lives are under attack. So here is the new piece I have decided to write, no flourish, no hiding, just bluntness, and honesty.
In the last half decade, a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills and policies have been passed in the United States. These bills and policies have limited access to healthcare, have barred certain social resources on the basis of ‘biological sex’, have made it so Transgender individuals cannot participate in sports, or school activities, and have made the essential economic, political and social facets of society inaccessible to Queer individuals. It seems like you can’t turn on the news or go online without hearing about some new form of structural bigotry being set in place.
Overall, these policies have not only removed lifesaving and equity-based infrastructure, but they have also set a precedent that homophobia and anti-LGBTQ+ violence is and can be the norm. In a country like the United States, which holds such strong influence on the world stage, these political and social actions set a powerful example of what is allowed, and what is accepted. Similar acts are even occurring in Canada, a self-proclaimed accepting country, who supposedly gawks at American human-rights atrocities. The Ontario PM Doug Ford has been trying for months to pass anti-Transgender healthcare bills, that not only privatize access and fees, but also eliminate essential affirming care.
When the system is setting this type of precedent, it invites violence and bigotry on all levels. When the government is telling its citizens that it values anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies, it tells bigoted individuals that their violent atrocities are allowed. Years and years of systemic stigma, and a lack of accountability accumulate and feed off of one another until we end up with 5 dead and 19 injured in Colorado Springs.
Until we end up with 49 dead and 53 injured in Orlando.
Until we end up hundreds of Transgender and Non-Binary individuals murdered and attacked yearly.
These are not isolated cases, they are products of a system that perpetuates homophobic and transphobic violence.
There is such an unexplainable beauty in Queer life, and I absolutely adore being a member of the community, but having your existence be a protest is exhausting. I want to be able to rest. I want to exist without fear. I want to wake up every morning knowing my Queer friends in the U.S. are safe. I want my Trans and Non-Binary friends to feel comfortable in their bodies and to not have their identities questioned. I want to see representation in television and movies and politics. I want to hold a girl’s hand in public. I want to walk into a gay bar knowing I’ll be able to walk out. I want to live.