Ive already heard stories about Trump supporters harassing and attacking people I follow… so I want to say something I think is important…
Your safety is important. If you feel that your gender, sexuality, religion, or race is putting you in danger, and you want to hide, that’s okay.
Its not a bad thing to go on the down low, or go back into the closet if you are out. If you can pass as white, cis, hetero, or even another religion, and feel that you need to for your safety, that’s okay. Do it.
I feel like there is a lot of stuff about how you have to be yourself, that you shouldn’t hide who you are, that denying when people ask you is lying… and I feel like its important right now to reassure those who are scared, that your safety is first priority, and that its okay to keep these details a secret. It doesn’t mean that you are not being yourself, it means that you are prioritizing yourself and your safety.
Even if that means outright lying if you are asked directly, if you feel safer doing it, absolutely do it.
Consider your gender, sexuality, race, and religion as personal information. Its not anyone’s business unless you trust them. This includes friends, parents, employers… even doctors dont need this information, just tell them your sex, not gender.
Basically, this whole situation is going to require a lot of people to
play a very long game of pretend. So lets all pretend we are secret agents,
under deep cover, and were assigned an identity we need to use for
the next 4 years. And we need to blend in to avoid detection, so the identity is as close to being cis and straight as you can pull off.
But please, I know this is bad… but stay safe. That includes staying safe from yourself.
This is going to be a long 4 years, but if it goes as horribly as we all fear, at least it is unlikely Trump will be reelected… and we can rebuild. After Bush, we got Obama, because a lot of people saw how damaging Bush was to the country. After Trump, we will get someone who can heal the damage. It seems to be a pattern… things have to get bad before they can get better… This is a big step back, but I think maybe people will have their eyes opened a bit, after seeing just how intolerant Trump really is, and be more accepting towards diversity. We already got gay marriage to be legalized for the entire country. After Trump, we may be able to get outlaw conversion therapy, get Trans rights all across the country, who knows?
And there is always the possibility he will fuck up enough to get impeached. Or he will lose the office in some other way.
Disclaimer under cut
Disclaimer:
The gender part is intended towards Trans people. It would be up to you whether you would want to hide the fact you were designated another gender at birth and have had it changed legally (and/or surgically), or if you want to hide the fact you identify/pass as a different gender than assigned, but those are the safest options. Obviously if you are currently passing as a different gender than what is on your legal documents, you will have a more difficult time with employers and doctors if that comes up… But if you have been doing that up to this point, and not many people know your documentation says otherwise, it may be safest for you to stick to that. Just evaluate your situation, and think about what may come up in the future that may require you to provide documents showing your currently assigned gender.
It is likely not going to be safe to tell people if you identify as any gender other than male or female. Those not on the gender binary already get shit for it, I can only imagine this will get worse. For people identifying as a gender other than male or female, it may be best to pick one to pass as, or go with what was designated as birth, and just pretend to be that gender until this blows over. Obviously, you can choose to go for a more androgynous look if you prefer, but it would be safest to pick a single ‘socially acceptable’ gender to pass as for the time being.
The race part is intended for people who are of mixed race, or who can pass as other races. Obviously, it is easy to tell many peoples race at a glance. But there are a lot of mixed race people who can pass as white. And many white people are terrible at identifying anything past ‘Black, White, Asian, Mexican, (and maybe Middle Eastern)’ anyways. If you can pass as another race, absolutely do it if it will make you safer. You may not be able to pass as white, but even among the ‘minority’ races, some may be better than others…
The intent for the Sexuality part seems obvious, but Ill say it anyways… If you can pass as straight, you should do it if you feel it would be safer. Even if it means convoluted shit like swapping dates with buddies to appear as straight pairs, find other queer couples and do double dates. Lie to your doctors if you think that’s necessary. Whatever keeps you safe.
Religion I also feel should be obvious… Muslims are the ones I feel are most at risk, at the moment. I wont pretend I know a lot about Islam, but I would think that your god would forgive you for lying about your religion, or not following certain practices that make you identifiable as Muslim, if it keeps you safe and alive.
Christian is the easiest and safest religion to pretend to be. You dont even have to say you pray or go to church, just claim to be a casual Christian or some shit. Just remember there’s different types of Christians, like Catholics or Lutherans, so make sure you at least read a Wiki article on the basics. Or you can claim to be agnostic or atheist. Not as preferable, but not a claim that will usually put your life in danger. Though depending on where you work, your job may be at risk. So claim whatever you need to for your situation, and make sure to be able to recite at least basic info.
A personal bit:
I already do this in a way. Not because I felt necessarily unsafe before, but I want to explain and argue about being genderfluid to every person I ever met, so I just pass as cis female. I would only mention it if I knew I was in a safe environment, and the subject of being trans was already brought up, so only once have I ever actually mentioned it in a conversation.
Now, I’m glad I have kept this quiet, because it means no one at work knows I’m not cis, and very few friends who know me in real life know this about me. The ones who know this are all in the lgbt+ spectrum themselves.
I am honestly terrified for so many people… I have a friend who is still recovering from gender reassignment surgery, I’m scared for her now. I follow a person who posted about getting pushed down stairs because they were trans. I have a Bi friend who mentioned that they were considering drinking bleach if Trump won the election…
And even straight white cis women are in danger… and this can affect other countries too, because if Trump refuses to allow refugees, people will die… And he will deport so many people, too… And poor people and veterans may lose benefits…
It feels like the only way to be safe from Trumps reign of terror is to be an American white straight middle-class cis male. And even they are at risk because Trump is anti-union.
And he could have a tantrum, try to nuke a country, and get us all killed. There’s that too.
So no one is safe.
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