To all my representatives at the end of Pride Month

Raphael Renter for Unsplash

The month is nearly over and I’ve heard nothing from you: not in your weekly reports, your press releases, or in your actual presence at a Pride event, actions which in years past you have included with some mention, some token recognition (let’s face it), albeit at the bottom of your newsletters, of your untiring efforts and support for us.

I can’t help but feel you’ve thrown us — me and my community — under the bus this year and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to explain why. While the Republican party has been winning the war against LGBTQ+ civil rights, it has also been winning an adjacent war by capturing the minds of those on the fence, in the middle, Dems in sheep’s clothing, perhaps your own feelings on the subject, who have been swayed by all the negative hate-speech that filters down throughout the online and mainstream media.

It’s impossible to avoid, as much as you might like to, this constant badgering of my people and yet many whom we thought, assumed as allies don’t want to be caught in the crossfire of this effort to target a tiny minority to extinction without reason.

That should be enough to warrant your support for us. My congressman was notably absent from the Pride event in his home town where I live among a thriving queer community. And yet he spares time for every other municipal event that will provide him with a good photo op for his weekly summary.

I get it: you can’t afford to sully your hands with us when the stakes are your political survival. You risk alienating your constituencies who are being swayed on a daily basis because people like you who could make a difference just sit on your hands and refuse to go to bat for us.

But know this: You have forfeited my support. This may not mean much to you. It’s one vote. My hope is that it is one that rankles you and keeps you up at night. And know this too: you will be remembered as a politician on the wrong side of history.