In 2016, days after a gunman killed dozens of LGBTQ people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, I wrote a list of ways to help usher in a “queer revolution.”
Frustrated with the useless-to-the-point-of-being-offensive “thoughts and prayers” politicians and pundits were offering my community, I wanted to locate some concrete steps to push the movement forward and, when I couldn’t, I came up with some of my own.
Almost a decade later, as we now find ourselves ruled by an administration that has already begun to gleefully slash and burn our democracy, I dug up that list, dusted it off, and updated it to include actions that can aid us in pushing back against its disturbing and dangerous agenda.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, disheartened and powerless right now. That’s exactly what they want. But we have options, paths forward, and strategies for staying informed, engaged, angry and tuned in to what we need to survive this nightmare.
Every decision to resist or exist in a manner that opposes what they have planned for us is valuable. Every act of defiance, no matter how small, matters. Every person who refuses to comply or roll over and die is doing heroic work.
The following is in no way a complete list, but I think it’s a good place to start. Everything here is intended to not only combat, but also to help create the kind of country we want and deserve. Feel free to add and execute your own ideas.
We may be living in Hell, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it, accept it or surrender.
1. Learn about far-right movements and the propaganda they use, so you can identify and push back against them.
2. Call out far-right dog-whistles and coded language.
3. Contact your elected officials and voice your opinions.
4. Vote for people who care about and stand up for you, the people you love, and the kind of country you want to live in.
5. Vote out politicians who do not.
6. Run for office.
7. Attend a city council meeting or school board meeting and make your views known.
8. Stop shopping at companies that don’t care about or reflect your values.
9. Shop local/small whenever possible.
10. Read and watch and listen to and support independent media that refuses to capitulate or bow to the new administration or its allies.
11. Question the media.
12. Hold the media accountable.
13. Fight misinformation with facts and science.
14. Stop using social media sites that refuse to protect you from misinformation or attacks based on who you are.
15. If you are going to stay on social media sites that refuse to protect you from misinformation or attacks based on who you are, use them to share facts and uplift communities who are also resisting.
16. Block trolls, bots and individuals who are looking to drag you into futile fights or otherwise suck your time, energy and sanity.
17. Support unions.
18. Refuse to cross picket lines or shop at anti-union companies.
19. Support mutual aid organizations.
20. Find joy wherever you can and make joy whenever you can’t find it. They want us to be scared and miserable, so any chance or choice to be otherwise is truly a radical act.
21. Volunteer.
22. Go to a protest.
23. Believe someone when they say they’ve been sexually assaulted.
24. Defend a person’s right to choose an abortion.
25. Defend everyone’s right to die with dignity.
26. Speak out against police brutality.
27. Hold the police accountable.
28. Push for police reform.
29. Push for prison reform.
30. Push for prisoner’s rights.
31. Support individuals being targeted by ICE. Learn about the rights we all have, regardless of immigration status, and what you can do to defend your communities.
32. Donate time or money to organizations and shelters for people without housing.
33. Advocate for better gun laws.
34. Learn about climate change and what you can do to fight it.
35. If you’re queer, come out (if it’s safe for you to do so) and/or support others who do. The more we talk about who we are, the harder it is to erase us.
36. Thank allies for their support.
37. Hold allies accountable when necessary.
38. Support individuals, organizations and businesses who are willing to stand up for what’s right — especially when it could cost them in a variety of ways.
39. Be open to answering questions about your identity. The more people know about people who aren’t like them, the more they tend to care and rally for them.
40. Be open to alerting others to why their questions about your identity may be problematic and unwelcome.
41. Brush up on your history lessons — especially those pertaining to marginalized groups whose lives and pasts are frequently distorted, denied, banned from being taught in our schools, or erased.
42. Refuse to apologize for being angry.
43. Refuse to apologize for being heartbroken.
44. Refuse to apologize for being disappointed.
45. Know when it is appropriate to apologize, and do it fully and graciously.
46. Support drag (and tip your performers well).
47. Support the arts.
48. Donate to public television and radio.
49. Visit museums.
50. Make art.
51. Fight to ensure that HIV/AIDS isn’t criminalized or stigmatized.
52. Fight for affordable access to medical care and medicine for all people.
53. Fight for affordable housing.
54. Fight for programs that provide safety nets for individuals who need them.
55. Fight the war on drugs.
56. Fight for true religious freedom — not religion disguised as an opportunity to discriminate — and the freedom to not be religious.
57. Fight religious extremism.
58. Fight for the clear and distinct separation of church and state.
59. Fight for comprehensive sexual education that includes discussion about queer sex.
60. Fight against abstinence-only sexual education.
61. Fight for affordable birth control for anyone who wants and/or needs it.
62. Recognize, call out and fight racism.
63. Recognize, call out and fight sexism.
64. Recognize, call out and fight homophobia and transphobia.
65. Recognize, call out and fight xenophobia.
66. Recognize, call out and fight ableism.
67. Recognize, call out and fight white nationalism.
68. Practice empathy.
69. Take care of yourself.
70. Take care of each other.
71. Celebrate nontraditional, unconventional and chosen families.
72. Give someone an orgasm.
73. Give yourself an orgasm.
74. Celebrate pleasure for pleasure’s sake.
75. Embrace your fetishes and/or support others’ fetishes and the right to practice them.
76. Support sex shops.
77. Support sexual identities that feel or behave differently than your own.
78. Support adult performers, even if you don’t watch porn.
79. Support sex workers, even if you don’t hire them.
80. Fight to decriminalize sex work.
81. Speak out against sexual assault.
82. Respect nontraditional relationship models like polyamory for those who choose it.
83. Respect all expressions and presentations of gender identity.
84. Support access to gender-affirming health care for all people.
85. Ask questions.
86. Demand answers.
87. Tell your stories.
88. Support educators.
89. Oppose book bans.
90. Read a banned book.
91. Donate banned books to libraries.
92. Talk to the children in your life about what’s happening and why it’s not OK.
93. Talk to the children in your life about the importance of diversity and compassion and kindness.
94. Talk with someone who doesn’t look like you.
95. Talk with someone who doesn’t think like you.
96. Talk with someone who doesn’t love like you.
97. Talk with someone who doesn’t fuck like you.
98. Listen to someone who doesn’t look like you.
99. Listen to someone who doesn’t think like you.
100. Listen to someone who doesn’t love like you.
101. Listen to someone who doesn’t fuck like you.
102. Take risks.
103. Take care of your mental health in whatever ways you can.
104. Push back against those who stigmatize mental health issues.
105. Call out toxic masculinity.
106. Be fearless when you can and make your fear useful when you cannot.
107. Remember where we’re going.
108. Remember what’s at stake.
109. Remember we’re in this together, and we can’t get there by ourselves.
Noah Michelson is the director of HuffPost Personal and the co-host of HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast. He joined HuffPost in 2011 to launch and oversee the site’s first vertical dedicated to queer issues, Queer Voices, and went on to oversee all of HuffPost’s community sections before pivoting to create and run HuffPost Personal in 2018. He received his MFA in Poetry from New York University and has served as a commentator for the BBC, MSNBC, Entertainment Tonight and Sirius XM. You can find him on BlueSky, Instagram, and Facebook.
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