Queerly Beloved: Gem Sheps

In the words of great fictional political leader Leslie Knope, “I… Sad.”

The night of the election, when production night at the Sentry office had finished, I went to my friend’s house and I sobbed. I cried thinking about the possibility that Trump might win, I cried when Hillary ceded the election, and when they announced Donald Trump as the 45th President-elect of the US, I bawled.

It got to the point that I had to take a sedative to calm myself down. I then made my friend drive me to McDonald’s for ice cream, but seeing as it was 4 a.m., the soft-serve machine was down, and I started crying again.

In the wake of this election, American minorities are scrambling to put their lives together; many transgender people are searching for legal help to change their names and sex on legal documents like IDs and passports while it’s still easy; immigrants are making arrangements in case they are deported and their children, born in America and legal US citizens, will be left behind; people in same-gender relationships are marrying now and having weddings later; Hijabis are removing their headscarves.

While it’s close to impossible for Trump to pass anything without Congress and SCOTUS approval, the three branches of our government all currently have a Republican majority. The threats aren’t limited to the higher-ups, either—most of the danger lies in the Trump supporters that bought into his campaign because of his bigotry and lies. People have been insulted, verbally attacked, and physically assaulted already; purportedly, a gay man was beaten to a bloody mess in California on election night.

These acts of violence are not new, but in light of Trump’s election, they are more topical and more visible in the media.

Whether or not the lives of minorities are legally affected by Trump’s presidency, one thing is for certain: the America we live in is a dangerous place for anyone who is not a cisgender, straight, white man.

Unfortunately, that is no different than it was before the election.