America is renormalizing violence against queer people

"One of my most searing memories in high school was my geometry teacher pulling me aside after class one day. Very quietly, he simply said I needed to protect myself and be careful not to "end up like Matthew Shepard." He was very sincere and meant it in the kindest way. The assumption that this was a thing that could happen to someone like me. That violence existed somewhere on the horizon already and that managing my visibility correctly might help me avoid it."

"With blood on their hands, American politicians are still cramming anti-LGBTQ+ legislation through the system at an unprecedented pace. People are being attacked. People are being killed. And for what? Cheap political points with an out-of-control evangelical base? A 19-year-old transgender student at the University of Washington, Juniper Blessing, was stabbed to death this spring."

"Another devastated family was suddenly forced into public grief while strangers online debated whether their child's existence itself had been political. At the same time, lawmakers in Ohio pushed forward restrictions on Medicaid coverage for transgender people, inserting the state directly into the machinery of health care access while delivering carefully r"

Matthew Shepard was murdered in Wyoming because he was gay, and the speaker describes growing up in a culture that felt close to that reality. The speaker came out young and remembers a geometry teacher warning him to protect himself and avoid ending up like Matthew Shepard. The speaker’s father taught him to fight, but the speaker feared being outmatched by groups seeking harm. After high school, the speaker left home early to move to New York. The speaker says American politicians are pushing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation rapidly, while attacks and killings continue. The speaker cites the stabbing death of transgender student Juniper Blessing and notes Ohio lawmakers restricting Medicaid coverage for transgender people, inserting politics into healthcare access.

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