By now I’m sure everyone knows the tale of the Biden Who Debated Poorly. Because…he did. And it is cause for alarm, in and of itself. Abandonment? Not yet, but the party better get to developing a contingency plan. This seems reasonable to me. This seems like a sound strategy to avoid the unthinkable. Do not dump the weight of the entire survival of the nation onto an 81-year old man and expect things to go well. Know and be prepared for when they don’t.
But, to the shrieking moderates on Threads, who are apparently looking at Biden’s administration with the strongest possible prescription of rose-tinted glasses, even mapping out this much forethought amounted to high treason and a willingness to kneel to the Fourth Reich. The Battle of Biden’s ‘Bate: an intra-party Democratic block-stravaganza ensued, with Biden hardliners telling long-time allies to go fuck themselves over even the slightest wavering on Old Joe. Biden’s campaign did not improve matters by sending out a fundraising e-mail that called the doubters “self-important podcasters” and “bedwetters.” I myself was told that I would absolutely “die in Trump’s America” (and we’ll come back to this in a bit) and that I “deserved all the badness coming to me” and said I was selfish.
And these are supposed to be my allies? These are the only people I have to rely on for my safety and security in this country? This deteriorating cishet white man is my lone chance to live even a remotely normal life while flying the Stars and Stripes? I think anyone and everyone on the queer, neurodivergent, disabled, or otherwise marginalized spectrums has EVERY FUCKING RIGHT to be terrified and looking for alternatives (and other places to live).
Because — and here’s where we get back to Trump’s America. Trans people already live in Trump’s America.
I shared this image with the “Blue ally” who told me I deserved to die. But they did so after. Yeah. I showed a “fellow Democrat” a map of all the states trans people have had to flee from or hide in since a wave of anti-trans legislation swept the country under Biden’s Administration(!!!) and they said I should die.
And they were only one of many. People I had followed. People who — up until this point — seemed like the last few reasonable ones left…all did this inexplicable heel turn on those most vulnerable. The people with the absolute most to lose. The people who weren’t thrilled with Biden in 2020 and haven’t had reason to improve that assessment because hell, under Trump they could at least go home. They could live where they were born.
I would not dare speak for the rest of the trans community because they are as fractious as any other community right now, but I personally have felt deeply abandoned by the Biden Administration. I left my birth-state of Missouri in 2021 to flee an abusive family and finally get the affirming care I’d needed for decades, and the next year Missouri’s Attorney General just up and decided that trans people were no longer welcome in “his” state.
I can’t go home. Read it again and again and again and tell me when it makes sense in your head that I should be tickled pink over Biden.
Transphobia, queerphobia, and antisemitism are rampant and virtually unchecked across social media. And while the American government seems to have no trouble at all shutting down online sex work — a critical lifeline profession for many in the queer community — it seems to be unspeakably inept at maintaining civility in the “public forum.” But instead of assuaging our fears, actually listening to our concerns, and taking what we had to say into consideration…our own Democratic allies told us to die.
Apparently a lot of Biden supporters have had a much better time under his administration than the rest of us have. Perhaps they — like their Fox News-obsessed counterparts — have had their own drip-drip-drip of party-friendly propaganda. Most of these people yelled “nonsense” at my stating the simple fact that Joe Biden is in a large way responsible FOR Clarence Thomas, so clearly some light scrubbing has been done to the tarnish in certain circles. Some serious whitewashing. Emphasis on the “white.”
But for those of us who have watched our freedoms evaporate and entire states disappear from our map of this union, Biden’s America has actually been awful. Disastrous. And instead of reaching down, helping us up, and saying they’ll do whatever it takes to win and whatever it takes to regain our trust…Biden and his supporters kicked us while we were down and said there’s more where that came from if we didn’t behave.
Well like ol’ Cap’n Reynolds said, “I aim to misbehave.” So let’s see your party’s resolve when the 14 million-strong LGBTQIA2S+ community tell your octogenarian Clarence-enabler to go fuck himself in as loud as voice as loud as yours. Oh? That’s more than Biden’s entire victory margin in 2020? That would cause problems?
Yeah. It would.
Run Kamala you misogynist, status quo-obsessed cowards. Because “my way or the highway” doesn’t work when a whole lot of us are already on the road.
