By the time many of you will read this, the 2020 Presidential Election will have taken place. However, it’s highly unlikely that by then either the matter of who won the election will have been determined or the dust raised surrounding that decision will have settled. In fact, what would under any other circumstances be a done deal as of election night, or, at the latest, the morning thereafter, may be only the tumultuous overture to a protracted next act of our current unrelenting reality-cum-horror show. (Did you hear the “Fire Fauci” chants at that recent regime rally?)
Be that all as it may, what we as LGBTQs can take away from the process, as far as it has progressed to this point, is worth contemplating. For one thing, it’s been a historic chapter in our community’s continuing saga. With Mayor Pete Buttigieg leading the charge, over 1000 LGBTQ identified candidates representing both Democrats and Republicans (a few, but nevertheless…) ran in various races throughout the country for a full range of political offices. Surely, some will have won. Making national news was our local entrant, Jessica Paige Katzenmeyer, a transwoman, running for the State Legislature’s 15th District seat. Sadly, but needless to say, she endured the typical trans-hate hissed by her incumbent opponent’s supporters. Also, needless to say, he did nothing to admonish them. Should she be successful, her victory would make her Wisconsin’s first transgender person to have ever been elected to public office.
High Stakes
For another, the election’s aftermath will also provide a moment for community introspection. Not that we haven’t been made painfully aware of our political stake in the grander scheme of things lately, particularly since the untimely death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It was then that it finally dawned on the more complacent among us that marriage equality and the rest of our hard-fought rights were on the line. (Still, our venerable organizations just can’t seem to take it seriously.) Anyway, to be fair, I have never seen more political engagement among my social media LGBTQ “friends”, especially those I actually know, than in this election cycle. Of course, not all were cheering on the good guys. Those regime friendly “hey libtards, it’s only the flu” memes were exasperating enough, coming as they were from guys who, rather than making politically charged pontifications, should stick to posting those endearing flexing-in-the-mirror shirtless selfies.
Still, in that regard, we learned 17% of LGBTQs apparently consider themselves Republican. Meanwhile, an LGBTQ Nation article on the subject presented a study from the Williams Institute indicating that GOP gays are likely to wish they weren’t gay at all. Tell us something we didn’t know, right? Well, I suppose it’s always nice to have a scientific survey buttress the obvious. It did not, however, address why, even in their Grindr profile pix, they tend to wear neckties. Perhaps it’s a conservative thing, or just an insecurity requiring an act of self-constraint to face the world, a sort of personal closet with a symbolically constricting but fashionable silk knot.
Anyway, speaking of closets, should there be a transfer of power, peaceful or otherwise, what will become of Melania’s White House Glam Room? Actually, I really don’t care. Do you?
To read more My LGBTQ POV columns by Paul Masterson, click here.
