There is always an enemy, even if an imaginary one

We’re two-thirds of the way through Pride Month and a lot of posts about LGBTQ people have accumulated in my browser tabs while I wrote about guns and Ukraine. Alas, not all of these stories are uplifting. From two weeks ago Marissa Higgins of Daily Kos reported that Texas Republicans want us to know they’re right on the Uvalde shooting and have a solution – ban kids from attending drag shows. Higgins assures us this isn’t satire. Nothing can happen with this proposed bill until the state legislature returns in January 2023. Even so it sends a terrible, hateful message to all LGBTQ people. A couple days later Higgins reported that parents of trans kids are suing Texas. It is because of the new policy that says if parents permit their child to get gender affirming health care the parents can be charged with child abuse. Even though this policy is not law, merely AG Ken Paxton’s opinion, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to start investigations. Higgins told the story of a trans boy, age 16, who tried to commit suicide on the day Abbott issued the directive. He survived. He had been repeatedly misgendered at school. He was admitted to an outpatient psychiatric facility. They learned he was taking hormonal therapy. A week after the boy was discharged, DFPS was at the family’s door to investigate child abuse. That added trauma to the parents and the whole family. This policy makes marginalized people distrustful of adults. It pushes people into the closet – as intended. Leah McElrath, in writing about this story quoted a tweet by Eleanor Klibanoff, a women’s health reporter for the Texas Tribune:

Half of trans teens have considered suicide. All major medical associations recommend gender-affirming care to treat gender dysphoria. But what if treating suicide risk comes at the cost of treating gender dysphoria, which contributes to suicide risk? What then?

McElrath added:

• Transphobia • Anti drag performance • False “gr**mer” accusations • Anti marriage equality • Anti choice • Anti contraception ALL of these are regressive efforts to return the US to the days when it was criminal to exist outside the structure of patriarchal control. ... This child’s suicide attempt? The mass murder in Buffalo? These are outcomes the GOP is hoping for with their legislation and rhetoric. They want everyone not white, heterosexual, and gender-conforming not to exist or, at a minimum, to be too frightened to demand civil rights. ... Trans people need us. And we need trans people. Parents of trans youth need us. And we need parents of trans youth. All we have is each other.

Two weeks ago, Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, included a chart of the percentage of Americans who say they support legal same-sex marriage. When polling started on this issue in 1996 those in favor were 27%. Approval has risen steadily, with a few dips along the way. Approval in 2022 is at a new high at 71%. Aysha Qamar of Kos reported Drag Queen Story Hour was in progress at the San Lorenzo Library in California. They were interrupted by men with clothes and logos of the Proud Boys, a white nationalist hate group. The men were extremely aggressive and had a threatening, violent demeanor according to Ray Kelly, a Lieutenant with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. The incident will be investigated as a hate crime. Sheriff deputies were able to de-escalate the situation and no one was hurt. Even so the kids were frightened. The drag queen, Panda Dulce, has encountered protesters before, but this was another level. Dulce was able to finish the event and the library said they will continue hosting more Pride events. They were scared, but they won’t go away. Hunter of discussed the conservative effort to stoke terrorism against trans people. It’s working. Once again there is an entirely hoax-filled panic that, once again, targets another group persecuted by Actual Nazis. The demonization of trans people hasn’t ended, though the demonization of drag queens has begun. It is being boosted by conservatives “influencers,” including Fox News, where such action is a network decision. Examples of this targeting and the violence it encourages are the Drag Queen Story Hour attack I just mentioned and the group that planned to attack the Coeur d’Alene Pride event I discussed a few days ago. The perpetrators were thankfully arrested beforehand. Even the Buffalo shooting is an example – the shooter ranted against “pedophiles and groomers” the current accusations targeted at LGBTQ people. Hunter’s point is that it is a shift in targets. Those calling the targets and the groups like the Proud Boys serving at the thugs are flexible in who is the enemy.

This is a very intentional shift of Republican rhetoric, and there's simply no question that it's promoting violence against the chosen targets. You don't create hoaxes about the supposed dangers of marginalized groups for any other reason. And it's omnipresent. ... It's being used specifically to muddy the news cycle so that pro-Trump Americans and Republican allies have something to hyperfocus on while the rest of the nation hears daily new evidence about a Republican-backed attempted coup.

Hunter included a video of Mark Burns, running for Congress in South Carolina, calling for the execution of LGBTQ people. Claudia Tenney called Biden a pedophile. Hunter described their methods:

A hoax is created, claiming this or that group is a danger to your children, your family, or your very soul. The movement floods America with the new hoax, finding specific targets to use as supposed examples and publicizing them. The base is worked into a new froth, with no time given to recover themselves from the last froth, and some significant percentage of that base genuinely believes the hoax and believes the new danger to be real. And then one of those people picks up a gun and starts shooting at people.

But drag queens? Drag has been a stable of entertainment since long before Shakespeare. Even Rudy Giuliani put on a dress. Everyone now targeting drag queens grew up with them. Even so, the targets are planned. The violence is intentional.

It's entirely because Republicanism, now firmly a fascist movement, cannot function without singling out American "enemies" that can act as targets for base aggression. There is always an enemy. There is always, always, a group that can be blamed for all of the nation's ills, even imaginary ones. It is impossible to imagine a version of conservative that does not include these enemies—in the United States, it is the very foundation of the movement. Segregation was the rock on which the modern movement was built; contempt for non-white, non-protestant, non-straight Americans was at every point predicated on imagined futures in which those other Americans would run roughshod over the white race if white cultural masters relaxed, even for a moment, in enforcing necessary oppressions.

It is intended to be threatening. Oppression of the targets is the point, whether through laws or through terrorism. They didn’t suddenly decide to attack a group based on new strong feelings. “They did it because the news cycle needed a new enemy. Someone who could be paraded in front of the base as the problem." And there is no remorse over the damage to those caught in the crossfire. And when targeting this group has lost its usefulness a new target will be chosen. After that we need some good stories. Qamar reported on the graduation ceremony at Seattle Pacific University. SPU is a Christian school and has an Employee Lifestyle Expectations policy which, as we’ve seen before, bans full time staff from participating in same-sex sexual activity. The Associated Students of Seattle Pacific (ASSP) organized a sit-in protest of the policy outside the office of Interim President Pete Menjares. Hundreds of students participated in shifts. About the time the protests started the university voted to affirm that anti-LGBTQ policy. So the protests went on for three weeks. By the time graduation came along 50 seniors who had protested did not want to shake Menjares’ hand. So instead when they walked across the stage they handed him a small pride flag. Brandi Buchman of Kos wrote a personal story of her encounters with LGBTQ people while growing up. First was Betty, her boyfriend’s sister, who announced she was trans. That got her to find out more about us. She had been part of her high school’s Gay Straight Alliance, but still didn’t know much.

All I really understood for sure at that point was that I didn’t like it when people were cruel to others because of their sexual orientation or expression. It seemed really mean to judge someone for something they had no choice in deciding.

Later she met and became friends with drag queen Veronica, who demonstrated confidence and being uninhibited. Buchman learned so much about being a better woman from her.

I’m glad Veronica exists. I’m glad Veronica was out and proud. I’m grateful for all of the LGBT+ people who speak up and say, “I am me and I am proud of me.” The gay community has given me so much in my life, and as a cisgender woman, I often feel lost on how to return the favor. I am an imperfect ally, of that I am certain, but I also know I love this community so much and will defend it fiercely because it is full of wonderful human beings who are so often founts of strength and courage and above all, creativity and compassion. So, perhaps you are reading this and you are gay. Perhaps you have heard it a hundred times already in the last two weeks since this is Pride month. But, please, let me just reiterate: I’m glad you exist this month and all months. I want you to exist. The world needs you.

Commenter dmhlt 66 added:

If you think it’s weird for grown men to put on wigs, heels, rouge, and stockings... I have bad news for you about the founding fathers.