JOHN,

Last night, the Senate passed a law to affirm LGBTQ marriage equality. After right-wing Supreme Court justices warned that marriage equality could be under threat in the courts, Congress took action to protect this right in federal law.

Today, let’s celebrate this step toward protecting LGBTQ families. And let’s recognize that we have more work to do to ensure that LGBTQ people can live and love safely as their authentic selves.

Less than two weeks ago, a chosen family was attacked at Club Q, an LGBTQ bar and nightclub in Colorado Springs that had been a safe space in the conservative city. Places like Club Q are sacred representations of queer and trans love, vital gathering places and sanctuaries where people build loving community. As Club Q co-owner Matthew Haynes said during a vigil: “We’ve lost our family.”

We mourn the 5 people who lost their lives in this heartbreaking mass shooting: Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh, and Raymond Green Vance. Daniel and Kelly were trans, and their lives were stolen in the first few minutes of Trans Day of Remembrance—a day memorializing trans and non-binary people who’ve lost their lives to violence.

Unfortunately, we can draw clear connections between this deadly violence and the rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation and rhetoric across the country. In this dangerous time, we all must show up in solidarity to create more safety and defend LGBTQ people.

Please add your name to affirm that you will act in solidarity with LGBTQ people in your community.

An unprecedented wave of anti-trans legislation introduced at the state level ranges from banning LGBTQ teachers and students from talking about who they are, to requiring children to undergo genital exams to play sports, to criminalize dressing in drag, or to block trans and non-binary people’s ability to access lifesaving and medically necessary healthcare.

Many families are fleeing Texas, for example, following right-wing attempts to criminalize parents for supporting their children’s gender identity. Florida students describe feeling unsafe at school after the passage of the state’s discriminatory law dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”

Trans people already face harassment and violence—particularly Black trans women. But as right-wing leaders further demonize gender non-conforming people and aim to police gender expression, attacks at places like drag performances and queer bars are on the rise. (Tucker Carlson, for example, has called on viewers to “arm themselves” against drag queens.)

This is likely just the beginning, so we must urgently come together in our communities to demonstrate in public that we will protect our LGBTQ neighbors. Together, we have power in numbers. And we cannot leave anyone behind.

Fellow allies, here are ways you can act in solidarity to create more safety for queer and trans people:

• Contact your local LGBTQ center or organization and ask how you can provide support. Perhaps they need funding, volunteer security at events, or other types of solidarity. Are there mutual aid efforts near you?

• In your interpersonal interactions, respect people’s pronouns. If you’ve used incorrect pronouns, briefly apologize and correct your mistake and then carry on.

• Put up rainbow flags and signs demonstrating your support in public (such as “We will defend LGBTQ people”). Provide visible messages of solidarity to counter the anti-LGBTQ messages people hear in the media and their communities.

• Learn to recognize harmful disinformation and tropes—and call them out if you hear them. Such as:

• Rhetoric that dismisses the validity of people’s gender identities. Trans women are real women, and trans men are real men, and we don’t have to understand someone’s experience to believe them.

• Rhetoric that paints cisgender (non-trans) people as victims, or paints trans people as a threat. Trans people’s existence is not a threat to anyone, and certainly not a threat to our society more broadly. Instead, attempts to criminalize gender expression could harm all of us.

• Rhetoric describing queer or trans people, drag queens, or teachers as “groomers” or “pedophiles”—or other fear-mongering under the guise of “protecting children.” These are hateful lies that harm LGBTQ children and wrongly sexualize queerness.

• Framing attempts to invalidate trans people’s rights to exist as “just asking questions” or “just debating.” Trans and non-binary people are human beings, and the stakes can actually be life-or-death.

• Learn more about the history of fascist movements dehumanizing and vilifying LGBTQ people, including in Nazi Germany. These patterns are repeating.

• Speak up proactively with your loved ones about your support for LGBTQ people. You never know who may need to hear that from you.

Please add your name to commit to taking actions in solidarity with LGBTQ people.

To LGBTQ readers: Thank you for being who you are. You deserve not only to exist, but to thrive and be safe as your full authentic selves. I’m going to keep fighting for your rights and dignity. Thank you for expanding possibilities for all of us.

In love and solidarity,
Rashida