I follow several LGBTQ+ folks on Twitter, and they are lamenting that the hatred is more obvious now, and I would have to agree.

The right-wing is using misunderstanding about Trans folks, to creep back the hatred to the general LGBTQ+ community.

I was a child of the 1980’s. I remember those bad old times. I remember watching the gay community being decimated by AIDS, all the while the Republicans in this country vilified them and ignored their sickness and pain. I remember that shyt done in the name of religion. How these ‘ religious’ people spread their poison and hatred towards the LGBTQ+ community.

The first person who came out to me was a friend in high school. We were both 15. I knew that his family was hateful and would have no compunction about throwing him out into the street if they knew about his sexual orientation. I’m not saying that I understood what being a homosexual meant, but, I knew that this was my friend, and I knew that we had decided to surround him with the support that he would never get at home. That we would help him with his plan to get as many scholarships as possible, and help him get financially independent of his family. He got into college miles away, with scholarships, and made sure that his college education was firmly under his control before he came out to his family, who, unfortunately, reacted the way we thought they would when we were in high school.

I met more LGBTQ+ in college. I witnessed the vicious misogyny directed towards lesbians back then. Not only the verbal, but, more often than not, physical assaults towards them.

I knew folks in the military. People who chose to put their lives on the line for this country, and lived under the cloud of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. As if their sexual orientation had to do with the ability of them to defend this country.

I watched, as while the beginning of our circle would get married and start families, that they had the look of,
‘ this will never happen for me.’

And then, the world changed.
And, it DID happen for them.

One of my favorite things to do was to read the wedding announcements in the New York Times.

Post the Supreme Court decision about Gay Marriage, I would read the ones with an older same sex couple. People who had been together, sometimes DECADES, who never thought that they would have the chance to marry. It was simply inconceivable for them. And, then I look at the young same sex couples, with that opportunity, and the thought that they would get married, and have kids, and build a family, is the way that it should be.

I have seen the progress for the LGBTQ+ community in my own lifetime, and no, not willing to back.

My first gay friend? He lives in Spain with his husband. Others have married and are building families.

And no.
Uh uh.
Not going back. Not going to shove those folks back into the closet to deny themselves. To put those children in harm’s way. To add to the statistics of suicide amongst LGBTQ+ youth. For some right-wing vision. Hell no.

That we’re going to sit by as the Supreme Court takes women’s rights away, and think that they aren’t coming for the LGBTQ+ community too?

Uh uh.

Stories from the bad old days.

🏳️‍🌈 Ruth Coker Burks 🏳️‍🌈
1984, Burks was 25 and a young mother living in Arkansas, she would often visit a hospital to care for a friend who had cancer. During one visit, she noticed the nurses would draw straws, afraid to go into one room, its door sealed by a big red bag. 1/1 pic.twitter.com/UuFoJHogZT

— CalamityJane🇺🇦 🌊🐾💚⚓🌈🌊🇺🇦 (@nhgrown) July 1, 2021

In the bed was a skeletal young man, who told her he wanted to see his mother before he died. She left the room and told the nurses, who said, "Honey, his mother’s not coming. He’s been here six weeks. Nobody’s coming”. 1/3

— CalamityJane🇺🇦 🌊🐾💚⚓🌈🌊🇺🇦 (@nhgrown) July 1, 2021

"Oh, momma. I knew you’d come", and then he lifted his hand. And what was I going to do? So I took his hand. I said, "I’m here, honey. I’m here”, Burks later recounted. She pulled a chair to his bedside, talked to him, and held his hand until he died 13 hours later. 1/5

— CalamityJane🇺🇦 🌊🐾💚⚓🌈🌊🇺🇦 (@nhgrown) July 1, 2021

She would take them to appointments, obtain medications, apply for assistance, and even kept supplies of AIDS medications on hand, as some pharmacies would not carry them. Burks work soon became well known in the city and she received financial assistance from gay bars, 1/7

— CalamityJane🇺🇦 🌊🐾💚⚓🌈🌊🇺🇦 (@nhgrown) July 1, 2021

Over the next 30 years (with assistance from her daughter) Burks cared for over 1,000 people and buried more than 40 on her family's plot (most of whom were gay men whose families would not claim their ashes). For this, she has been nicknamed the 'Cemetery Angel'. 1/9

— CalamityJane🇺🇦 🌊🐾💚⚓🌈🌊🇺🇦 (@nhgrown) July 1, 2021

AIDS first emerged in TO nurses I worked with refused gay patients. One day I was furious at work & yelled at them all they weren’t deserving of the title of nurse! I was part of a team who gave the first IV med cocktails that changed it from a death sentence to chronic illness

— redbam 🇮🇪born. Standing w.🇺🇦 (@redbamajax1) July 2, 2021

And, please understand that the current Anti-Trans laws seem to always slide into being anti LGBTQ+ in general. Always sliding in that direction. There have been over 320 Anti-LGBTQ Bills introduced in State Legislatures in 2022.

THIS is the world that I want to live in.
An openly gay Cabinet Secretary experiencing his first Father’s Day with his twins.
Yes, THIS has been hard fought and won.

Chasten's posted the most adorable Instagram post on this #FathersDay ! Love the message, love the pics, especially this one:
Happy Father's Day, @Chasten and @PeteButtigieg ! pic.twitter.com/V1bm9lFkLh

— 🍷🐝🚄Auntie Ouakam🚄🐝🍷 (@OuakamA) June 19, 2022

And no, we’re not going back.