A LETTER TO THE TRANS COMMUNITY AND OUR ALLIES, 11/9/16:
Dear friends: For a few brief moments this morning, I was convinced it was all a dream. President Trump? Surely this was just the residue of some strange half-baked nightmare.
But, of course, it was no fever dream. President Trump, and all the people who voted for him, is the new reality.
I admit I spent an hour or two this morning staring out the window at the bleak bare trees here in Maine, feeling more than a little creeping despair. It’s a hard day—for me, for my family, for all of us.
But on days like this people turn to allies and advocates for guidance. They turn to us for solace, and hope, and for our shared commitment to equality and love and inclusion—a commitment that cannot and will not be diminished by the events of last night.
More than ever, our community needs all of us to fight. They need us to continue to find allies even within a hostile Congress and Administration. They need us to stand up for the people that now– more than ever– fear they have no voice. They need for us to be brave, and to redouble our efforts to create a better future.
And so this morning I wanted to share with you all my belief that this is not the end of anything, but a beginning: a time of even greater devotion to our fight, a time to stand up for what we all know to be good and true.
On her way out the door to her social work job this morning, my wife Deedie was saying, “I love you,” when her throat closed up and she sat down, her eyes filling with tears. We held each other for a while. And then she said, “Well. At least we still have each other.”
Let this be true for all of us in this fight. We still have each other. And people in our community still have us.
In 1980, when he was defeated in his own bid for the Presidency, Senator Kennedy said, “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
Our dream continues as well. Today, we get back to work, with hope, and humor, and love.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Finney Boylan