A Meditation on the LGBTQ+ Backlash, a Glimpse of Better Times Ahead
How we are, where we are
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene III (Brutus. The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare, ed. By Howard Staunton. New York, Greenwich House, [1986] p. 1975)
LGBTQ+ people have made a lot of progress in recent years, in legal, social, and medical recognition and acceptance. But forces of resistance to this progress are growing stronger. We now find ourselves in the midst of a terrifying backlash that threatens all of this progress. In the case of transgender people, the backlash seeks not merely to roll back progress, but to legally prohibit recognition and indeed even existence of trans people. If it succeeds in this, it seems a foregone conclusion that gays, lesbians, and the rest of the queer community will be targeted for similar treatment, since most of the arguments made against trans people are recycled from earlier…
