Let’s Write About How Queer People Live Under Authoritarianism
A Prism & Pen writing prompt
Like most of the world, I can’t focus on much right now but Ukraine. Analyzing Russia’s war of aggression would probably have been my actual job if I’d been born straight. I likely would have become a senior intel officer and gone on to work for a defense contractor or think tank. I called a close straight friend the other night who took that path, and we spend an hour speculating on “What is Putin thinking.”
“I wish I had your access!” I told him. “This is what we trained for in Berlin all those years ago, and now you’re in it for real.”
He made polite noises about how “being in it” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but we both know why he is and I’m not. I gave up a career in national security because being gay put me at great risk of losing my clearance and suffering a punitive discharge.
“You shouldn’t have to live like this,” he insisted to me years ago. “Go live somewhere you can be free.”
I took his advice, and I have felt free sometimes, but never truly free of authoritarianism. In New York City, I soon learned that being gay and a queer/HIV activist meant constant fear of police brutality. Certain career paths were still closed to me. I lost my valuable co-op apartment when my…
