this is something more people need to emphasize imo. politicians have never been our friends and they won't be for a while. we might not even see it in our lifetimes. it's important to put our foot down and make it clear that even if they don't have our backs, we have each other's. this comes in the form of creating safe spaces when public spaces aren't protected for us anymore. it comes in the form of mutual aid when queer (and other) necessities become less accessible, be that monetarily or just in terms of availability. it comes in the form of being ready to listen to other queer people when they're expressing discontent with everything going on and not trying to sound like you have all the answers, bc frankly nobody really does. this isn't a guaranteed thing. the people who fought for our rights decades ago didn't have a guidebook to getting shit done, and we don't either, but they managed to give us some legroom to work with and it's up to us to leverage that while also ensuring the future generations of guys, gals and enby pals can put up a fight as well.Unless you actually start a revolution, be prepared to be part of the resistance. When social safety nets get cut, you will need to replace them as a community. When safe access to hrt is impossible through legal means, you will need to provide it as a community. When the police refuse to protect you, you will need to take care of eachother as a community.
i'm gonna be so honest - i'm feeling sort of exhausted myself despite everything that i'm saying. i'm sorry if that sounds bad coming from a canadian, but it's so tiring. the two party system is fucking garbage for marginalized people because if you're not a cishet able bodied rich christian white man, you're somewhere on the chopping block and there isn't a point where the knife will stop as democrats keep trying to pander to more "moderate conservatives". it's not an overnight change, but i don't buy that we need to sacrifice trans lives in order to save them later down the line. that's not a compromise i'm willing to accept. we all get through this together or we all get fucked over, but if we divide ourselves in a time where community is more important than ever then they'll just pick us off one by one.
and if you think you're safe just because you aren't trans - or even because you're just an ally to the queer community, you're not. they'll come for all of us at one point or another and it'll be a lot easier to answer that when we unite rather than when we push people towards the guillotine being like "just keep walking, we'll stop it before you get there".
one more thing - there's absolutely no reality where you should be entertaining sacrificing trans rights when marsha p. johnson, sylvia rivera, zazu nova and miss major griffin-gracy were some of the most influential figures in the stonewall riots and fight for lgbtq+ rights in general. every single one of those people were trans and being willing to compromise the rights of trans people fought for by trans people is beyond disrespectful to their legacy. if empathizing with trans people seeing their rights being taken away isn't enough for you to not settle for that compromise (and it really should be), let it be the knowledge that you'd be disrespecting people so important to our history and culture