And Yet...
Times are hard just now, but I am hopeful that we will come through this period stronger and smarter and more human than ever.
Rainbows everywhere!
As we reach the end of Pride Month, with Pride celebrations gloriously sprinkled all across the globe, the patriarchs who are desperately clinging to power must be absolutely seething. Those power-thirsty patriarchs have tried desperately to erase queer folk, and yet, queer folk continue to exist, have always existed, and aren't going anywhere, and definitely NOT back into the closet. Queer folk are our friends, our colleagues, our neighbours, our family. The patriarchs who believe they hold the power think they are disappearing queerness with their fucked up laws based on lies, and yet, queer folk exist. Queer love exists. Queer joy exists. And no amount of fist thumping or foot stomping or repressive legislation will ever change this.
From his article for Advocacy Canada, Wilbur Turner writes: "Pride celebrations are the annual, collective expression of that refusal." Refusal to live a lie. Refusal to disappear. Refusal to be silenced, even as countries, states, provinces, etc impose dumbass book bans. In this current time as the queer community are watching their rights being threatened and the anti-trans vitriol is rising, the right for queer folk to exist safely must be loudly defended by us allies. If you have little ones in your life who are being denied queer-friendly books from their libraries, I encourage you to buy them some books from my friend Robin Stevenson whose sweet alphabet book Pride Puppy was part of the book banning brouhaha that reached the US Supreme Court last year.
At the tender age of 16, my Yugoslav father, a survivor of the Holocaust, sailed into NY where he was processed through Ellis Island.
Immigrants everywhere (and that's a good thing)!
I mean, it totally sucks that millions of people throughout history have had no choice but to leave their homes due to lack of safety or survivability. But diversity is a beautiful thing, and for so many reasons, I am a big fan of welcoming immigrants.
Anyone who has studied history knows that for centuries, Western European nations have happily invaded countries in every corner of this gorgeous planet. They have brought disease. They have brought destruction. They have colonized, corrupted, and completely ravaged communities everywhere they've gone. They/we are still doing this, still greedily raping and pillaging far flung regions to get their/our greedy paws on 'resources', and they/we will continue to do so until we stop them or until they've burnt our world to a crisp.
These very same countries that have invaded every place on earth to extract and exploit are now doing everything they/we can to reject the immigrants they/we have produced through extraction and exploitation. And yet, there have always been immigrants, and there always will be. These newcomers bring their culture, their cuisine, their labour, their hopefulness wherever they land. They bring so much to our communities and I, for one, feel indebted to them for these gifts they share.
Whenever someone complains about 'immigrants', I try to remind them about why people decide to pack up and leave behind everyone and everything they love in hopes of a better life, a survivable life. When people bellyache about 'immigrants', I try to remind them that unless they are Indigenous, they are either immigrants themselves or they come from immigrants. My father was one of the luckier post-Holocaust refugees who was processed through Ellis Island and was able to make a life for himself first in the USA, then in Canada. My maternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants who left their respective homes in Eastern Europe/Russia to escape persecution and create a life for themselves in "The Promised Land" of America. I bet you have stories of immigration in your family too.
We're watching one wealthy nation after another turn against immigrants. We're watching everything from increasingly restrictive (and racist) immigration policies to pitchfork-carrying crowds of ignorant xenophobes attacking their immigrant neighbours. And yet, with worsening conditions due to wars, climate change, extraction and exploitation, immigration isn't going to end any time soon. Wealthy nations are doing everything they can to make immigrants unwelcome, and yet, we are all immigrants, we are all neighbours, we are all here living together. Try as they might, they will never succeed in fulfilling their dream of creating white nations.
Right here at home.
Of course, it's not just far flung countries that have produced victims of colonial extraction and exploitation. Right here on Turtle Island, settlers have tried their utmost to wipe out the Indigenous peoples. And yet, despite all the attempts to erase them, Indigenous people are still here, still fighting for their lands, their waters, their cultures, their rights that have been stolen, violated, and denied over centuries. Once again, Brandi Morin paints a vivid picture of settler theft of Indigenous lands and resources that continue today in her latest newsletter.
As with queer folk, and immigrant folk, Indigenous folk are seeing a rise in attacks and lies from both governments and people in the community. As with queer folk, and immigrant folk, Indigenous folk can really use some strong ally-ship in these times of increasing ignorance and vitriol.
Not going anywhere.
I truly believe that what we're seeing with the far-right's cruel assaults on mainly - but not exclusively - queer, immigrant, and native folk is the last desperate gasps of this messed up patriarchal system that thrives on the suffering of others. I also truly believe that, try as they might, they will not succeed with their mission to disappear these groups who threaten their narrow worldview by merely existing. Hell! They've been trying for years, and yet queer, immigrant, and native populations are still here, and growing stronger all the time. So, yeah, things are really scary just now and a lot of people are suffering horribly from the far-right agenda, but, if history tells us anything, this isn't how it's going to end.
Hope
The aggression against our queer, our immigrant, and our Indigenous neighbours has been going on for a long, long time, and yet, they are still here, and this gives me so much hope. Hope that our love for these neighbours is more powerful than the spitefulness of the nasty little repressed white dudes who fear diversity. Hope based on history that tells us that the fascists always lose. Hope based on the resistance rising like we've never seen before (go, Albania!). Hope based on millions upon millions of people marching in Pride parades all across this fair planet. Hope based on the widespread schadenfreude being thoroughly enjoyed by so many as we watch the epic failures of the wannabe king.
Times are hard just now, but I am hopeful that we will come through this period stronger and smarter and more human than ever. It will take all of us doing what we can, but our ancestors have done it before us and our descendants are counting on us to step up now. We've all got what it takes to turn this ship around and make the world a kinder place for all.
Happy Pride!
Jessica (she/her)
