Last night, I experienced a dream that I never thought I would.
A nightmare that shook me to my core, for the first time in my life through this dream, I experienced what it was like to fear for my life because of the kind of person I am. As a woman, a mixed person of color, an asexual, I discovered how it felt to scream for help in a moment of fear so toxic that it woke me up.
As I came to my senses I realized two things:
1. I was safe and it was all just a bad dream.
2. Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration was today. As I came to terms with the second, it hit me that my nightmare didn’t actually end and that this fear was something that I’d carry around with me for the next 4, possibly 8 years.
With this came an unexplainable rush of sadness plunged through me as it really hit me that this is what so many people feel on a daily basis, some for the entirety of their lives. And in the following hours, I would only be stunned and consumed with this realization more and more.
Consumed with anger for my ignorance, for my blissful ignorance of how it feels to be alone and afraid of the repercussions of who you are. Terrified that the way you are is what puts you in danger in a society that now feels free to act upon their own deeply rooted hatreds. Consumed with dreadful sadness that many men and women of color and LGBTQ+ people alike may be feeling this way in this very moment or perhaps every waking moment of their lives.
As an ally and someone who feels the rejection of a society/community that is so aggressively against the mere idea of our existence, I want to remind you that you are not alone.
That is what dried my tears at least for the time being, that together we are stronger than the inevitable onslaught of discomfort that will come from this presidency.
With the help of the people that support you unconditionally, we might just be able to survive these next years. No, not just survive and thrive and live and shout our demands. We will not be silenced or cornered into believing that just because we are “different” we are “less.” Absolutely not, we will fight this and we will come out on top because together, we are powerful voices that will be heard this time around.
You are not alone, we are here for you, united and hopeful for the future.
The storm has not passed. It’s still brewing, for we are the storm. And we’re here to make some noise.
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