On a recent morning, when I dropped my daughters off at school, I reflected on what America has looked like to them. They've lived through the COVID pandemic, one Donald Trump presidential term already, and now the reelection of the man who is against so many values our family stands for. They've seen what it can look like when the sick are forgotten, when immigrant stories are erased, and when families who look like ours are called "un-American." Yet, when I look at them, I know their future is bright and so is ours.
LGBTQ+ and nonbinary people's history in America is one of struggle, protest, and perseverance. Our co-founder, the late Urvashi Vaid, protested the Vietnam War when she was 11 years old, and went on to spend the next 50 years speaking out for LGBTQ+ and gender equality. In 1990, she disrupted then-President George H.W. Bush's speech on AIDS to call for meaningful action. She was the first woman of color to lead a national LGBTQ organization (the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, now known as the National LGBTQ Task Force), and helped start LPAC in 2012 to build political strength and increase representation for and with LGBTQ+ women. The New Yorker calls her "the most prolific LGBTQ organizer in history," and her resume certainly speaks to that. Vaid died of cancer on May 14, 2022 at the age of 63.
I find myself thinking a lot about Vaid these days, as we face one Trump executive order after another threatening to deport hardworking immigrants, ban transgender service members, strip lifesaving care from transgender youth while undermining parents and doctors, remove and scapegoat diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and whitewash the history our children learn in schools. And we know that this is just the beginning. We also know that this onslaught is intended to exhaust and overwhelm us. What Trump wants is our fear and complacency as we return to an antiquated world where only one kind of person (a straight, white, cisgender, upper-class Christian man) is valued.
Vaid once said, "We call for the end of bigotry as we know it. The end of racism as we know it. The end of child abuse in the family as we know it. The end of sexism as we know it. The end of homophobia as we know it. We stand for freedom as we have yet to know it. And we will not be denied." What strikes me about this quote is how it speaks to the America we both do, and do not yet, know. MAGA heralds a time we've already lived through, a time we fought through to win the rights that are now under attack. And yet we still fight for the freedom we have yet to know: the full liberation of LGBTQ+ and nonbinary people. We will not stop fighting for this vision, and as Vaid said, we will not be denied.
This past year, LPAC started the Urvashi Vaid Legacy Fund because if there's one thing we know for sure, it's that the world needs more Vaids. We want to see more LGBTQ+ and nonbinary candidates of color running for office, and we want – we need – to help them win. We can't wait for the world to change; instead, we must join together and lift up those with the power to change it.
Another of my favorite Vaid quotes is: "Social activism is all about optimism, even when you lose." We may not win every election, or stop every executive order. But optimism is the highest form of patriotism. It's the belief that America can and will be great again – not for a select few, but for all. It's the belief that my daughters can be anything they dream of. For them, for Vaid, and for all of us, LPAC will fight on.
Janelle Perez is the executive director of LPAC, the only organization in the U.S. working to elect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer women and nonbinary people. Learn more about the Urvashi Vaid Legacy Fund here.
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