Note: We’re approaching a year since the election when I posted this. A lot has happened since then! I’m not sure this fully captures my feelings today, though it’s a snapshot in time. Health and family matters are rather all-consuming right now, but hopefully soon I will publish an update.
The election is done.
I have to admit that Trump’s victory blindsided me. I always knew he had a chance in the Electoral College, but as I write this he’s also winning the popular vote.
Now we’ll see what happens. Trump seethes and oozes grievance. He resorts frequently to provocative and violent imagery. He’s threatened to prosecute all who oppose him, shut down media he doesn’t like, and of course, carry out mass deportations that will almost certainly sweep up legal citizens by error — or maybe by design. Then there’s my people, the LGBTQ+ community. We have targets on our backs. Project 2025 puts it front and center in the opening pages:
The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.
Project 2025 doesn’t specifically call for the reversal of same-sex marriage, but that would be a small step after eradication of “every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.” Plus, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has stated openly in an official Court opinion that our marriages are on his radar.
Everyone will have to deal with this election their own way. For myself, I had decided a while ago that when this election was finally done I would declare my political life done as well. I’d walk out the door, calling it wraps on what’s been 5 decades of my life — 55 years.
Well, not so fast! My political views and activities have largely defined my life and me as a person. I can’t just up and quit entirely. That would be like not breathing. But I will change what I do and how I do it.
The Early Years
I jumped into politics at the tender age of 16 in high school, where I protested the Vietnam War and got driven out by the school administration. I landed a job as Education Coordinator at a youth-run free clinic, crisis hotline, and counseling center. I did drug education for the schools and community groups and produced an agency newsletter that doubled as something of an alternative or underground paper. I served on the Cleveland ACLU’s “1984 Committee,” participated in a food co-op pulling 5 a.m. shifts at the downtown food terminal, organized a monthly recycling collection, and worked with the George McGovern presidential campaign. I worked with Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers (UFW) for years, first as a volunteer on weekends and later as a full-time paid organizer. Then, finally, I came out of the closet to become a member and leader of the Kent Gay Liberation Front (KGLF) at Kent State University.
All this brings my history to the ripe old age of 22.
Socialist Workers Party
In the course of doing all this, I came to realize that all social and economic problems are rooted in capitalism, where economic, social, and class inequality are inherent and inseparable from the system. Hence, I considered myself a socialist. At Kent State, I aligned myself with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and joined its youth affiliate, the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA). I was active until I graduated.
After college, I drifted away from the SWP for a while. During this period I volunteered several years doing Gaywaves, a weekly gay radio program on WRUW-FM that is still on the air today. I also helped organize the first several years of Cleveland’s now-annual pride celebrations. From 1989 to 1992, I chaired the Board of Trustees of Cleveland’s Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center.
I returned to the SWP as a member of its organized auxiliary. I carried out various tasks and assignments, most notably with the party’s impressive publishing house, Pathfinder Press. The complete catalog was being digitized and upgraded for modern printing. I worked in graphics, doing book covers, internal photo pages, and promotional materials. Eventually, work and family demands were too great, and I withdrew from the project but remained a supporter and financial contributor… until things unraveled.
I can pinpoint the exact moment this started. It was the evening of July 4, 2020. I had retired just a few days before, less than a week. It was a pleasant summer evening. My husband and I were sitting outside after dinner talking and scrolling through Facebook.
I came upon a discussion among friends and acquaintances, all former SWP members or supporters like myself. Although they had long histories as supporters of gay rights, I was surprised and startled that their pro-gay attitudes didn’t extend to transgender people. I attempted to interject some pro-trans counterpoints but was rebuffed, albeit politely. Later conversations became debates, at times turning acrimonious. Being called a “Putin sycophant” for defending trans people was definitely a low point.
I’ll fast forward here, but suffice it to say things deteriorated over the next three or four years until I severed my connection to the SWP. And it wasn’t just over trans issues alone. I disagree with the party’s approach to abortion rights, where they virtually celebrated the Dobbs decision. And the party gives Trump a sweeping pass on almost everything.
Democratic Party
No longer feeling welcome or comfortable in the SWP, and with a potential Trump dictatorship looming, I found myself this year thrown into alliance with the Democrats — the Democrats! I have been an active and outspoken opponent of the Democratic Party since my early socialist days shortly after the McGovern campaign.
To find myself actively supporting Kamala Harris has been necessary under the circumstances, but is also a pretty sorry state of affairs. My socialist opponents have made note and kind of rubbed my nose in it. Which is to be expected; they’re quick to point out my shortcomings.
The SWP runs candidates but they barely register in the returns, and there’s no viable Labor Party currently. So I saw advocating for Harris as the only available option to try and stop Trump.
That’s fine. Whatever. But with the election now over I can’t continue. I can’t be a Democrat. I can’t unlearn all I know about the Democrats. And I can’t betray who I’ve been for 55 years. I can’t just conclude that all I’ve said and stood for is bullshit.
Out the Door and Into the Light
I’m tired. Retirement thus far has been a disappointment. I weathered cancer pretty well but I’m just emerging from 18 months of eye trouble with five surgeries and some permanent vision loss. It’s gotten to me.
Add to this my falling out with the SWP and lifelong relationships there… well, it sucks. I’ve grown pretty depressed.
But one must carry on. For now I’ll have to proceed “party-less,” fighting for causes I support on a non-partisan, issue-specific basis. Topping the list will be all things LGBTQ+ with particular emphasis on defending and extending transgender rights. That’s where our community is most under attack. The vilification facing trans people, especially in this last election cycle, is inhuman and abhorrent.
I’m still deciding where I want to direct my money and time, but a few leading candidates include: the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Democracy Docket, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
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How long before it sinks in that a Trump administration, like the Democrats, will not stop the carnage that is late capitalism. I know you and I, dear friend, are not as young as we used to be, but big fights are coming, which we may or may not see. In fact, another world war is now unfolding with all the comes with that. On the other hand, this could all unfold sooner as opposed to later. The last thing is never judge the SWP based on what supporters say on FB. The only entity that speaks for the SWP is the SWP.
Trump’s policies of tariffs and such will drive the economy down & prices up. If he follows through on a lot it his supporters will not be happy.
I understand the SWP is its sole representative. While the party expresses itself with probably more restraint and decorum than freewheeling Facebook discussions, it is nonetheless in alignment with the folks on Facebook (or vice versa). Nothing I’ve said is based on Facebook alone.
My comments referencing Dobbs and Trump are based on The Militant. Some time ago I did a blog post detailing my disagreements and included links to the Militant articles in question.
On the SWP and Roe. The SWP pointed out that the end of Roe (which was, by the time of its demise, a crispy corpse that became more of a hinderance than a help) brings opportunities to regain lost ground. And isn’t this exactly what is happening in many states to date>?
An article published in Militant issue dated November 14, 2022, stated, “They claim that the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade struck down a woman’s right to choose. But Dobbs didn’t ban a single abortion. In accordance with the U.S. Constitution, the high court turned the issue over to the people and their state representatives. It is in the interest of working people to oppose legislation by the courts, as was the case with Roe v. Wade.”
And yet, in that same article, the SWP urged a No vote to California’s Proposition 1 ballot initiative that year, titled “Constitutional Right to Reproductive Freedom. Legislative Constitutional Amendment.” The party claimed this ballot initiative “is an obstacle to this fight” … “to advance the rights, interests, and fighting capacity of women and working people as a whole.”
Proposition 1 ultimately passed with 67% of the statewide vote. The ballot proposition amended California’s state Constitution to guarantee the “fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.” Under the amendment, abortions would not be arbitrarily limited by state law to 24 weeks regardless of circumstances.
The SWP’s opposition was nonsensical. If the SWP believed that abortion rights and reproductive freedom should be turned over to the people, wouldn’t Proposition 1 accomplish this?
The party’s opposition was based partly on the possibility the ballot initiative might lose. OK, so then what are the people and their state representatives supposed to do? There are no guarantees in life.
To be honest, I can only think of two times in the past 10 years where the Militant took up the question of transgenderism.
They’ve raised the issue quite a few times more than two, but I haven’t bothered to count.
Regardless, the party as well as the Facebook socialists too often parrot right wing anti-trans tropes. Just one case in point, this from the June 12, 2023, Militant: “Teenagers in the throes of the sexual misery of adolescence are urged to undergo ‘gender reassignment’ surgery and hormone therapy.” No one is urging them to have hormone therapy or surgery, and certainly not against their will. This isn’t as bad as Trump claiming little Johnny comes home one afternoon having had sex-reassignment surgery that day, but it’s still a lie paraded as truth.
I’ll interject this last point about the Militant and truth. The September 16 issue this fall stated, “[There are] growing calls in the liberal press to scrap the Constitution altogether, along with its protections against government interference in political activity, including struggles of importance to the working class.”
Sometimes I think the SWP is off its rocker. I listen to too much liberal media for my own good, and I can’t think of a single instance — not one — where it’s been advocated we should “scrap the Constitution altogether.” Where did they come up this nonsense? It was Trump actually who “tweeted” in print on his Truth Social platform that the Constitution should be terminated. I guarantee there wasn’t a peep of criticism from the party about that.
This is really good, Bob. I am feeling quite a lot of that as well in terms of the disappointment.
Also, the Putin syncophant thing puzzles the hell out of me. I mean, WTF?
Like you, I will continue to support things and be involved at a local level where things do happen.
I hope your retirement turns around and at least becomes less physically challenging….at least for awhile!
I agree the SWP’s position on abortion rights needs to be fine-tuned in the way they explain it to the populace. I didn’t agree with the Militant’s article on Proposition 1, although I understand what they’re trying to get at.
The Militant took a similar position more recently in the September 30 issue this Fall. They wrote: “Liberals are pushing amendments to ‘enshrine’ abortion in state constitutions in Arizona, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and elsewhere in November. Their goal is to cut off the discussion and debate in the working class that is needed on this question in order to deepen support for the rights of women. They portray access to abortion as the main solution to the crisis facing women.”
For the life of me I can’t figure out what discussion the party is insisting on and when they will consider it sufficiently done. What has to happen for the party to finally say, “Alright… NOW you can go ahead and protect abortion.”
I also had a question about the “Putin” comments. I must’ve missed it when it originally appeared. what was the context?
I’ll note for the record that you gave the “Putin” comment a Like at the time.
This exchange occurred in the course of a discussion after you had posted an article that I’ll simply call “anti-trans.” Without digging I don’t recall the item exactly. There was the usual conversation that wasn’t terribly sympathetic to trans people. Pretty much everyone was in agreement, just maybe debating nuances.
I have doctor friends who work with transgender people and kids, and I suggested I would talk to them and share what they have to say on some of the points being made. I was accused of practicing confirmation bias like a Putin sycophant on Ukraine. To be precise and fair, I guess I wasn’t literally called a Putin sycophant in so many words, just thrown in with the same ilk. A distinction without a difference.
Frankly, when it comes to confirmation bias I think my accusers themselves were the guilty ones. No one seemed to notice that I had read the anti-trans article and was commenting on it specifically.
I see little evidence that any participants in these discussions have seriously listened to trans people to really hear and understand them, regardless whether they agree or not. And I’ll ask you: You’ve written about meeting trans kids through scouting. There might not have been much appropriate opportunity to do so, but by chance did you have any substantive conversation with these trans kids about their lives, their experience being trans, their challenges and issues? Did you ever watch the video I shared with you by email? (I’ll link it below in a follow-up reply momentarily.)
I dropped out of that particular discussion but monitored it. Later someone asked where I was. Someone else answered saying I’d left because I couldn’t come up with anything to say to defend my position. Like she’d listen!
If you’ve read my blog and other comments elsewhere, I freely acknowledge there are issues — some serious, like sports to name just one. My position has never been just anything goes. But on the other hand, with the socialists it’s “My way or the highway.” I find them rigid, judgmental, and frankly cruel. I don’t know their ages, but if they ever have a trans child that kid is in for a world of hurt.
https://youtu.be/XbriqWx0w7U?si=BeUT4pYOLUuHBxLY