Today started out as a good day, as days tend to do, normally. But then this evening, across the country from me...this happened. The governor of North Carolina went and signed a law that prevents transgender people from using public single-sex bathrooms. In the words of one of my favorite authors:
One step forward....a hundred steps back. #transrights— Uncle Zac (@unclezacbrewer) March 24, 2016
I honestly can't believe anyone in power could be so horrible as to allow this to happen. Maybe I've just not been as politically active and aware as perhaps I should be, but this was a total unpleasant surprise to me. And it's just another unfortunate addition to the unfortunate downward spiral the US has been in since the current presidential campaign began, and maybe even before that.
For a while, I've been contemplating writing a blog post about what would happen in the Red Rain books if, God forbid, the GOP won the election. The obvious answer, to me, is that Der FΓΌhrer Drumpf would wreck the story completely because, under his fascist rule, the Bridges between Heaven and Hell (including the one in the town of Coldfire Creek, which Alex and Gabe and Fionna and everyone else in my book cross freely and on a regular basis) would no longer be open. Even worse, Heaven and Hell would go to war because of all the inflammatory rhetoric and posturing and pissing-contesting being thrown around - all far more polite terms for what is truly known as the vile shit that spews from Drumpf's mouth every day.
And then there's the additional, worse effects of a Drumpf presidency on the Red Rain world. I'm talking about the ones that would also apply to a Ted Cruz presidency, to some extent (and I wouldn't at all be surprised if his long-term plans include dictatorship as well.) I'm talking about religious persecution, and here I interpret that phrase in two different ways. On the one hand, the government would use people's religion (most likely Islam, but who's to say a potential future dictatorship, potentially run by so-called "Christians," wouldn't go after other faiths too?) against them as an excuse to subject them to Patriot Act-level surveillance. On the other hand, the government would use their own religion to justify laws like the one North Carolina passed today - laws that seek to reverse course on LGBTQ rights. And from there, who knows what the domino effect might be? That's a fear I've incorporated heavily into my Dark Ice Chronicles series of late, where the fight for warlocks' rights is in danger of being lost as all the bigots in this country come out of the woodwork. In this series, and in Red Rain, I have several LGBTQ characters whose lives could be made a living hell if their civil rights and protections are stripped away at the state and/or federal level. These characters don't deserve to live in such a society, and neither do real-world members of their community.
I've spoken before on writing LGBTQ characters as an expression of my belief in the universal right to live and love openly, for all people. We all deserve that. And if certain people in the government want to take that away because they can't get their heads out of their asses and realize that it's the 21st century, then we need to make our voices heard. We need to vote, most importantly - and I especially urge my fellow young people to vote, and vote Democrat, to return to a forward trajectory towards acceptance of all races, creeds, gender identities, and sexual orientations. We need to spread the word on social media - and, happily, I see many in my Twitter feed sharing important political news and offering support to one of this year's two Democratic candidates. #ImWithHer myself, but if she does not earn the nomination, #FeelTheBern. Anything to keep the GOP out of the White House, and prevent America's decay, we need to make it happen.
I'm not normally this political, but Americans, the country needs our help. Drumpf claims we can "Make America Great Again?" First off, it was already great to begin with. And second, if that's what he really wants, we can start by rejecting him and the mountain of rot his campaign is based on.
We have the power.
Feed the right wolf.
No comments:
Post a Comment