[Editorial]
The first time was called the "Lavender Scare," and it was in the 1950s, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450, which allowed the firing of federal employees based on their "lack of loyalty," including those who were homosexual or had a history of same-sex relationships. It took a respected news reporter, Edward R. Murrow, who said to Senator McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" to help turn the tide of public opinion.
In the 1970s, Christian crusader Anita Bryant started the “Save Our Children” campaign, which spread like wildfire through Republican states, with state constitutional amendments banning marriage equality. In some states, they even tried to ban gay and lesbian teachers!
From that time on, Harvey Milk came to prominence in the Castro District of San Francisco, where he owned a camera shop. He was elected to the Board of Supervisors as the city’s first openly gay elected official—not only in San Francisco but in the entire United States!
So now, in 2025, we are going through all of this one more time, and as in past times, it is once again by the Republicans. Our stories are powerful! We change people’s minds! I have seen it firsthand. When the marriage equality bill was being heard here in Connecticut, I went around with “Love Makes a Family,” and after they talked about marriage, I talked about the trans bill. One time, a lesbian couple came up to me and asked how they could help. They said they thought the battle was over but now realized that it was only the first round.
It is as Harvey Milk said:
“… you must come out. Come out to your parents. I know that it is hard and will hurt them, but think about how they will hurt you in the voting booth! Come out to your relatives. Come out to your friends, if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors, to your fellow workers, to the people who work where you eat and shop. Come out only to the people you know, and who know you—not to anyone else. But once and for all, break down the myths. Destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake. For their sake.”
You don’t have to be out on a picket line. You don’t have to have transitioned. You just have to be “out” in public. Go out with some friends to a “girls’ lunch.”
You don’t ever have to be “out” in boy mode, but you can speak up about all the evil that Trump is doing… just don’t remain silent!
The modus operandi of the Republican Party is to create a boogeyman for the electorate to fear! First, it was those “Red commies!” in the late forties and early fifties, then those “Homosexuals.” When that didn’t work, they tried again in the late sixties to “Save the Children.”
They finally perfected their hate mill and put us in their sights. They had the perfect victim… us! 0.5% of the population. No one understood us—they only saw “Drag Queens” in the news.
But now they see Sarah McBride, Kim Coco Iwamoto, Aime Wichtendahl, Wick Thomas, Brianna Titone, Danica Roem, Taylor Small, Gerri Cannon, and Mauree Turner blazing the way in the legislatures. They also see Rachel Levine, the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and also Amanda Simpson.
We need to help in any way we can. I helped on a campaign in male mode before I transitioned. This is do or die for us. If we cannot take control of Congress in 2026, we will never gain it back. The Republicans will be too entrenched.
[/Editorial]
