Leaning Into a Cold Wind

As I left the house this morning in the pre-dawn darkness, a cold wind blew down the street. It made me pull my jacket closer, stick my hands in my pockets, duck my head into it.

Managing a terrible blow

That’s how today feels. For me, my colleagues, and, I’m sure, quite likely for you also. Last night, as the results began to sink in, part of me still rebelled, stuck in stupefaction. Not only will the Oval Office be once again disgraced, but the nation failed to elect the first woman (at last), the first woman of color, and a staunch LGBTQ ally as president. Instead, the nation elected a man whose winning strategy employed direct attacks on our community and on women's bodily autonomy.

As much as we may try to steel ourselves for this blow, it still hurts, maybe even more than we thought it would. It’s devastating. And I hurt, too, for the countless people who will be grievously harmed in the coming years. People around the world, in every corner of this country, and right here in the Bay Area. Our neighbors. Our friends. I imagine you hurt, too.

I hope you give yourself permission to mourn, as much as you need. If you can, maybe find a hug or two or three. We are activists, leaders, and donors – and we’re human beings, too. We need each other, perhaps more than ever at a moment like this.

We are not defeated

You know as well as I that our community has faced awful circumstances before, ones more terrible than this. Everything that the early LGBTQ movement won to pour the foundation for LGBTQ people today was a triumph over incalculably bad odds – essentially over a society that despised us all but uniformly. People of every party and class arrayed against us. Yet, we won again and again.

Let’s remember that this is an event in history, not the end of history. It does not say that our movement has been defeated. We are still strong – just as strong as we were on Monday. If anything, we have always been at our strongest, our fiercest, in the face of adversity. We are not going to give up all that we’ve won. We are not going to be splintered apart. We are not going to give up our values or our backbones or our dreams of a world in which, in the words of Horizons’ Vision Statement, “all LGBTQ people live freely and fully.”

We’re not going to give up hope. Only if we do will we be defeated.

Leaning into the wind

So let’s take a moment to mourn. And then, we will lean into this cold wind. Closer than ever, let us stand together and shout our pride into the face of that wind, our pride in who we are and what we know to be true. We are all – as always – in this together. Horizons will be leaning in right with you while we all navigate these treacherous waters. As we have for 44 years – and will be for generations to come for this community we all love so much, and will fight for so hard.

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P.S. — I hope you’ll join us virtually on Thursday, November 21 from 5:00—6:30 p.m. for our annual State of the Movement, this year entitled “Our Collective Power.” This will be an opportunity for our community to come together, reflect on this moment in history, and discuss how the LGBTQ movement can work most powerfully in today’s divided political and cultural climate. Please join us, and come prepared with questions. See the panelists and register here.