{"id":26188,"date":"2024-11-27T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T17:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=26188"},"modified":"2024-11-22T09:13:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T17:13:45","slug":"gay-as-in-happy-love-in-a-time-of-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/11\/27\/gay-as-in-happy-love-in-a-time-of-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Gay as in Happy<\/em>: Love in a time of elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

So what exactly are you supposed to do when an election puts someone who wants you non-existent in office? While the American election is outside our zone of influence, we\u2019re not outside of its influence. As Pierre Trudeau once said, \u201cLiving next to [America] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant.\u201d And with Trump in the seat of power, this feels more looming than usual.<\/p>\n

Voting is not choosing your friend, it\u2019s electing your enemy, who you\u2019ll be in dialogue with for the world you want to live in. How do we want to engage in that dialogue now?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gay as in Happy<\/em> is a column appearing in every issue of Nexus<\/em> (graphic by Mackenzie Gibson\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first thing I strive to keep in mind is that our rights were not given to us, they were fought for and hard won. We cannot simply wait for an election cycle to come around and then ask nicely for the people in power to recognize our humanity and our dignity.<\/p>\n

This is something that has to be actively engaged with on an ongoing basis, and with so many broken hearts aware of the worst-case scenario, now is the time to give a rallying cry for real allyship. Likewise, allyship and mutual aid needs to be offered to the groups who suffer from bigotry you don\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, I strongly encourage you to delve deep into the history of successful movements in the fight for our rights. Who has been convincing to politicians or had effective grassroots organizing that foregoes bureaucracy to reach out hands and foster understanding?<\/p>\n

This can be in our own struggle as queer people, but try to look at the cross-sections of oppression. Most people affected by bigoted systems exist at more than one point, be it by skin tone, religious background, ability, or other. Reach out and be aware.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly, the world feels large and overwhelming. We can\u2019t change the world as one person alone, but each action we take affects the world we live in. How you do anything is how you do everything, and I want to do it with love. Not a toothless love that allows hurt in the hour of need, but a deep-rooted and powerful love that speaks truth to power in the name of the world I want. Let\u2019s fight for that world together, with a hand out to hold.<\/p>\n

My recommendation this time is YouTuber Alexander Avila, particularly his most recent video \u201cHamilton and the Death of the Obama Era.\u201d His insight provided as both a sociologist and a trans man of colour is eloquent and funny, looking to the future for possible paths forward, while analyzing art about the past.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Good luck out there, I love you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So what exactly are you supposed to do when an election puts someone who wants you non-existent in office? While the American election is outside our zone of influence, we\u2019re not outside of its influence. As Pierre Trudeau once said, \u201cLiving next to [America] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant.\u201d And with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,323],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-november-27-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26189,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26188\/revisions\/26189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}