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My best friends have just told me they are making plans to flee this benighted state in fear of their queer marriage, and I cannot fault them. My brother and his husband have left, and several more of my friends have already moved away, or are quietly looking at housing options in bluer pastures.
My husband and I have a nominally traditional marriage, and I'm unable to have children, so these latest developments don't affect me directly. I have the privilege of being able to retire, and after seeing how easy it is for evil monsters to make my job, which I used to be proud of, into a tool of the fascists who want to be performatively cruel to some of the most vulnerable of it's charges, I am entering my last month of service to the state of Texas. I will be retired as of June first.
I am staying to fight. I believe that the majority in this state wish no harm to them and theirs, but the noisy fascist minority has been (temporarily, I hope and pray) emboldened to make this place a hostile environment for progressives and any flavors of queer. In my heart Texas is still the state of Ann Richards and Molly Ivins, and I think those days could return in reality, with a lot of work. I am promising today to do what I can. I don't have a good idea of what that is, currently, but I'm working on some plans.
I know many of you hate Texas. I can't blame you for it. But I was born here and I love this land, and I want to fight for what's right. That is the 'right' that is meant in this quote from abolitionist theologian Theodore Parker when he said:
"Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."
It's not going to be easy. I think we're at a very low point in this state, and this country. I'm not gonna tempt fate and say things can't get any worse, so I guess I'll say we have a lot of room for improvement, and I hope to figure out my part in wrenching my beloved state away from the assholes who have made it a place where my family doesn't feel safe.
My husband and I have a nominally traditional marriage, and I'm unable to have children, so these latest developments don't affect me directly. I have the privilege of being able to retire, and after seeing how easy it is for evil monsters to make my job, which I used to be proud of, into a tool of the fascists who want to be performatively cruel to some of the most vulnerable of it's charges, I am entering my last month of service to the state of Texas. I will be retired as of June first.
I am staying to fight. I believe that the majority in this state wish no harm to them and theirs, but the noisy fascist minority has been (temporarily, I hope and pray) emboldened to make this place a hostile environment for progressives and any flavors of queer. In my heart Texas is still the state of Ann Richards and Molly Ivins, and I think those days could return in reality, with a lot of work. I am promising today to do what I can. I don't have a good idea of what that is, currently, but I'm working on some plans.
I know many of you hate Texas. I can't blame you for it. But I was born here and I love this land, and I want to fight for what's right. That is the 'right' that is meant in this quote from abolitionist theologian Theodore Parker when he said:
"Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."
It's not going to be easy. I think we're at a very low point in this state, and this country. I'm not gonna tempt fate and say things can't get any worse, so I guess I'll say we have a lot of room for improvement, and I hope to figure out my part in wrenching my beloved state away from the assholes who have made it a place where my family doesn't feel safe.
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Date: May. 13th, 2022 06:42 pm (UTC)From:I don't know if I'll ever make it to Toronto, but realistically, someplace northeast of Texas because everyone in my family resides between Virginia and Connecticut. I do know a couple of people in Toronto, though.