Well, what we feared happened. The emotions have been high and largely negative in the past weeks
since the election came out. We shudder to think how nearly 75 million people voted not for empathy, but for hate.
How those people ignored the terrifying reality of putting a convict in a position of extreme power.
How those same people either didn't care or didn't know about the future Project 2025 promises, bereft of
the things we take for granted like overtime pay, marriage equality, and equal access to primary, secondary, and higher education, believing words of a liar, instead of cold facts.

But, what's done is done. We cannot change what has passed. We can only focus on how to move forward.

Foundational to this goal, where the status quo is now mere survival, is the need for community. Now,
more than ever, we must stay united. We must stay strong for ourselves, our siblings, and our neighbors
regardless of who they voted for.
Fascism thrives when people choose to isolate. The more pockets there are, the smaller the
communities, and the smaller the communities, the easier it is to marginalize, belittle, and then
exterminate them. As difficult as it is, great strides have been made in the past decade to consolidate
power in the people—not through a wannabe tyrant who promises to be a “dictator on Day One,” but
through us, coming together in the aggregate.

US queer people, here are things we can do, right now, to prepare for the coming four years:

1) Stand up for minorities of all kinds.
Indigenous peoples, Blacks, Latinos, trans people, the disabled, and now even women all suffer the
same oppression that has been elected into office.
It might seem like all these groups stand alone. The Democratic establishment blames us, among others, as the reason Kamala lost the election. Republicans have always hated us and now campaign, masks off, in support of our dehumanization. Trans people are the scapegoat for now, and the Indigenous have always been subject to attempts at genocide.
That oppression is already extending, people of color and the disabled would most likely be next on the list. It's up to us to reject that and shrug the blame onto nobody; indeed, blame is a worthless, negative emotion that only promotes suffering when everybody very much does not need it.
For our siblings out there, we know the future is scary. We are just as terrified as you. But the darkest of times creates the mightiest of wills. We have always existed in spite of continued oppression by Puritanical forces that don't want us to.

Do remember. It was a Black Trans Woman who started the Stonewall. It was Indigenous women that scared away the 7th Cavalry from a merciless massacre at the Little Bighorn. It was a Latino who started the labor union movement, and the accomplishments of Black people are too numerous to list.

That is a legacy that deserves to be carried eternally in our actions as well as our memory.
To our allies and co-conspirators, do not leave us alone. Check in on us. Ask how we're doing. Stand in
solidarity in a time of extreme anxiety when all the existence seems bent on our destruction.

2) Know your neighbors and start organizing locally.
The federal government is not the be all end all. The agenda of the federal government, no matter how far right, relies on state and local governments to carry it out. There will be safe havens that stand in defiance of what will be attempts to establish a fascist regime. Some parts of the US would be a stalwart, which might lean conservative but still embrace differences.
Knowing your neighbors is how community is established. Find tenants just as scared as you are, mobilized and willing to make a change. Create a tenant's union and organize “victory gardens”, for example, so you could start growing produce, herbs, and other essentials communally. There is no better time to do these things than in the winter, when families and individuals alike are more likely to stay home.

3) Get to know your co-workers.
Workers' unions have experienced tremendous success in the Biden years. The successful strikes of the
UAW, SAG-AFTRA, beer manufacturers, and the railroads have demonstrated how much the workers
can accomplish when they work together in the common interest of each other.
Fascism is more than just camps and pompous hypocrites who think they can save the world. It is also unapologetic kowtowing to the powers that be from the private sector, creating a pseudo-state-run economy where capitalists enable and oftentimes directly empower governments to their twisted agenda.
In a time when capitalism has become so bloated and yet so concentrated where the presence of a
single man like Elon Musk can negatively influence the lives of billions of people, the workers must
come together to press their rights and stop people like them.
One man might be above the law. But no man is above the 99%. We saw this with the French in the 18th
century. We saw this with the Tin Pot Revolution in Iceland back in 2009. We also saw this just last year
when SAG-AFTRA successfully lobbied Hollywood to keep AI out of its productions.
We can continue to do this. Locate your local union organizer and start making a difference.

4) Keep your information safe and private.
The government, the ISPs, and many others already know who you are via your digital footprint. But it
is not too late to cover them and begin educating yourself on how to mask your online presence to the
people who want to oppress you.
Buying a VPN wouldn't protect you, no matter what people on YouTube, YouTube and Google itself, or any capitalistic overlord tell you. You must take more effective steps, and you can do so for free.
End-to-end encryption is the way to go. Apps like Signal, Status, or Session can do a lot to mask your
communications as you organize. They are completely encrypted, so no outside parties can read your messages (except a physical seizure of your phone).
And get educated on Linux and the Anonymizing Networks, like Tor or Freenet. You will save yourself a lot of heartache and anxiety in terms of what you will be sharing to ISPs and the government, and have way better control over what data they have of you. 

5) Remember to take care of yourself.
When organizing, it is easy to get caught up in it all and forget about yourself. There is a long-running
stereotype that activists make horrible romantic partners. But that only happens when the work is so
heavy in your life that you forget to love yourself.
Always remember to pause. Take a breath. Step away from the keyboard. Resign for the day into
YOUR space. Whether that is a library, a craft room, a game room, or just your bed. Touching grass and
taking a walk outside, away from the buzz of it all, can do so much for clearing your mind and
releasing your negative emotions.
Always remember that love must come first in all the work we do. Vengeance is a short-sighted
ambition that only leaves one feeling hollow and increases the misery that brought the emotion on in
the first place.

Artem Chapeye, the Ukrainian author, once said: