See, Here's the Thing About Giving Trump an Inch

[Content Note: Bigotry.]

Last night, I did the unthinkable and involved myself in a Facebook conversation about Donald Trump.

I barely participate on Facebook enough to justify having a Facebook page, and, when I do, I tend to stay away from politics, since it consumes my life everywhere else already.

But I was coming to the aid of a friend, whom I've known so long that we're family, a gay man who was pushing back against the idea that Donald Trump should be lauded as a "pro-LGBTQ" president for his decision to not strip the LGBTQ community of their rights.

I wrote:

I mean, a not-insignificant number of refugees from Muslim countries (and people seeking asylum at the southern border) are refugees because they're LGBTQ. So the argument that he's a 'pro-LGBTQ' president while he's turning away refugees is reflective of a decidedly uninformed (and non-intersectional) view of LGBTQ rights. And refugees.

The overarching objective of his agenda is authoritarian white supremacy. Anyone who thinks that LGBTQ folks—or any marginalized people—are safe under authoritarian white supremacist regimes needs to pick up a history book. STAT.

This, naturally, was greeted with crickets (aside from a positive response from my friend). But I hope, perhaps foolishly, that it gave some folks pause; a space in which they could reconsider their position.

This is something we all must center in our thinking, as we greet every fresh horror from the Trump administration—the interconnectedness of each of his horrendous policies, nominees, and erosions of norms. They all act in service to the same agenda.

And they all affect people who cannot wrench their identities into pieces.

We are, I will observe once more, Stronger Together. But we cannot form meaningful solidarity if we don't recognize that a policy that harms some of us harms us all, because complex identities mean that every community overlaps.

The U.S. is not a nation of polka dots, but a nation of Venn diagrams.

And then there is this, succinctly put as ever by the brilliant Sarah Kendzior:

Don't assume everything's a "distraction"

1) Muslim ban is a threat
2) Bannon is a threat
3) Russia is a threat

Shitshow is interconnected

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) January 29, 2017

Trump's shitshow is interconnected. And so are we.