What we cannot do is make ourselves smaller - post-election reflections

Written By HB Lozito

We huddled this morning as a staff and had a wide-ranging conversation about how we’re doing and what we want to say as an organization and the conversation we want to have following last night’s election results. We’re writing this today as we’re moving through that news. So, we’re right alongside you in feeling all the feelings while working to not fan the flames of fear while being realistic about what we’re up against. While also strategizing about short term and medium term ways to fortify ourselves & our communities for the continued work ahead.

As a staff, we live in both deeply red & deeply blue places across Wabanaki territory in the states of Maine & Vermont. Across those geographies, we are holding onto the deep belief that rural LGBTQ+ people have an important role to play in moving us all closer to a world that works for all of us. And that we must continue moving towards each other and our neighbors, no matter who they voted for (or didn’t), believing in the depth of our relationships and knowing that continuing to build those connections can hold us up and will take us where we want and need to go regardless of who is elected.

It’s ok for it to feel scary right now and it makes sense to be afraid. But what we cannot do is make ourselves smaller. What we cannot do is get stuck in our fear ceding spaces to inaction. What we cannot do is back away from public life giving power to the narrative that we are bad or dangerous or should be hidden away.

The only way to get to a world that works for all of us is directly through all of this, and the only way through all of this is through everything together.  

That means being a haven for each other and for people who want and need to come to the relative safety of the northeast (while also recognizing that of course so many of us are struggling across the northeast, too.) And acting in this capacity while having real conversations about and doing deep work together around class, access to wealth, and who can choose to move. All while not demonizing other places or the people who live there like the South or interior West, while building solidarity across regions and class experiences. 

Collective work takes a long time. The incoming administration is going to tear down a lot of things, sow chaos and division, and make our lives more dangerous in a short amount of time. That doesn't mean our long term strategy is bad or wrong. It will take us where we need to go. Part of the nature of doing liberatory work together is that it takes longer. Making our vision for a just society real will take a long time and will happen through many small movements, interactions, relationships forged over time and through meeting shared needs in the struggle. That mismatch is hard when facing chaos. And we maintain faith and knowledge that ultimately,  it's worth it. There is strength and longevity in the places collective work and collaboration can bring us. Places that we can’t arrive at alone. And when we’re able to hold each other up long enough to make it through together, we will arrive to the worlds we’ve imagined. 

We can hold both scales of time simultaneously—figure out what we need to do now to fortify ourselves and our communities while also remaining committed to each other and to the long work of creating a world that works for all of us. 

So, here are some of what we can do together right now.

What we can do right now: 

We’re here, we love you, we’re not going anywhere. 

All of us at Out in the Open - Grace, HB, Jake, jas, & SJ

HB Lozito
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