After the election, what next? What is needed. What needs to stop? Update:
The future is going to be tough, and indulging in drama isn't going to be helpful. We also will need to be more focused and have a plan.
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UPDATE: Dallas Morning News has today, 11/9/2024 run an editorial by the homophobic Focus on the Family.
The homophobic opposition is in motion. We need to be in motion.
Non-Partisan disclaimer.
I will be very happy if the result turns out that we had nothing to worry about. Those Gays who support Trump feel free to give feed back if nothing happens.
I did vote for Harris, but my assessment will be based on non-partisan evidence.
I did donate $500 to Denise Wilkerson for Texas House who lost. She was up against a particularly obnoxious Christian homophobe, Tony Tinderholt.
However, this newsletter believes in preparedness based on a likely probability that something is going to happen. The future is opaque, that is we think we know what will happen, but we really never know.
I have heard inputs from across the spectrum. We always need to prepared for the worst possibility.
I am basing my expectations of the Trump administration on what the Evangelical Trump supporters expectations of the Trump administration are. They are the deadly enemies of the Gay community.
I am avoiding basing expectations based on the thinking of any political partisans. They may be right, I think they are likely right, but I am going to work from primary evidence and not the opinion of others, though will be reading them.
Most of the things we should do, we should have done anyways.
Election Results.
They are bad nationally and in Texas for the Democrats.
At this time Trump has won the Presidency, the Republicans have won the U.S. Senate, it looks very likely that they will win the U.S. House. They already control the U.S. Supreme Court. What is worse is that Trump won the popular vote. He will have a mandate, he won’t have gotten into the White House based on the distortions of the Electoral College.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/05/us/elections/results-president.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/05/us/elections/results-senate.html
The Republicans have won the house. They have won 218, which is a one seat majority. As of 11/14/2024, 7:50 am CST there are still 4 seats leaning Republican. One California congressional district has only 74% of the vote counted nine days after the election.
The margin of victory counts. Often the party in power loses seats in mid-term elections, with 218 people, for one reason or another, they won’t serve out their term. Special elects are called.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/06/us/elections/results-house-races-tracker.html
https://abcnews.go.com/538/live-updates/election-results-2024/?id=115468646
So the Republicans will control all three branches of the U.S. Government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.
It will not be the Republican Party of the past, it will be Trump in charge of all the branches. The Republican Party is now an extension of him.
Trump Gay supporters have pointed out that all the specifically anti-Gay language was removed from the Republican Party Platform. However, that action doesn’t seem to have upset the homophobic Christians who support Trump. General statements can have more specific interpretations later.
The Democrats lost in both houses of the Texas legislature. They lost the U.S. Senate election.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/05/us/elections/results-texas.html
There have been losses with Judgeships.
Getting a grip or not getting a grip.
As I expected, a lot of the Facebook posts were about the drama people were having and posting it to Facebook for social credit. Some are taking time to grieve. I felt that a lot of the posts were self-indulgent and to let us know what tortured empathetic soul they were. Basically self-aggrandizing. What they weren’t doing is focusing on action.
Hence the picture above of a fainting couch with the comment, “ Project 2025 hasn’t been put on hold until you recover from the vapours.”
The homophobes are already in motion planning how to bring down the LGBT permanently. We need to be in motion also.
We are adults and we need to be grown up and ready to face hardships and adversity with determination. The struggle isn’t a therapy group.
We might face a serious situation where some disaster is occuring every other day. Will we spend that time laying in bed doing Facebook posts about our anxieties?
I was fairly convinced in early October that Harris was headed towards defeat. I watched the 538 polls and guestimated that about 1.5 to 2.0 percent were lying and that Trump was going to win and by a big margin in the Electoral College.
Instead of drama
The day after the election I wrote up a better response plan for our neigborhood Facebook group for emergency developments. We do communicate in the group, but we could be more effective. Thrity seconds might be the difference between knocked over on the front steps versus hiding in the house with the doors locked.
I sent it out to my newsletter with a link to a previous home security list of actions. Then I thought it would be good to share a link to the newsletter to local Dallas, Fort Worth Texas groups so they might use the procedure in their neighborhood groups.
I also was doing research work to start posting on the election so everyone is fully informed.
Someone else has pointed out that your will needs to mention your spouse by name and you need to have other documents regarding Power of Attorney since they might invalidate Gay marriage.
I posted that you need to make sure your passport is up to date.
I haven’t seen any posts about food security and financial security. If there is civil disorder will you have food. If your business is shut down for a week, are you in a financial disaster.
We need to start thinking about prepardness.
These are things people could be doing and distributing. I would add it to my newsletter. But instead they were having agonies and I am doing all that I can already.
Who voted for Trump, homophobic Christians did.
The Evangelical Christians and Catholics elected Trump and they think his victory is their victory.
First a disclaimer, I want to avoid partisanship as much as possible, so I have carefully chosen sources which show specifically who voted for Trump and what their expectations are. I want to incorporate into our efforts a wide as possible range of Gays. So there isn’t commentary by persons suggesting what they think will happen.
I think things are dire, but if it turns out I am wrong, I will be very happy to be wrong. On the other hand, I need to best assess the situation and pro-actively suggest a plan of action. Regardless of what will be the result of the Trump administration, we need to greately improve our efforts and tactics against homophobic Christianity anyways.
Who voted for Trump by religious affiliation.
A group which doesn’t believe in evolution, thinks the earth is less than 10,000 years old, thinks Noah’s Ark was a real thing and thinks a book of murder and mayhem and fabulist tales is accurate managed to win.
These numbers are based on an Exit Poll by NBC News.
You have to go down the report to see it by religion. Basically the core of Trump support is homophobic Christianity.
It is fairly clear who elected Trump.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls
Other reports show much the same.
Church Times, “White Evangelicals help Donald Trump to Regain the White House.”
Salt Lake Tribune, “White Christians made Donald Trump.”
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/11/06/white-christians-made-donald-trump/
Assoc. Press, “White evangelical voters show steadfast support for Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Christianity Today, “Trump’s Path to Victory Still Runs Through the Church.”
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2024/11/trump-evangelical-catholic-voters-abortion-economy/
How the Conservative Christians see Trumps victory their victory.
First Things, “Trump’s Victory is Good News for Religous Believers.” This is a conservative Christian publication which is the think tank of the religious right.
In that regard, whatever one thinks of the man or his platform, Trump’s electoral success is good news for those of us who think that the highest, noblest, and most liberating act is to surrender ourselves, heart, mind, and soul, to God.
Crisis Magazine, “Trump Wins Let the Work Begin.” This is a conservative Roman Catholic magazine.
They see that they have an opportunity for their agenda with the election of Trump.
To be clear, this new political realignment is a cause for concern for conservative Catholics, for it has put social issues like abortion and homosexual “marriage” on the back-burner. This is where our work comes in. We must convince the Trump Administration that true prosperity cannot come to our nation if we continue to slaughter the unborn and discard the sacredness of marriage. But the good thing about the Trump Administration is that, unlike the Woke Left, they will at least give us a hearing. Now we have to work to make that hearing count and truly make America great again. [Boldface added.]
https://crisismagazine.com/editors-desk/trump-wins-let-the-work-begin
ChurchLeaders, “Christian Leaders React to Donald Trump Winning the Presidential Election.”
They all saw Trump election as a great thing and a victory for them.
Most of the responses were had general themes. like this by Theologian Owen Strachan:
Theologian Owen Strachan said, “In his magnificent wisdom and grace, God has acted to preserve this country. There is much more to discuss, but this morning, we simply praise our great God.”
However, one church leader was the head of a group that promotes conversion therapy. Quoting.
Preston Sprinkle, theologian and president of The Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender, wrote, “The U.S. empire has a new Caesar Christ’s kingdom has the same King I’ll honor the former. But my allegiance belongs to the latter.” [Link added in.]
They will expect their homophobic agenda to be supported.
In almost all the cases the Christians writing about Trump’s election victory or the Christian leaders interviewed were general in their commentary. Only one talked specifically about going after Gays. However, these are all leaders of Christian groups with an anti-Gay agenda.
If they think Trumps victory is their victory, they would only think that if they thought Trump’s victory would be a victory for their agendas, which include an anti-Gay agenda.
They can be defeated. What needs to start happening and what needs to stop.
They aren’t invincible. They can be defeated. Regardless of whether we can defeat them, we need to defend the LGBT in the North Texas area as much as we can.
There needs to be a plan of action with goals. Activities need to support targets and goals. Our protests need to be effective and need to send messages to the opposition and public. What we don’t need is recreational unfocused protests for self-entertainment. Protests should be to demoralize the opposition and persuade the public.
We need to have actions and strategies that discredit the opposition and demoralize them. We need also to surface the homophobia in Dallas to make it visible. We need to embarrass and discredit those who enable homophobia.
[1] We don’t have a ban on conversion therapy in Dallas Co. Working for a ban would surface the ugly homophobia in Dallas County and those who collude with them and the City of Dallas is always concerned about their image.
[2] We don’t have a human rights commission for the City of Dallas. This would have a multitude of benefits and it would provide support for human rights. Most major cities have had a human rights commission for decades, starting in the 20th century. The City of Dallas would surely suffer embarrassment if it was generally known.
[4] We don’t have accountability for the 2010 Dallas bathhouse raid and no assurance that a bar or bath might be raided in 2025. It has been shoved down the memory hole by our local so-called leadership.
[5] We really don’t have a non-discrimination ordinance. The ordinance which is put forth as some type of sham thing, it is not substantial and is just an assemblage of words to look like it is something.
[6] We need to make visible the homophobia of homophobic individuals, institutions, and churches visible and have it cost them moral standing in Dallas.
The above are just some activities. Surely there are other things to be done. However, the fact that Dallas doesn’t have a human rights commission, and hasn’t had it for decades is a good indication of the incompetence of the so-called social justice warriors of Dallas. (Fort Worth has had one since 1967.)
