It’s early am on February 14, 2023 and a cold wind blows through the capital grounds as the Guard warms up in their HUMVEEs and APCs. After days of lobbying and demonstrations the Guard with enough tear gas to sicken residents a mile away cleared the grounds and the legislature came back into session. The floor sessions in both chambers were short as what seemed like the wildest red state abortion restrictions, bans of transgender health care, restroom use, sports participation, gay adoption, wholesale repeal of the Human Rights Act, creation of a bunch of new felonies, restoration of capital punishment, and finally elimination of the Board of Medical Practice were all crammed into one omnibus bill from hell and quickly passed and signed by Governor Jensen.
What the hell…?
I came out a half century ago and I’ve been reviewing the queer history of that era, when Jack Baker was physically attacked at a Democratic Party event while a state grant funded “experimental” gender confirming health care for about 20 trans women at the U of M. Minnesota’s stealthy first pride march loudly snuck up Nicollet Avenue, a trans Minneapolis high school student was allowed to switch schools over the summer and transition, conservative United Way funded it’s first gay social service agencies, and my friend Terry was beaten to death in Loring Park. But progress was being made as Minneapolis then St.Paul adopted gay and then trans inclusive civil rights laws followed by Minnesota in 1993, same gender marriage was finally legalized, and we got pretty smug…
So comes the 2022 election season and given that most of us Minnesota gays had experienced legal equality for all our adult lives, we kinda assumed it was a given. We democrats happened to be pretty much the party in power when Russia started a war and stole our hard earned pay with inflation, and thus we democrats got the blame. By pride time all the warning signs were there- Congressional democrats behind 2% on the generic ballot, Governor Walz slipping in the polls, and fortunately Biden wasn’t on the ballot. Local Democratic Party units put most of their efforts behind their local legislative candidates even though 80% of the races weren’t competitive, our gay electeds campaigned for at least the 4th trans legislative candidate and the 1st that will actually be elected thanks to a deep blue district, and the party’s official Stonewall DFL caucus pretty much ignored Governor Walz because he wasn’t progressive enough for their litmus tests. Come Election Day a republican wave and democratic apathy result in democrats losing both the state and federal house and senate, while low democratic turnout and progressive’s apathy defeat Governor Walz and all the statewide democratic candidates. It gets worse- the Biden victory denying republican Secretary of State will certify Minnesota’s electoral votes for Trump in 2024, no matter who wins.
After half a century of fighting for our rights I should be able to retire instead of having to fight these battles again. And the bigots are getting worse, stealing trans children from their families much like the nazis stole and murdered children with disabilities following the sad example we set when we stole native children from their families. The republicans know they have one chance left to wholesale wipe out gay and women rights and they’ll move quickly, and we democrats with our smug apathy, discord, and just plain disorganization are going to let them.
Please prove me wrong…
Sassy Democrat 