As most of you probably realize, I benefit from a long list of privileges: I’m White, native-born, male, English-speaking, cisgender, heterosexual, educated, and so on. So whenever Pride Month rolls around, I’m confronted with the question: What does any of this have to do with me?
If you’re similarly privileged, you may feel like the attempts to demonize transfolk or roll back the rights of the gay and lesbian community are happening over there somewhere. Sure, it’s a shame, but my life goes on.
This week I want to address that response with reference to the Martin Niemoller poem that begins “First they came for the Communists”. Niemoller’s creeping list of enemies-of-the-state isn’t some historical artifact. Fascist movements need an ever-expanding set of enemies; it’s in the DNA of Fascism. So the fact that they haven’t gotten to you yet doesn’t mean that they won’t. Probably they will, if their regime lasts long enough.
That’s the topic of the featured post, “All Americans Need Pride Now”. If there is any group of people who can be treated as subhuman, as undeserving of human rights, then we are all at risk. Those black holes of subhumanity tend to grow, and to keep sucking more and more of society. Thinking it’s not about you is short-sighted. I’ll try to get that post out by 10 EDT.
The weekly summary has a lot to cover: Republicans in the Senate passed their reconciliation bill, with gestures of resistance to Trump’s worst ideas, but no firm stands against them. The destruction of CBS News continued, with the new Trump-friendly management knocking down its most popular pillar, 60 Minutes. SpaceX is set to go public in a way that will funnel your money into Elon Musk’s pocket. The life-expectancy issue is a scarier than previously thought. Trump faced a number of reversals in court. And a few other things happened. I’ll try to get the summary out before 1.
The Weekly Sift 