The rights and freedoms of your LGBTQ+ neighbors — our “inalienable” rights to live and love in harmony and peace — are under concerted attack. 

Last week, a Trump-appointed U.S. district judge in Tennessee temporarily barred two federal agencies from enforcing Biden administration directives that extended protections for LGBTQ people in schools and workplaces. 

As state after state refuses to honor the chosen genders of trans citizens, same-sex marriages could soon be undone by the Fundamentalist Christianity über alles Supreme Court.

Even in JeffCo, we are nowhere as secure as we would like. In the recent League of Women Voters-Jefferson County forum with our two candidates for sheriff, both dodged the part of a question that ended, “What will you do to honor the rights of LGBTQ+ residents to express their identities as they see fit, including chosen genders and chosen pronouns?” Given such silence, it’s up to each of us to vigorously honor and defend basic human rights that are as fundamental as a woman’s right to control her own body and destiny. 

LGBTQ+ humans need you to speak up and stand up for us. We cannot do it alone. Please demand that every candidate, office holder, health worker, and law enforcer hold LGBTQ rights and freedoms as sacred. No “religious freedom” excuses for injustice. 

As much as we love safe hugs and smiles — as much as some of us adore being recognized as Queen for More than a Day — we need more. Just as some of us have sworn to honor and protect our spouses in sickness and health until death do us part, we need you to do the same for us.

To keep abreast of what’s coming down, please subscribe to our local gudlife LGBTQ+ newsletter (gudlifept@gmail.com) and talk to us. We are everywhere.

Jason Victor Serinus
PORT TOWNSEND