The Resistance Brief: Hard Pass on Authoritarian Rule

Blog by Ricardo Martinez (he/him), Executive Director

What once felt unthinkable is now unfolding in plain sight: the United States of America teeters precariously between freedom and authoritarianism. 

Contempt for those from marginalized communities, especially immigrants and LGBTQ people, attempted suppression of dissent by military force in Los Angeles, curtailing of due process, individual rights, and freedoms, the utilization of propaganda and disinformation, the upcoming authoritarian-like military display scheduled in DC, overt racism, and xenophobia have become increasingly common in our country.  

These malignant beliefs and practices aim to replace widespread values of equality, care for the common good, and trust in the rule of law. It is no surprise that many of us are finding it hard to keep our heads above water. Especially for so many of us living intersecting identities as queer immigrants. 

I’m a child of immigrants. My parents left their families and the lives they built in Mexico for the possibility that their children could build on their sacrifice. My mom worked cleaning houses, and my dad was a line cook. We lived in a modest one-bedroom apartment without a lot of furniture. The security guard at my elementary school helped us obtain school uniforms, and neighbors donated used furniture to help make an empty apartment feel like home. At night, my mom would manually manufacture pens – blistering her hands for twenty-five dollars a bulk-box. My parents worked so hard, and it was expected that my siblings and I would work just as hard in school. 

We didn’t live an affluent life, but we did lead a dignified one. It was a life that valued hard work, centered on family and a community of Black, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Russian neighbors, and felt autonomous and full of possibility. 

I grew up knowing many families who shared elements of my story: the struggle to make ends meet, fortitude for navigating language and cultural barriers, and the practice of adaptability that allowed us to unite across difference. This was the pathway to the “American Dream.”   

So, when I see videos of the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are detaining people on their daily journey to a better life at their workplaces, courthouses, and schools, it feels deeply personal. It’s hard not to see my parents’ and neighbors’ faces on the bodies that ICE agents are aggressively apprehending. I know I’m not the only one who recognizes the inhumane treatment of our neighbors – the lack of care and refusal to honor the dignity and innate value of human beings. Recognizing what we are up against is of paramount importance. Dehumanization, scapegoating, reminiscing about a romanticized past, and weaponizing agencies are all part of a broader plan. 

They have been using vulnerable communities with limited power to personify divisive political issues, creating the widespread passivity they need to normalize political violence and broader institutional control and, ultimately, destruction. 

We are all sensing this systematic destruction and are struggling with how to respond. And that is by design. The closer to the wreckage – the more pronounced the hurt and despair. This gives those who feel far away from destruction a false sense of safety and the administration more time to slowly and methodically maintain a pace of attack that no longer feels like a crisis.    

But it is a crisis. 

The stress test on just how much brutalization towards marginalized communities we will tolerate will continue until more people recognize that attacks on immigrants put every American at risk for denial of due process; attacks on transgender healthcare lead to the destruction of established medical institutions and research; PrEP coverage challenges lead to the dismantling of preventive care like mammograms, and vaccines; and school sports investigations are just one more vehicle to undermine our public education system. 

So what can we do to reject authoritarianism? 

First, you have to recognize that we are part of a greater whole, a movement, and cannot do it alone. You can choose to lean into the area of the social justice movement you feel passionate about and where your skills, talents, privilege, influence, risk-tolerance, and power have the greatest impact. And that would be enough. All actions, big or small, contribute to protecting the democratic freedoms this administration is hellbent on taking away from us. 

It’s our job to make a choice to contribute. If you can donate, give monthly. If you can protest, turn out to peaceful public demonstrations. If you have influence online, uplift the need for advocacy and the expansion of civic engagement space. If you can lead, become a leader in your community. If you make art – record the moment to history. 

The best thing GLAD Law can do is continue to show up in the ways we have – using all aspects of the law to champion LGBTQ+ rights. We are part of a greater ecosystem of organizations focused on social justice – each contributing to the whole in our areas of specialty – converging in strategic ways to protect the best things about this country and reassemble the rubble of structures that no longer serve us. 

We need to think innovatively about how we respond and also dream of a future that is being held in trust for all of us. A future where we all have an equal shot at living a good life, with access to affordable housing and healthcare, and where we can provide for ourselves and our families. A future where we don’t have to calculate risk when entering spaces that we’re unfamiliar with. A future where there is endless possibility for immigrant families living in the US. Where all LGBTQ+ people can live freely and safely. And where access to the American Dream is not anchored in white supremacy and afforded to only those who fit neatly into boxes and categories deemed worthy. The needle is being pushed toward authoritarianism, and we must push back.     

What to know, what to do: 

• Read the blog: Jennifer Levi, Senior Director of Transgender and Queer Rights, describes the administration’s “institutional destruction”.
• Contact your legislators: tell them to oppose anti-civil rights, anti-trans bills in Maine. 
• Rachel Maddow: Showing up is vital, and it’s working.

Read more editions of the Resistance Brief.

The Resistance Brief: This week in the fight for justice

Forced Separation

Blog by Ricardo Martinez (he/him), Executive Director

Expelling courageous servicemembers who have put their lives on the line for this country is beneath contempt.  

Following the Supreme Court decision to allow the Trump administration’s transgender military ban to take effect while legal challenges continue, transgender servicemembers find themselves having to make unfathomable decisions. They must tell the military whether they will leave “voluntarily” or wait to be forced out.  

Active-duty transgender servicemembers have until today, June 6, to accept what the military has termed “voluntary” separation. Transgender servicemembers in the reserves have until July 7 to do the same. These are people who have served honorably, many for decades, earning medals and distinctions. Yet they’re being forced to choreograph their own dismissal, simply for being transgender.  

I recently spoke to a couple of our plaintiffs, who shared that many trans servicemembers can barely sleep trying to make this devastatingly difficult, life-altering decision. “It is really happening, thousands of us, many of whom have spent the majority of our lives working towards or in military service, are about to lose everything and have to start all over again from square one. It’s a very heavy feeling.” 

Servicemembers are left moving in directions that lead to the same unfavorable outcome: the end of their military careers. They are caught between a rock and a hard place – the carrot or the stick. On one hand, they take “voluntary” separation, which coerces them with “incentives” to end their career, like forgiven repayment of bonuses. On the other hand, they stay for now and face being pushed out later under even harsher terms.

This isn’t really a choice at all. Take Hunter Marquez for example. Hunter is a cadet who just graduate from the United States Air Force Academy. Recently, he completed the demanding physical and academic requirements required by the military but because he is transgender, he was not commissioned as an officer. On graduation day, he was presented with his “choice”—leave the career he’d worked toward, or face potentially repaying the full cost of his military education, a debt that would devastate his ability to launch his professional life. 

Regardless of each individual’s personal decision, honor and principle are drivers of service for each of our plaintiffs, and for thousands of other transgender servicemembers. History will record the unfairness of their expulsion. 

I can’t begin to understand the profound “sense of institutional betrayal,” as one plaintiff told me, that these servicemembers are feeling. I’m outraged by the abusive maltreatment these decorated servicemembers are receiving simply because of who they are. As the world continues to teeter between authoritarianism and freedom, I worry that this treatment is being normalized. 

We should, at all costs, fight being desensitized to the abnormal treatment of servicemembers who have historically exemplified the American values of integrity, honor, and courage. Our sense of the common good and collective well-being rests on our ability or inability to sense the chilling ripple effect of discriminatory practices aimed at our most vulnerable communities. 

Today is a heartbreaking and shameful day, as the implementation of Trump’s transgender military ban goes into effect in the short term. But our fight doesn’t end. We have many tools to challenge the hostile attacks coming our way, litigation chief among them. We are still awaiting an appellate court decision in our challenge to the transgender military ban that could yet allow these servicemembers to continue serving while our constitutional case moves forward. Whatever happens to transgender service members in the short-run, GLAD Law will keep fighting to protect them.  

We are in it for the long haul. Our plaintiffs, and our entire community, deserve no less.   

What to know, what to do: 

• Send a message of support and thanks to transgender servicemembers.
• Read this powerful op-ed from Wayne Maines: “I didn’t think transgender kids were real. My love for my daughter changed that.”  
• Tell senators to say no to ripping healthcare away from millions of Americans, including thousands of LGBTQ+ adults, who are twice as likely to have Medicaid as their primary insurance. 

Read more editions of the Resistance Brief.