Monsters—from the Id!

I’m so proud of my undergraduate alma mater right now.

I’m trading texts with a coworker who’s very nervous about the election. I’ve been calm all day for some reason, so I’m passing that calmness on to anyone who needs it.

On an impulse, I looked up Truman State University to see if they still had LGBTQIA+ resources available to their students–resources I didn’t have when I was there in the late 1980s because no one thought about them back then. I found the Truman website has a full-fledged Center for Diversity and Inclusion with resources for my tribe!

Seeing this reminds me that no matter what happens in this election, we can still make a difference, even if it’s just by being visible in whatever we do.

Maybe I’m misremembering. Maybe I’ve just been told things to make me feel good about myself over the years. But if the things I’ve been told in the past are true, my own queer visibility, whether it was being the only person at Truman who was out to the whole campus at the time (even when I tried to get away from it), being an out queer dude who liked to run a Champions campaign, refusing to creep back into the closet at my first “real” job, being a listening ear to a straight friend when his best friend came out to him, serving as the secretary of an LGBTQIA+ group for a couple of years up in northern Michigan and being part of the committee that put together the area’s first public Pride festival, or probably other times I don’t even know about, I hope being visible made the difference people have said I made over the years.

And if necessary, I’ll go out there and be just as visible as I used to and hope I can make that difference again.

The most important thing we can do is be ready to take whatever steps we need to when this is all over, and we know the outcome.

If I can come out in a small town in Missouri on a campus that was heavily Christian at the time and get where I am now, and collect the incredible group of friends and found family that I have, then you can do it, too.

Be visible. Be strong. Be you.