By Mikey Vibal
As much as I would like to say we survived this in 2016, the truth is many of our queer (especially BIPOC) siblings did not. Here we are once again with gloom and clouds rushing in every morning when we turn on the news, check our phones, or listen to the radio. There is an attack actively going against us that is deeply rooted in racism and systemic violence. LGBTQ+ narratives and government-supported media are becoming archives and no longer living proofs. Even more so, as the BTQ+ BIPOC narratives have been historically left in the extra dark corners of the closet.
I am in a place where I know that if the government can brush over white cisgender gay men and their health needs, people like me are left in limbo. The federal government has removed LGBTQ+ information and resources from their platforms. Obviously, this sounds frightening, but I am writing to remind you that no web page will ever be enough to recognize the beauty of being LGBTQ+. A government web page’s existence should not define your existence. The way being queer has made me feel is something that no amount of dictionary word proof, or research could ever define us, even when they are framed in our favor. The government and surveillance state will never love the way a community does. Our community’s recognition of who we each are, through our love, mutual aid, and queer joy is evidence and testament to us.
I am aware that this is the system we must try to endure under, but do not let this be the thing that breaks your heart in two. I will always choose your creations, platforms, and testimonies as the true expertise on queer living. A system built on the binary never had the capacity to hold and sustain LGBTQ+ community members. Just as we were added in throughout the years, we are being taken out. This was inevitable when we were never consulted and uplifted from the beginnings of the system’s creation. I wanted to be shocked and appalled, but instead I view this as true colors revealed. It has always been like this and until we are part of the foundation and fundamentals, we are just a loose brick they can do without.
Reflect on the beauty of not allowing a government to define your existence and truth. I know many may say those web pages were essential, and though I do agree it helped address some stigma and that it was good general info for a simple Google search, I would not ever call it an actual solution toward the goal of queer liberation. I see the real work being done through queer mutual aid, coalition building, and even as far as the abandonment of the non-profit industrial complex and migration toward new ways of anti-carceral care. May this event create room for us to choose our own definitions, tell and listen to our own stories, continue to conduct our research, divest, and protest.
My community has held space for me from the very beginning and we can continue to do so for each other without the binds of binary legality and recognition. Queerness—especially for people of color—is still and has been actively criminalized before the removal of this content on the government’s platform. We have been in a place where we must nurture care outside of the systems in place for decades and to the present day. We have been doing our best to build skills, safety pods, houses, found families, and communities where we are the foundation, and that has kept us safer than any law that can get ripped away with a signature or any platform with a .gov/.org.
We keep each other safe. Every shared meal, story, resource, tear, and laughter is our proof of existence. We need each other more than we will ever need them and I would not have it any other way.
Mikey Vibal (all pronouns) is a daughter of immigrants, writer, and artist based in Los Angeles, CA, in the U.S. She engages as the co-chair of the LA HIV Women’s Task Force, is a lover of mutual aid, and describes herself as an active participant in love as she works toward solidarity in her community.