Those of us who are members of marginalized populations are experiencing this election as a trauma.
Those who weren’t moved by desperation to dump the ashes of their dead lovers on the White House lawn (as AIDS activists did in 1992 under President Bush) in a vain attempt to get the government to give a shit that we were dying. By “we” the author appears to signify only people who aren’t the targets of explicitly racist, sexist, and homophobic policies of historically Republican governments. Such a sentiment, however encouraging, erases queer history. Two decades later, I worked on a suicide prevention line for gay teens during the George W. An entire generation of intellectuals, artists, friends, and lovers didn’t “make it” through Reagan and Bush. I thought to myself: who’s the “we” that got through Reagan and Bush? The Reagan/Bush era was an absolute horror for my community. As a gay person, I know what it’s like to not see the weight of your grief reflected or honored in the places where you seek refuge.Īs I read the Lions Roar piece, that feeling of not being seen came up when I read statements like one that said if we could get through Nixon, Reagan, and Bush, we could get through this too. As a white teacher, I wondered if I had been one who dropped the ball.
For him, Trayvon’s murder was monumental, the only thing on his mind. He spoke of how no one in our mostly white sangha seemed to know that it had happened and how the teachers didn’t mention it. I had an experience a few years ago which transformed me as a Buddhist teacher: a non-white male student of mine told me about coming to our center during the week that news of Trayvon Martin’s murder broke in the national media. Certainly, these are not the words I’m hearing from my black female best friend, my Mexican American niece, or my trans friend. While some of the entries were good enough (invariably the ones from people of color), most left me feeling that these were the words of people who don’t know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of oppression under a conservative government. As I read, I felt a very familiar disappointment and anger arising in me. Last week, someone sent me a link to the article, “Buddhist Teachers Respond to Trump’s Presidential Win.” Several Buddhist teachers had written a paragraph or two offering their wisdom. I love you, Western Buddhism, but as a gay man, I find your privileged lack of urgency in the wake of the election of Donald Trump disturbing. Anti-Trump protestors in Los Angeles on November 12.