Joe Biden beating Donald Trump was the greatest moment of 2020 for LGBTQ people

Editor's note - Hands down, the greatest moment of 2020 was the victory of President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice Presidential-Elect Kamala Harris. Enjoy the video clips. Then, if you are so inclined, read my post about 2020. What I wrote came out due to frustration of four years of idiocy, especially 2020 in general. Barring a juicy religious right scandal, this will probably be the last piece I post for 2020. Have a Happy New Year. Be careful, be safe, and wear your dang mask! 

As always, thank you all for the support you've given this blog over the years.

   

  

As 2020 winds down to a close (thank God), I feel like I'm in the aftermath of one of those fights I used watch during high school. In those fights, punching is the least effective measure you can do. Those fights were wild. I'm talking head-slinging, hair-pulling, ripping, tearing, body-tossing, body-slamming frenzies of madness which generally involved everyone in the vicinity. Who cares if they weren't directly involved in the outbreak of chaos. Everyone was busy ducking bodies and avoiding whatever projectiles  flung through the air. 

In that same manner, 2020 has been a riotous, chaotic year  The important thing though is that we got through it or, in this case, almost through it.  We lost a lot of good friends, felt much too much pain and fear regarding the future, and got angry on an unhealthy level more times than we would like to admit.

But we had many surprising and hard-fought victories. One was in June when the Supreme Court said that we are protected from workplace discrimination by federal law. That was a victory which I was not expecting and even now, months later, continues to blow my mind. 

 And it came no thanks to Donald Trump. He promised to be our ally when running for president, but then used his Administration to undermine our safety and rights in so many avenues. He had nothing to do with any of our victories, especially the one in June.

This victory would have been greatest moment of 2020 if it were not for a certain election in which LGBTQ people joined a larger community of African-Americans, other people of color, white people Democrats, Republicans, Never-Trumpers, older Americans, progressives, conservatives, and all-around fed-up folks to topple Trump's undeserved presidency and place President-Elect Joe Biden  and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris in the White House.

There is so much I have to say about Donald Trump and to his supporters, particularly those who believe his bogus crap about how the election was "stolen" from him. 

The election wasn't stolen. It was relinquished.

It was relinquished by Trump through his garbage-infested, crap-strewn four-year mistake of leadership. The man couldn't lead a dog to dog food and his basic incompetence took centerstage during his entire presidency. He is responsible for America's loss of reputation across the world, the economic mess we are in now and the over 300,00 deaths suffered because he wouldn't do the right thing to guide us through the COVID pandemic.

And to his supporters - Just because you think Donald Trump oozes money doesn't mean kissing his ass will cause you to get some. You worshipped a  Great White Hope who turned out to be a Great White Dope. In him, you had false visions of  the "American Dream," success and power. But in reality, you found out that whatever expressed by Trump wasn't a personification of any of these things but an illusion of your personal greed, selfishness, and grand egotistical conceit. 

You aren't the 'forgotten Americans." And you aren't certainly more American than folks like me. What you fear seems to be a loss of status as our nation becomes more diverse. No longer are folks referring to you as "real Americans" and it may scare some of you to see darker faces in governmental and leadership positions. So you embraced Trump because he was what you knew. You took him as the embodiment of every quality which has been spoon-fed to all of us as tokens of success - wealth, prominence. The fact that he was white didn't hurt, either. In the end, Trump was nothing but a fraud with nothing going for him but his mouth and an ability to tap into the worst of us all. He didn't earn his wealth or his prominence. But you supported him. You gave his lies power and his deceit a constant stream of sustenance. Your fear helped him to dig a hole which may take years for this country get out of.

Indeed some have said that Trump winning the presidency was a backlash to Obama. I don't know about that, but this I do know - Obama showed America what we can hope to be. Trump showed America what we must never become.  We got two visions here, folks. So far you've been in the wrong camp. And don't think your futile claims of "election fraud," your deluded protests, or sad attempts to force a second term on the rest of us will be successful. Nor will it curb the stench of his justifying his evil from your souls. .

My caustic words may offended some folks but I am hoping that they do. They are rooted in the fight I've described at the beginning of this piece. You see, after those fights, even with your clothes ripped, bloody scratches on your face, your eye swollen, and your hair resembling the styles of a half-blind barber, there is a certain exhilaration that you've come out of a high pressure situation and are still standing. Four years under the Trump presidency and 2020 definitely counts as high pressure situations. 

And here we are. Exhausted but not totally beaten down. Angry but in a righteous way. Probably looking like fresh hell, but wearing it like a wreath of victory.