I wish I could just be happy I look gay and not scared that it’ll make people violent.

I wish I could say it was confidence, or pride, that made me laugh. Like yes, I am gay, thank you for noticing.

But honestly I was just shocked. And scared. And when she left I felt suddenly aware of my mortality, and just how vulnerable I am.

I’m tired of being told that I don’t need to be so scared, that things are not going to get as bad as I fear, when things are already that bad. It doesn’t make me feel better to be told I’m overreacting. It makes me feel crazy.

—when the day one executive orders specifically targeted some of the most marginalized people, and then everything turned out okay. Has this ever happened before in this country? Has it happened like this?

I beg them, I beg anyone, to show me a time when a president was publicly begged during his inauguration to show mercy, when a newly appointed government official made a Nazi salute—