I tried meeting homophobes 'in the middle.' This Pride, I'm through

After the first election of Donald J. Trump in 2016, America was met with a barrage of think pieces, books, studies, political postmortems, pop songs, and influencer videos about the importance of meeting in the middle. Somehow, if we just built a bridge to those in our own country who would happily strip away our freedoms and autonomy because our existence threatens their narrow view of the world, maybe we could all get along. Never mind that doing so would require submitting to their fascistic will while sacrificing ourselves and our communities in the process. I thought it was foolish then, and now I think it surpasses foolishness and dives headlong into the downright harmful. If someone is wrong and unwilling to even entertain another point of view, my time is better spent building community with the people disenfranchised by those who cast us all as their enemy. I reject finding any middle ground.It’s been a hard year for Pride, but maybe it was the necessary wake-up call we all needed. According to a recent poll released by Gallup, support for LGBTQ+ rights has slipped from recent highs. Acceptance of transgender people continues to decline. Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation continues to spread through statehouses. Violence against transgender people has become so routine that many Americans barely notice it anymore. A trans person is murdered, and no one reports on it. Another school district removes books and refuses to perform music composed by a gay person. Another legislature debates whether certain children, adults, and anyone not straight, white, and Christian should be allowed to exist openly. The story flashes across a screen and disappears like a campaign promise not to drag America into war.Hostility is no longer confined to petty school boards or state legislatures. In several states, elected officials have gone so far as to replace Pride Month recognitions altogether, rebranding June around concepts like "Strong Families," "Nuclear Family Month," and othe