Dispatches from Route 66: Finding queer hope in New Mexico and Arizona

As I sit in an Albuquerque auditorium at the 3rd Annual New Mexico Draggy Awards, surrounded by drag queens, kings, and everyone in between, I find myself wiping away tears for the second time that evening.New Mexico transgender advocate Bunnie Cruse is standing on the stage giving out an award for activism, and she calls Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury to the stage. “Your existence is an act of resistance; an act of resilience and fuck Trump!” shouts Stansbury from the stage while wearing a black and white dress and a beat-up pair of red Converse. Fans clack, and the crowd erupts in cheers. Related: Dispatches from Route 66: How queer communities are rebuilding safety along the Mother RoadAlbuquerque: Where hope took the stageStansbury then quotes an invocation she heard earlier that week at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center: “Hope is a call to action. Resilience is a call to action. Change is a call to action, and continuing to fight for our democracy is a call to action.”Hope radiates from the stage. I’m just passing through New Mexico, yet I find myself feeling seen by an elected official in a way I rarely do back home in Ohio. Less than 24 hours earlier, I had been in Amarillo listening to transgender people describe contingency plans for their families if one of them were detained. Now, in Albuquerque, a member of Congress stood onstage at a drag awards ceremony celebrating the very community that had been living in fear just one state away.My third week on Route 66 searching for the Mother Road’s LGBTQ+ story, past, present, and future became a study in what hope looks like when communities feel safe enough to be visible. To better understand why Albuquerque felt so different, I sat down with leaders from Bold Futures, a statewide advocacy organization for women and people of color. A museaum display in Albuquerque, New Mexico.Alysse Dalessandro for The Advocate“I think that's one of the most beautiful things about org