The LGBTQ+ movement is broken. Here's how we might fix it

What the queer movement has been doing isn’t working, and it’s obvious. You see the evidence every day: political gains stripped away; our right to marry under threat; youth, trans, and BIPOC people and services attacked; shootings at gay bars; arrests in Turkey – you’re already thinking of more threats and losses to add to the list. You already know. The pendulum only swings back and forth because we haven’t played to win, and our opponents know that if we claim our power, they’ll lose.LGBTQIA+ people have been trained into victimhood as a way of life, and our movement for liberty, safety, and well-being has operated from that place of lack, scarcity, and trauma. We must focus our queer drive to challenge and question everything on our own progress, learn our lessons, and change direction rather than repeat past mistakes just because they’re tradition.The dominance and celebrity of political activism trapped many queer activists in tactics that do not deliver the outcomes we want. We imagine political revolution to be our only goal, despite the fact that electing pro-LGBTQIA+ politicians rarely results in rapid or permanent progress. The progress we win does little to reduce the daily suffering of the many LGBTQIA+ people who can’t find a job with a living wage, safe housing, affirming health care, or even simple community connectedness.Of course, we have to robustly pursue politics, but as only one arm of our strategy. As long as LGBTQIA+ activism is focused on lack, and perpetually waiting for cishet people to provide for us, we are not empowered to solve our own problems.Our movement is also struggling because of a huge drop-off in nonprofit funding, especially in the last few years as too many foundations and corporations bent under pressure to eliminate DEI efforts. Many companies are afraid to continue publicly supporting LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC people, and, until now, we have not adjusted our expectations to provide a path that works for them to c