good trouble

Follow these 10 empowering queer activists to help treat your 2024 election dread

By Robbie Couch June 29, 2024 at 8:00am

This article includes links that may result in a small affiliate share for purchased products, which helps support independent LGBTQ+ media.

In saner times, being a convicted criminal, encouraging Americans to inject themselves with bleach to fight Covid-19, and refusing to accept the results of an election they lost fair and square would deem a candidate unfit for public office. But these are not saner times. This is 2024, where polarization and alternative facts reported by right-wing media have made the rematch between President Biden and former President Trump unnervingly close.

It’s easy to get cynical and disengage from politics when it feels like nothing matters. But elections do matter, as evidenced by the “unprecedented” attack on LGBTQ+ rights during Trump’s first term. Analysts, for what it’s worth, are warning his return to power would bring even more extreme policies than before.

Now’s not the time to tune out—it’s the time to plug back in. Stay calm, carry on, and follow these 10 LGBTQ+ people to feel empowered to act this election season:

1. Brian Derrick

Brian Derrick is a progressive strategist who founded Oath, a data-driven fundraising platform that informs voters on how their political donations can have the biggest impact on key races come election day. The tool analyzes thousands of elections “from president to school board” to ensure you’re getting the most bang for your buck in helping flip GOP-held seats and protect progressive incumbents in tight races.

2. Rebekah Bruesehoff

Rebekah Bruesehoff became a prominent transgender youth activist after the Trump administration began attacking LGBTQ+ rights, earning her a spot on GLAAD’s 20 Under 20 list in 2023. “As a young person, especially a young queer person, we see people every day trying to make decisions for us and about us,” Bruesehoff told GLAAD. “But we’re here. We have voices, and they matter. It’s our lives and our future.”

4. Chasten Buttigieg

Sure, Chasten Buttigieg keeps a lower profile than his husband, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, but that makes his advocacy all the more salient when he uses his always-sunny social feeds to call on followers to act when it matters most. “When our kid was fighting for his life on a ventilator at two months old, [President Biden] was eager to pull Pete aside and remind him that the entire administration had our family’s back and was there for us,” Buttigieg recently told the Washington Blade. “That’s the kind of leader I want for this country, someone who cares about families.”

5. Kelley Robinson

In 2022, Kelley Robinson became the first queer Black woman to lead the Human Rights Campaign as president. Her feed is filled with important facts and stats and empowering messages of hope to fuel the policy fights that loom ahead. “This is a pivotal moment in our movement for equality for LGBTQ+ people,” Robinson said. “We, particularly our trans and BIPOC communities, are quite literally in the fight for our lives and facing unprecedented threats that seek to destroy us.”

8. Mark Joseph Stern

Mark Joseph Stern is a reporter who covers the Supreme Court for Slate and uses his expertise—particularly on LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights, and criminal justice—to show how decisions from SCOTUS will affect marginalized groups.

9. Rachel Maddow

Photo: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images

The cable news star may only be hosting her top-rated MSNBC show on Mondays nowadays, but it’s certainly not due to an early retirement. Rachel Maddow, who’s mostly active on Threads, recently launched the second season of her popular podcast, Ultra, exploring the history of corruptive, fascist forces within American democracy. I wonder why she thinks such themes are still relevant today?

10. Chase Strangio

Chase Strangio is the Deputy Director for Transgender Justice and staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. An ardent proponent of trans rights, Strangio exposes how bigoted politicians exploit our legal system to attack LGBTQ+ people, then provides us with the tools to fight back.

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One Comment*

  • inbama

    Who’d have imagined on a supposedly X X X blog celebrating fifty yeas of X X X X X, you can’t type X X X,
    X X X X X X X or X X X X X.
    (To fill in the blanks, unscramble YAG, RDEPI, EBALSIN and UEQRE.)

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