Homejoy

Due to many of my demographic qualities, people are often surprised I grew up in Texas. There's telltale signs if you pay close attention to stuff in my dialect, but otherwise I don't really fit the mold. White? Sure, but leftie, twink, transgender-gay, all that junk. Most of the time this is just an inevitability of how political alignment sorts a lot of our thinking in the current era of American politics, but there is more of me in there than I care to admit.

See, I know on an intellectual and experiential level that Texas, like all the southern states, has a varied and multicultural tapestry. I was introduced to numerous elements of Latino American culture as a kid and it forms an important part of my own heritage. Growing up in Austin put me at a fascinating intersection of cosmopolitan culture and made it very clear to me that I was a city slicker through and through. West Texas is beautiful in its miserable dryness; the Dallas Arboretum is my favorite botanical garden in the country.

But the Texas in my mind as an adult - since I left, very shortly before Trump's first ignoble term began in earnest - looks like much more of a monolith than I remembered. As the national Republican party grew increasingly bold and deranged, their stranglehold on the state government enabled Texas to lead the charge on some of the worst policies and political maneuvers. The that sticks out in my mind the most is the law that makes bounty hunting for abortions a thing, an utterly reprehensible legal structure to be using in a modern society. There's also the total crushing of the state universities - a part of the state's pride and joy - with reactionary ideology mandates, and of course the participation by the pedophile ghouls in attacks on trans rights in the state. There's personal injury to me, too, that Elon has chosen my beautiful hometown to shit all over in specific with his ridiculous projects and "vision".

In conditions like these, thinking about home was exceptionally painful. It felt like a place that had been swallowed up by hell, unsafe for me and the vast majority of my social world, occupied territory. Of course, I'd grown up seeing Democrat mailers and hearing the wistful hopes of "Blue Texas" and heard rumors and murmurings for two decades. I'd long since lost hope for such a thing even before I evolved from a standard liberal towards more radical politics. Even in my wildest dreams of socialist victory I did not think of Texas, not wanting to imagine what might've become of it - a wasteland, scorned by man, abandoned to the hounds. I couldn't even conceive of the vicegrip loosening, and it only seemed to get tighter every year as the worst people alive fleeing other states continued to prop up the pedophiles running the government. To paraphrase the aphorism, it was easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of Republicans ruling over Texas.

So of course this year the elections come around and, minus a few days of extreme anxiety and the well-earned 24-hour libbing out period, I continued to not think much about Texas. Maybe Talarico ekes it out, even if my enthusiasm for him is certainly somewhat dampened by his traitorous comments, but the return of absurd split ticket voting loomed in my vision. It's less common now, but the specter of "I'll vote half republican and half democrat to balance things out" loomed in my mind as a Type of voter. Paxton loses off being the worst candidate in the world, Abbot keeps the governorship, nothing changes. For the national calculus, maybe. But not Texas. "Home is ruled by the enemy" was an immovable fixture. I couldn't conceive of it being otherwise.

Well, About That

I didn't believe it when people told me, I'll be honest. I planned to manage my election anxiety by playing board games with friends. I finally got Realm of Reckoning to the table, by the way, great game. Coming from that and expecting mixed-to-bad news when I opened my socials and hopped on a call - I had quite a bit of whiplash. I didn't believe it.

I would've cried, if I could've. My body finds that very disagreeable unfortunately. But I wanted to so, so badly, that was how I felt. My home, the Lone Star State, had wriggled ever so slightly out! That motherfucker Abbot was no longer in the Governor's chair?! I couldn't believe it. I felt lighter. And Paxton, too? The motherfucker Paxton who should be put in a cell and the key thrown away? THAT Paxton? He's losing??

I must pause to acknowledge, of course, that Democrats are frequently disappointing. I'm a committed socialist, and this is hardly endgame for a politics I think is good for the public and - of course - the entire world. But the people who had been trying very, very hard to RUIN my home for longer than I'd been alive had been resoundingly told to pack their bags and fuck off, and that joy rung through my entire being like a gentle hum. The results kept coming in - the state legislature composition was massively upended, too. It's very much in the realm of possibility to wipe away huge chunks of Abbot's legacy!

More importantly, though, this is the good side of history returning. History was, of course, well and truly back on with Trump 2.0. American Fascism was back and dumber and more destructive than ever before. But if this was inconceivable, other inconceivable things could happen too. If you told anyone a few years ago - anyone! - that 2026 midterms would send Texas fully into the arms of the Democrats, statewide, the end, they would have had you committed. The Republican establishment certainly didn't take it seriously and they have paid a hefty fucking price for it, and thank god!

All that to say - if Texas can flip away from the pedocons through tireless work by on the ground organizers and through exploiting American's new, firsthand knowledge of what right-wing governance is ACTUALLY like, anything is possible. Sky's the limit. Toss out all the Yglesiases and Douthats and every other miserable pundit who is trying to tranquilize your political imagination. Anything is possible!

Oh No, Everything Is Possible!

It's not entirely a good thing that anything can happen! It can bad or good happen.

Relatedly: I'd be remiss if I did not point out that this was a rough night for trans people of all persuasions. While localized wins do matter a lot - like Texas, for example! - there's definitely some stormcloud mixed in the horizon on account of the anti-trans ballot measures. The one out of Washington is uniquely disappointing for reasons I won't get into too much here. But we really took a beating on some of those. It is extremely important that we do not have a repeat of what happened in very recent memory with UK Labour.

But I have reason to be optimistic. We live in a time of great change and that means anything can happen. For better or worse, despite the insane efforts by Republicans, trans stuff remains a very low salience issue for most people. I'm also reminded of the passing of Prop 8 in California, which ended up being the last gasp of bigots before the gay marriage question was decided for good. I hope that the ballot initiatives function similarly, but for that to happen we need to force it into shape. I might write another column on this, but for now I'll suggest that you - cis, trans, everyone - connect with a politically active trans person in your life and get involved in organizing with them. They could do with taking a load off, for one; plus we can build a counterpublic that can disenfranchise conservatives and discipline the feckless Democrats together if we try!

Going Home

I have not wanted to visit Texas since the last time I left. I have too many big expenses coming up to jet down and do it immediately, either. But now it's something I can think about and imagine. I want to go to Bull Creek in Austin and see if the cliff I used to jump off into the water is there and as tall as I remember. I want to take my boyfriend to the Dallas Arboretum and enjoy getting lost. I want to go to Sculpture Falls. I want to see my friends who have remained there despite everything. I want to go to Zilker Park and the Hideout Theater. Maybe I'll even go down to San Antonio and see how it's changed in the decades since I've seen it. And now that is something I can think about doing that felt impossible.

This year has been a very transformative one for me. I'm now much more politically active, I've been hitting the gym, and I've picked up several new skills. The only thing that kept me going "Well, good, considering the circumstances" was that I did not have any reason to feel hopeful. The crushing inevitable weight of a death spiral for this stupid country drug around with me attached to my ankle. But I realized as I wrote this that so much of that was tied up in the occupation of my home by the pedophile ruling class. Now they've suffered a truly humiliating defeat. I look forward to many more.

Plus, they're all REALLY stressed out by this election. Maybe It Will Happen Today?