I planned on writing an elaborate introduction as to why it is I am writing this. But honestly there isn’t enough time to get all poetic, and to be honest, I don’t really care about making that activisty-aesthetic intro that sounds true just because it’s a bit dry, has big words in it, kinda cold (with a hint of passion), and is very calculated not to hurt anyone. While we do not have the funds to make loud and flashy campaigns, we can try and write. We hope our writing is convincing. And if it isnt – well then it isnt but we feel we must raise the bar a bit on this conversation.

Speeding through – long story short – some NGOs, international news outlets and teeny social media circles have been making a case for voting today for candidates who are “pro-lgbt rights”. I genuinely do not think that is the right thing to do, and im not saying it isnt right because I worry about the outcome of elections or that this will keep them previously & currently violent sectarian Lebanese political parties in power. I’m not naïve enough to believe that the queers who can & will vote are going to vote fascism into power, or that these votes will swing the elections. Ofcourse they won’t. But here’s what votes like this will do. They will mean that queer organizing is being steered into a sad, lonely, selfish, racist, classist, transphobic, and sexist direction. But at least we’d have removed 534, right? Well I meant that question sarcastically, but let’s pause a minute actually ask that questions, lets start at that small sad lonely place. Are people voting to repeal 534 today? No, no they aren’t. Do politicians make promises during elections season to acquire votes, and not actually deliver these promises? Yes, yes they do. Everyday actually, and all over the world. Maybe because we haven’t had elections so long, we’ve forgotten how these things go. But really no candidate is legally bound to their elections promises. Theyre words. It’s the actions of some candidates that may give us hope of them making positive changes, and the only reason we may have some hope is not their words, its their actions. Some candidates we’ve seen work on matters close to our hearts, and we dare to hope that they will continue to do so if elected into a position of power.

There are many candidates, some good, some great, some quite shit, some with blood on their hands, some with blood on their hands and your money in their pockets, some with blood on their hands – but the blood of people whose blood isn’t valued so high – a wide mix of these people are saying they support gay rights, or that they “don’t have an issue with gay people”, or that they just love gay people cause all gay people are amazing, or that people have the right to live as they chose as long as they don’t hurt anyone. This has somehow been transformed to they support “lgbt rights”. That has been translated to sexual liberation is coming. That got us to some candidates feeling that they have to say “oops please don’t misunderstand, we didn’t mean gay marriage”.

You know, for a group of people that preaches pride, a lot and very often, sounds like we don’t have a lot of it.

No one has promised anything. People have given support and choked on that support whilst giving it. Half of the candidates simply don’t hate homosexuals. And everyone is throwing rice on them like its something to celebrate.

We can do better than this.

What angers me is that these candidates’ messages of support have never once mentioned trans* folk. Not once. And somehow gay media and activists are again preaching this as a potential LGBT win – if we play our cards right ofcourse. But tell me how are Lebanese trans* persons who have undergone gender-affirming therapies and surgeries, who have a million and one problems updating their IDs in Lebanon, supposed to vote? How will they show up at those voting stations without fear of verbal and physical violence? Without fear of being accused of identity theft? What about their civil rights to vote? How can they vote for the possibility of gay heaven laws? Or is it normalized in these progressive communities that voting (& etc) isn’t really a trans* individual’s activity? They need to only care about being trans*. Well isn’t part of being queer and trans* also about being able to get a job? One that pays well? One that pays bills? Or maybe we don’t have anything to say about paying 2 electrical bills, 3 water bills, out-of-pocket healthcare, shitty transportation systems, swimming in cancerous water, breathing toxic air? Let’s stop saying pro-LGBT all together, lets learn not to lump in letters to make us seem more in number. When all it does is raise a few who will kick down the rest once they’ve made it up a little.

To make the case that queers and trans* folk only care about 534, not being hated, or getting a very light and disgusted (or heavy on and coopting) pat on the back – is belittling. Its condescending. Its offensive. And worse – its just not true.

And here’s what we know about laws. You remove a hateful one. They’ll find another. Remove honor crimes from the penal code, and you’ll find the same crime filed under “crime in a moments rage”. Cant charge a transwoman with 534 cause you have no evidence of that she has “sex that is against nature”? Then use identity theft, prostitution, immorality, public indecency, “masquerading as a woman” and so many more to randomly detain her.

The claim that removing 534 will help us access sexual health better, may have some good intention in that good old fashioned public health social-determinants of health perspective, but how about how expensive health is! Lets say people have one less barrier, what about the fact that its so expensive that people don’t do routine check ups for preventative health, but only go when something burns, itches, or hurts. We seek healthcare – not only sexual but for most health – when we are sick. These politicians may speak of gay rights, but still support privatizing health and pharmaceutical deals that pull generic drugs for HIV and emergency contraceptive from the market and replace them with the expensive fewer drugs. The truth is though, unmarried women, queer or not, sexually active or not, with or without 534, know too well the struggle of accessing sexual health. Remove 534. Will that help assigned-female-at-birth unmarried women access sexual health better? No. That problem is rooted deeper and voting for gay-allies who think she should keep her knees together, go to jail if she aborts, never consider contraception, that she probably provoked her partner to beat her, and that it’s her fault when she’s raped – well isn’t going to fix that.

We can’t only be thinking of potentially gay loving candidates when voting. Cause we do not lead single issued lives. Cause we are also hurting in so many ways. But mostly because we can’t allow these individualistic gay politics cloud our vision and mask our civic/ health/ infrastructural/ economical/ environmental pains. We can think for ourselves. And we want to see the entire package. And since whomever we vote for also has plans for a big one third of the residents of Lebanon, who cannot vote for what happens to them, well then I think we owe it to Palestinians, Syrian, and migrants – queer or not – that we do not vote for people who obviously have no interest in attaining their justice when violated and who have vocalized plans of forced poverty, forced unemployment, forced homelessness, incarceration and forced deportation.

Maybe pride could actually mean wanting more of and for ourselves.

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I am proud to raise my voice here in this day as black, lesbian feminist committed to struggle for a world where all our children can grow free from the diseases of racism, of sexism, of classism, and of homophobia. For those oppressions are inseparable. - Audre Lorde, 1979, 1st March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights