Dear families, partners, and friends,
I woke this morning with my heart so broken, and yet so full.
Like you, Our Family Coalition staff and I are overcome with feelings of disappointment, shock, sadness, anger, and confusion. Yesterday, voters demonstrated where we are as a nation. And that place is unwelcoming – even openly hostile – to far too many of us.
Trump’s campaign appealed to people’s fears, and to the underlying anti-immigrant, misogynist, transphobic, racist, and homophobic sentiments that have been gathering strength underneath the surface of our nation’s fabric for many years.
In the wake of this election, most of our families are rightly concerned about our children’s and our community’s futures. Those of us who are Muslim, those of us who are immigrants or in bi-national families, those of in Black and brown communities, rightly worry that the threats of violence against us and our criminalization will rise.
And yet we must not despair.
First, we must take time to hold each other close and process through what is a genuine shock to many. And then? We get up and fight like hell again. We fight for our children; we fight for our kin; we fight the vision of a just world where all LGBTQ families are seen, dignified, and celebrated.
It will not be easy. But we owe it to those who worked so very hard for the progress we’ve made thusfar. And we know we can do this. Because we will do this just the way we’ve done so much up to this point: together, animated by the twin loves of our children and of justice.
Tonight, Our Family Coalition’s San Francisco office will be open to all who may want or need a place for support, and to start rebuilding our LGBTQ family community in the wake of these heartbreaking results:
LGBTQ Family Post-Election Gathering
Our Family Coalition office
1385 Mission St, #340, San Francisco
5:30 – 8pm
Please email shareena@ourfamily.org to let us know you’re coming so we can ensure we have enough food and refreshments for all.
The event we had planned for tonight was to be a DIY family craft workshop, with a photographer on hand to take family portraits. We will still offer these opportunities for your kids to be creative, and your family to go home with a beautiful portrait.
And we hope you go home with that and more: with a fuller heart, and the knowledge that your community is strong. If you can’t be there, please know we are here for you and your family. And thank you for being here for us, through all the work that you do.
Let us celebrate the precious time we have with our kids. And let us remember now more than ever the why behind what we do.
Heartbroken (and on fire),
Renata Moreira
Interim Executive Director
