CLSC | Socio-Legal Studies Workshop: Ari Ezra Waldman - "Queer Resilience: From Hanky Codes to Meme Culture to Saving Democracy"

Abstract
Two things are happening at once: Authoritarianism is rising, both abroad and in the United States, and queer expression is being silenced, both in the physical world and online. This synchronicity should surprise no one. Queer people are the canaries in the coal mine of oppression: We are convenient front-line targets of authoritarians, fascists, and wannabe autocrats seeking scapegoats for social problems and distractions from their corruption. This timely book is about what queer people’s strategies of resistance and resilience can teach everyone who wants to step up and help save our democracy from ruin.
As they defy the courts, upend due process, punish critics, and weaponize law enforcement, Donald Trump and his allies are discriminating against transgender athletes, eliminating any recognition of transgender and nonbinary people, erasing all references to anything even remotely queer (or relating to diversity and equality) from government websites, and undermining civil rights protections for queer people. These strategies go hand in hand.
On Facebook and Instagram, both owned by oligarch Mark Zuckerberg, content moderation rules make it difficult for queer expression to find an audience.
But there is light in the darkness, and this is the space in which BETTER TITLE TO COME thrives. Even as attacks on queer people proliferate online and in the physical world, queer expression is somehow getting through. Amidst the constraints on queer voices, there is queer resilience. New queer-owned businesses are targeting queer sexual health and wellness in ways that even someone as young as I am (I was born in 1980) could barely fathom just a few years ago. Queer artists manage to find ways around Instagram’s McCarthyite censors to amass hundreds of thousands of followers, sell their art, and thrive. It may be rough out there for queer kids trying to find answers, but they do, and sometimes, those answers come from a clever queer YouTuber who figured out that starting their videos with static can fool Google’s AI content moderation tool. There are queer people who leave Facebook because of the harassment and those that stay on X to push back against anonymous mobs threatening them with rape. Queer content creators are standing up to hate, harassment, doxing, and threats online. Somehow, queerness is thriving on poisoned ground.