The inauguration has not even happened yet, and already the battlefield is beginning to take shape.
Nancy Mace (R-SC) has used Sarah McBride’s historic election of the first openly transgender person to serve in the United States Congress as an excuse to peddle in more of the vicious trans-phobic rhetoric we saw during the campaign.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominated for Health and Human Services Secretary, has signaled his intent to undermine the effectiveness of life-saving vaccines here in the U.S. and around the world.
And Donald Trump has kept his word about using the power of elected office to go after his perceived enemies.
It’s going to be a long four years.
But thankfully, we’re not going into it unprepared.
LGBTQ+ advocates and allies went into this election hoping for the best, but strategizing for the worst. We’ve seen this movie before, and we’re not about to give them carte blanche to write the sequel.
Lambda Legal is one of the organizations that did thorough scenario planning for every election outcome. For 50 years, Lambda has been the nation’s critical and sometimes last line of legal defense for LGBTQ+ communities. They have fought not only to protect, but to expand our safety and equality. There is still much speculation about exactly what kinds of legislative and judicial attacks may be coming in the next few months and years. But one thing we know for sure is that, however they attack, Lambda is ready to defend.
This year, The Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation was proud to announce a gift of $1 million to support the urgent work of Lambda Legal. The grant is part of Lambda’s Unstoppable Future campaign, an unprecedented fundraising campaign for unprecedented times. We are proud to be part of this coalition of support that will help Lambda not only increase its capacity for impact litigation, but to expand its work in legal education and providing counsel and resources to the most vulnerable in our community.
These past few weeks have been draining and demoralizing for many of us. But as Lambda’s fundraising campaign reminds us, the bend of moral arc of the universe toward justice is Unstoppable.
Join us—let’s face our future bravely, with our heads held high. Together.