At a popular LGBTQ cabaret in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, Lisa Frankenstein wasn’t about to let the topic of Donald Trump go without mention.
“I don’t know about all of you, but I’ve found it really hard to find a place to get my feelings out in a way that makes me feel better,” the drag show host told a crowd at the Oasis nightclub last weekend, just days after the Republican’s presidential reelection.
“So at the count of three, we are all going to scream together!” Frankenstein said.
Then the audience let out a collective shriek, as a community in which many are still in shock after Trump’s victory.
“It is a response to feeling overwhelmed and terrified of what could happen with this new administration,” explained D’Arcy Drollinger, an iconic San Francisco drag queen and owner of Oasis.
“We can scream as loud as we can and get some of the fear and anger out. But more than anything, it’s about coming together and feeling the community.”
A New York club was the first to organize a post-election “cathartic communal scream” and San Franciscans were quickly inspired.
“It was incredible, super liberating,” said Cindy Sigler, who participated in the yell. “It feels much better than screaming into a pillow.”
Many gay, transgender and non-binary people are experiencing the Republican candidate’s second election as a punch to the gut.
The LGBT National Help Center has been receiving about 2,000 calls per day since the election results, instead of the usual 300, said Aaron Almanza, its director.
“They’re angry that people in their community voted for this. They’re angry that a large portion of our country doesn’t want us to exist.”
‘Evil’
The election campaign was marked by numerous anti-trans advertisements and slogans.
Clips showing trans women in women’s sports, or vilifying the use of public funds for surgeries and medications necessary for gender transitions, were particularly effective, according to political analysts.
Only about one percent of the American population identifies as transgender, but Republicans use “LGBT people and trans people in particular as a way to divide people and to stir up fear in the broader communities,” said Rebecca Rolfe, director of San Francisco’s LGBT Center, calling it a “cynical and evil strategy.”
Civil rights organizations expect Trump’s arch-conservative government to dismantle rules that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as was the case during Trump’s first term.
He has promised to ban gender-affirming care for minors, and to take legal action against any doctors and educators who carry out or enable the practice.
Trump plans to “ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the US government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth,” his political program stated.
“People’s lives are at stake,” said Rolfe of the LGBT Center. “We see people being targeted with transphobia and homophobia everywhere in the country, including right here in San Francisco.”
She added that an increase in suicides and hate crimes is expected.
“More than half the country actively wants me dead,” said Joey The Tiger, a trans aerial artist. “The whole campaign has been traumatic.”
He said many of his friends are considering leaving the country for Canada or Europe.
He will again organize “Spectrum,” an aerial arts show to raise funds for NGOs supporting trans people, like he did after Trump’s first election.
“I hoped I would never have to do it again,” he said.
Responding to hate with a bit of glam and community support is an approach chosen by many other LGBTQ artists, including Drollinger, the bar owner.
“I spend a lot of time encouraging everyone to be fabulous and sparkling,” said D’Arcy. “It is time to sparkle harder.”
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