A Textbook Case on Divide and Conquer Don’t open your door after dark

In countries around the world where once communities held Pride events, their LGBTQ+ citizens are being arrested, imprisoned, and even sentenced to death. Crimes committed against the LGBTQ+ community are not prosecuted and there is no recourse for the victim or their families.

Refugee camps, a number of them under United Nations control, often hold thousands of LGBTQ+ people. There they often have no rights because the host nation must first recognize them as refugees, which they refuse to do. That means these people, who have fled the worst violence in their home countries, cannot easily get food, housing, healthcare, education, or any of the other services afforded other refugees.

Some of these laws and social activism that target the LGBTQ+ community have been funded by American Christian Nationalists. They have poured tens of millions of dollars into a number of African nations to buy legislators, pay for dissemination of hateful materials, and for lobbying of top government officials and religious leaders. They are doing so in the United States as well and the results of their actions is being seen in legislation and attitude changes in the US.

The targeting of minorities and marginalized peoples is a sign of society’s weakness, not strength. It uses those less able to stand up for themselves as scapegoats and gives bullies a Bully Pulpit to gain power by dividing people, rather than bringing them together. Politicians and religious leaders who do this betray their societal roles and community obligations.

In Russia and China, where the government has no enforceable laws to prevent officials from looking at the tax records and personal details of their citizens, enemies of the administrations are accused of tax law violations and thrown into harsh prisons, and even encampments far from civilization, so monitoring their well-being is an impossibility.

Under the new government in the United States, the executive branch is assuming some of these same powers, which historically have been forbidden. At the same time, the president has ordered a revamping of our base at Guantanamo, in Cuba, to ostensibly hold up to 30,000 people, being deported from the USA for lack of documentation. Is it so far-fetched that such a facility, beyond the eyes of everyday citizens, could one day be used for political prisoners? In a very short time, there have been numerous violations of the law, many stopped by the courts as all vested interests prepare for their day in court.

The head of the FBI has clearly stated that prosecuting enemies of the US President is a top priority of his. To a president who demands total loyalty, that makes for many potential enemies. As construction continues on the American Gulag, groups already targeted, like the LGBTQ+ community, based on current actions at home and historic actions taken overseas, must be vigilant as the need for more scapegoating is needed to pass even more draconian legislation and or executive orders. Taking the public’s eye off government action requires individuals and communities who are easy to blame. It is easy to say this is all conjecture and hyperbole, but the historic record is littered with this behavior, even here in the United States. We only have to look back at Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, Anita Bryant, or McCarthyism. None of this is ancient history and all of it took place right out in the open.

Black Americans, immigrants, Jews, and other groups have long been targeted in the United States. All too often mistreatment and outright public violence went undeterred and unprosecuted. With an administration that suggests the biggest danger in America today is the “enemy from within” so different from the hate-filled rhetoric of other recent racist, homophobic, misogynist, and antisemitic calls in the recent past?

When the gulag infrastructure is completed, and the most controversial changes implemented, like the cutting of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, a focus on scapegoats becomes ever more likely. A greater focus on the enemy from within will become an even greater rallying cry.

The archives of organizations such as Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library, and others, have myriad documents and books on periods in history that reflect just these actions. American history and the keepers of those records can document specific acts taken against American citizens in the name of national and domestic security that were false claims with a political agenda.

It is always easier to take on injustice before it is in power, and before it has solidified that power, but it is hard to motivate citizens who hold fear, have ignorance, and have been lulled into a false sense of security. Then, in the dark of night there is a knock on the door and the rest, as they say, is history.

A ray of light still shines, and hope is in the air, but voices believing in justice, democracy and freedom must break free of the restraints imposed upon them. We can find each other by the light of the lamp in New York’s harbor, beside the golden doors of liberty.