Diversity Rules Magazine

12 Diversity Rules Magazine June 2019 Amazon Trail - Con't from page 11 My response: In high school, and I was out then, one of the teachers would toss me a word or two, some mes just a look, about her life and our con- nec on. Those few words and small gestures of support, clandes ne as they were, showed me that my way of life was possible. Mary: How courageous of your teacher! She could have been canned, or worse, if she'd been over- heard! Lee: That's just it. She managed to tell me without saying anything that could get her fired. We were all really good at that. A li of an eyebrow, a secret li le smile, words that could be taken two ways. It was a whole language I'm not sure Ash, for example, ever had or would want to use. Mary: I think I got in on the tail end of this secret language… I remember commen ng to someone who wanted total integra on that if we did that, then what would happen to our secret language to recognize each other. Four genera ons of lesbians. None of us want to go back to the bad old days, where poli cians like Pence would send us. But if we do, well, perhaps that language should be passed on because it lit- erally saved lives. The lives of scared and confused gay kids needing even a hint of a mentor, of adults who found lovers, family, comrades in workplaces, of gay people in bars who knew to vamoose or act straight when the lights blinked or the jukebox plug was pulled and the police poured in with their billy clubs. But here's an earlier conversa on. This me I'm pos ng with my old-style lesbian-feminist friend (LF) and we're worried about ge ng that reassur- ance. We'd read a piece in BuzzFeed about lgbt young people being out, but dropping the labels older gays used. LF asked if this was: A way of avoiding direct words, meaning, ac ons? I said: Or is it yet another closet? LF said: I'm finding this so true among the young women I meet here. I said: This really makes me feel old. LF wondered if losing labels was: Some kind of as- simila on. I whine: We just get to the point where we can say aloud who we are and the next gen denies it. But then I think of science fic on and I can imagine all these Hello Ki y kids willingly duped into shedding their dis nctness to join the pod. A corpora on-in- duced mind meld. The world has moved on, though, and we need the language and tools of the Ashley and the Andi gen- era ons. Andi said: I went to an intergenera onal panel, and young people—early 20s and late teens, were just devastated by the [2016] elec ons… I got up and I told them…We'd pool our resources, we'd teach each other different strategies, and we'd figure this out. I said, you're first string now. I'm the bench. But I'm here with you to get us all through. Ash replied: Of course. You can guide, but you've already done the trenches. You need reassurance that someone will take your work and con nue. Fuck, I'm already red. Andi said: omg, right? it's so exhaus ng. I'll get back in the goddamn trenches if necessary, though. Ashley: I know you will. I'll be there with you. The sparrows hopped and chirped, the bees bum- bled among the flowers, and I felt regenerated.

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