The Only Way Out Is Through

November 13, 2024:

This piece first appeared in our weekly newsletter, The Fallout.

It’s been a week since the presidential election, and the grim reality of a second Donald Trump administration is settling in.

The presidency won’t change hands until January, but early indications are that a second Trump term is going to be even more chaotic and brutal than his first, particularly for our most vulnerable communities. His initial staff and cabinet appointment announcements make it clear that Trump intends to deliver on his campaign promises of mass deportations, family separation, and terrorizing trans kids and adults.

Brace yourselves, folks. It’s about to get real ugly real quick.

But, thanks in large part to the lessons learned from the first Trump administration, advocates are at least prepared for the fight ahead. They understand that we need to begin resisting the worst of Trump’s policies now, and they are ready. That should give us all the ability to pause and take a breath. Yes, this is a big fight ahead. And yes, we’re prepared for it.

Now, more than ever, is time to pour into our communities, into direct aid organizations, and ourselves. Authoritarianism feeds on stoking fear and feeding despair—the exact things that abortion storytelling and funding resists against. The work ahead will be hard. It may feel like more losses than wins to start. But as we said time and time again on Boom! Lawyered while laboring through the first Trump years with y’all: The only way out is through.

And as difficult as it will be sometimes, we will get through this joyfully. That’s another lesson to take from the abortion storytelling and direct aid movements: Do this work with a full, open heart, because it is the work of liberation, and liberation is joy.

We save ourselves.

The truth is, like remedying the harms unleashed following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, this is a project of generational repair. The reality is a lot of people in this country voted for whatever comes next, and they did so eagerly. And that includes millions of women who both voted to support abortion rights measures in their state and to elect Republican leaders who will help usher in a national abortion ban.

There has to be a reckoning.

Until then, we know what to do. We buckle in and we take care of ourselves. We take care of our neighbors. We find joy where we can. We settle in for the long hours demanded by the fight for justice. And we remember the storytellers and community workers who have been telling us that this is the way all along.

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