If you’re someone in my social circle, whether offline or online, and I find out you’re a Trump supporter, I’m not going to necessarily automatically disown you. I’m not going to automatically defriend you or block you or stop speaking to you.
What will provoke me to defriend/block you is if you come at me with dismissive, divisive language such as “drinking the DNC Kool-aid” or “libtard” or “social justice warrior”. Or if you refuse to give credence to my personal life experiences, or attack my logic or my rationality. I will give you the courtesy of assuming that your personal political views are born out of your life experiences and the conclusions you have drawn about what is appropriate for you and your life. I will assume that you have a brain and that you know how to use it, and that the possibility exists that two different people with different brains and different life experiences can reach wildly different conclusions. Grant me the same courtesy, or we have nothing to discuss.
I will not come into your Internet space and fight with you about what you believe. My space is mine. Your space is yours. If you invited me over to your house for a meal, I would not attack you for your beliefs in your own living room, and I will also not do so on your blog or your social media accounts.
However, I also reserve the right to stop reading your space. I do not dispute your right to be happy about your guy winning the White House. If you are in fact happy about that, good for you; I’m glad at least somebody is happy about the election results.
But please also realize that there is a huge divide between how happy you may be, and how terrified I, many other queers, and many other persons of minority populations are. Understand that for us, it’s going to be really difficult for us to be able to deal with seeing happiness about the election of an administration that has a very real chance of making our lives meaningfully and measurably worse.
This doesn’t mean I hate you personally. It doesn’t mean I never want to hear from you again. By all means, if you’re somebody in my offline social circle, or if you’re related to me, and you want to share news with me, come talk to me. Post directly to my timeline, or PM me, or email me, or whatever.
But it’s probably best if you avoid talking to me about politics. Because right now, I don’t have the heart to hear it.
