Not to be too negative, but the political situation in the U.S. is so dire that speaking of healing may be premature. This year’s midterm elections are highly likely to further entrench Republican leadership in states around the union, not to mention returning control of Congress to the Republican Party — at least on the House side, possibly in the Senate.

Most Americans profoundly disagree with the hatred Republicans are directing against LGBTQ people, against trans youth in particular, but gerrymandering and other political sleight-of-hand has concentrated power in people with minority views.

Rather than beginning to heal, we LGBTQ folks will very probably remain under withering fire for quite a long time, with the situation steadily worsening instead of improving.

This is why groups like Rainbow Youth are going to be critically important for the foreseeable future, in my opinion. They’re a different sort of LGBTQ-activism phenomenon. They’re providing direct support to people in the line of fire, instead of working to reduce the fire, which they acknowledge is not going to decrease, at least for now.