Thank you for writing this! There's so much in here we should all be thinking about. First is the societal animosity toward queer people that's getting worse not better. Random violence against openly gay and trans people has been skyrocketing for the last few years.

Then there's the whole police issue. Protect and serve?

It seems like police are ever more anxious to use extreme violence against people who so much as question their authority, especially if those people are members of minorities. Queer Black people, for example, express a great deal of fear of the police. Reports of police brutality against queer Black people are an omnipresent sort of background noise in queer journalism.

Yet, when lives are in danger and in need of police protection ...

I'm thinking of a certain elementary school in Texas, and I'm also thinking about your story right now.

I'll tell you this much: Marginalized people in the U.S. don't hold their breath waiting for the cops to charge in and save the day.