This is so critical. Sometimes defiance is all we have, and sometimes it's good enough. It's healthy for us individually, and systemically it gets shit done.

When HIV drugs were too expensive people to buy to save their lives, we formed buyers clubs and we broke the law and we dared society to punish us for it.

Eventually, the laws we were breaking got changed. But we honestly didn't give a fuck if the laws got changed or not. Defiance was our way of life and had been since most of us could remember.

I spent most of my young adult years breaking the law just to lead a quasi-normal life. I lied on university ROTC paperwork. I lied on university applications. I lied on my security clearance questionnaire because I refused to play the game that said I didn't get a clearance because I'm gay. I lied and broke the law constantly because I refused to play society's games.

But that's how we all lived then. Defiance is all we had if we didn't want to concede defeat.

It's interesting reading your article to realize that maybe some people have forgotten our old habits of defiance. I'm glad you're starting to talk about it.