Many, if not most, people with some understanding of history are at least familiar with the poem by Pastor Neimoller. A confession and an awareness of where his support for the NAZIs and his apathy for the suffering of others had ultimately led. If you are not, here is the text.

First They Came by Pastor Martin Neimoller

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

‘They’ are coming. Right now, here in the United States of America, they are coming for the Trans Community and most of you are not Trans, maybe you don’t know anyone who is or who has transitioned, but they are coming for them, and you have the choice of speaking out and standing by and saying nothing because it does not harm you. ‘They’ will make all manner of ‘justifications’ for their actions, invoking the ‘children’ as the noble reasons for their actions but these are lies. They know that they are lies, we know that they are lies. If you stay silent you murder the truth for their lies.

Just as the poem progressed, so will their march of suppress and destroy everything that they do not approve of. You may be number on their list, or number two, or number three, but they will eventually reach you.

Do not wait until it is your pain and torment to see their evil. Open your eyes and see it now. They are counting on your apathy for those quite unlike you, prove them wrong.

Conservatism does not equal fascism, but the modern GOP has surrendered to it fascistic elements. Until that cancer is excised from the body politic and burned back into the shadows no member of that party deserves any position of power. Your vote is your voice, use it or be complicit.