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Guest essayist Elise Scott shares a personal story on identity, community, and navigating the second Trump presidency.
In a small Connecticut town, a single mother grapples with the tension between her vibrant identity and a society that often contradicts it.
There's a bumper sticker on a car in the parking lot where my daughter takes dance lessons. It reads, "Trump 2020." Another on the back declares, "We're Saying Christmas Again!"
I'm a single mom, and I'm planning to stay that way. I'm disabled, queer, and nonbinary. I'm vegan and pagan, and so is my joyful, precocious 7-year-old daughter. She's the one who insists upon both. There’s been no diagnoses, but we're what she likes to call "neurosparkly." We homeschool. Aside from my whiteness and my middle-class American upbringing, I'm about as "other" as you can find in my affluent little Connecticut Shoreline town.
So whenever I see it, that car drives an icicle of terror into my chest. Does it belong to someone else in the friendly neighborhood dance studio we've considered a second family?
I don't think so, but I can't be sure.
If so, or even if it, I know it could belong to someone charming. It could be a person who wanted Trump in the White House because they were frustrated with the economy and wanted to see change. Someone who feels the government has gotten too big, values their personal freedom, and doesn't want to feel ashamed of their privilege. It could be someone who loves Jesus, with whom I have no beef. I've read the Bible from cover to cover, twice, and pieces of it thousands of times more. I would vote for Him if He were here today and running for president.
But here's the rub.
It could also be someone who hates everything about me and feels that I'm destroying my daughter's childhood just by being me. Someone who would like to see my identity become illegal and who believes that if I can't get a job, I'm not a valuable member of society. Who thinks I don't deserve to live if I can't do it without help and believes I am a danger to the fabric of my community. Someone comfortable with violence against people like me. Who leans into the bits of the Bible about an eye for an eye and stoning people rather than the bits about turning the other cheek and helping our neighbors.
Shortly after Trump's 2024 election win, I find myself frozen in my rainbow crocs, staring at this car.
"What's wrong?" my daughter asks. I don't know what to tell her.
I'm visibly disabled. I need a cane to walk. But all of the other marginalized facets of me are invisible. I am relatively safe under the massive umbrella of my white, cis-passing privilege.
We head to a local hair salon named for its canine co-proprietor. I get my daughter a wash, deep moisturizing treatment, and blowout. For myself, I request a "nonbinary haircut." My voice shakes, but I say it anyway. My daughter's animated voice drifts across the salon. She's telling her stylist about the chapter book she's writing, starring three magical kittens.
My stylist asks me for my pronouns, and I feel euphoric. The buzz of her clippers is oddly comforting. My daughter trots to me, her waist-length honey mane flowing around her like a princess's cloak.
"Mama! You look like YOU!" she exclaims. Then she grabs her stylist's hand and gallops to admire the sparkly hair baubles by the door.
My eyes fill with tears. I promise myself that I will try to be braver from now on. If nothing else, I want to be that kind of parent.
Elise Scott's writing is inspired by their lived experiences of queerness, disability, neurodivergence, fat-positivity, and moving through carnivorous shadows. They earned their bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke and their Master’s from Capella University, and now write full-time in Connecticut. Elise is a 3rd place winner of the Not Quite Write Prize and a Best of the Net 2025 nominee. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Choices: An Anthology of Reproductive Horror, The Not Quite Write Anthology 2025, The B'K, Five Minutes, High Shelf, HerStry, Knee Brace, All Existing, and Quibble, among others. Find out what they’re working on now at http://elise-scott.com.
Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ and Allied community. Visit Advocate.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.
