*Opinion written by Harvey Haberman on the Dallas Voice.

I recently received a message on Facebook from my friends from Florida (and I use the term “from” loosely because they no longer live there) who, like several other friends, are leaving the country. They have moved to Curaçao in the Dutch West Indies. It’s an LGBTQ-friendly country that they felt was a safe haven in a world marching toward authoritarianism.

I don’t blame them for leaving, nor do I blame my other friends who have moved to Ireland, Canada and Mexico. They believe the handwriting on the walls of social media warning that the United States is becoming 1930s Germany.

And, frankly, that scares me.

What I find frightening is that a billionaire huckster and his cronies can so easily create chaos in a country which I had seen as being on the right track. Instead, they have derailed the country for no other reason than to grab power and steal money from American’s pockets.
What I find even more frightening is that so many of my friends are willing to give up and leave.

And it’s frightening also because I know the poem that starts, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist.”

That poem was a sad commentary on Germany at the time, but the key take away for me from it is that part: “and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.”

The poem as a whole was not so much about the oppression of certain groups, but instead about the inaction and silence of the general populace: They let it happen. In their complacency they collaborated with the Nazis as surely as if they were active supporters.

But the poem says nothing about packing up and leaving.

If all the Jews had left Germany, Hitler would have still been in power, and he would have found other scapegoats. He would have still been in power and would have continued his quest for an empire. He would have still bombed England and invaded France.

Hitler was successful, at least for a while, because not enough people spoke out.

My partner and I have discussed whether moving out of the country would be the prudent thing to do. But while it may be the prudent thing to do, I see it as capitulation. Leaving the country would leave a lot of our friends behind. I would be leaving behind my home, my family, my country. And that would be playing into the hands of a megalomaniac and a damned stupid one at that.I was heartened by Cory Booker, senior senator from New Jersey, standing up in the Senate and delivering his epic marathon speech against Trump and Musk and the whole cabal that backs them. I am heartened by the Supreme Court election in Wisconsin where — even as Elon Musk gave million-dollar checks to a few individual voters and backed a massive media campaign to install a right-wing candidate — Susan Crawford, the progressive candidate, triumphed.

Small victories as these are, they show that people are still willing to stand up and speak out against the most un-American administration in history.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a protest outside the Tesla Service Center calling for Musk to get out of the government — a government to which he was not elected. Though the turnout was small, it was visible. The turnout protesting the unlawful kidnappings by ICE drew hundreds more. And those protests are going on in every city in America. Over this past weekend, on April 5, millions turned out at events around the country in a massive national call for the administration and its unelected minions to keep their “Hands Off” things like Social Security and more.

People are speaking out. And the LGBTQ community knows a lot about speaking out. We have done it before, and we can and will do it now.

Now, I’m a stubborn old goat. My friends and I worked hard to build a community here, and, though they are a small thing, the rainbow sidewalks in Oak Lawn let me and the world know that we are here and not going away. And no matter how Trump and Musk and his cronies try to erase history and erase us, I refuse to let their fear campaign chase me away.

So, to anyone who feels they must leave, please do it safely. But as for me — I ain’t going nowhere! And I ain’t staying quiet.

Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBT activist and a board member of the Woodhull Freedom Alliance. His blog is at DungeonDiary.blogspot.com.