It's Morning Again in America

Originally posted on substack by Max Kuzma Jan 23, 2025

=Digital Illustration by Maxwell Kuzma which depicts the transgender flag flanked by two American flags on the White House

It's morning again in America.

When the results of the 2024 presidential election were announced, I did what many other trans people did. I rushed to make sure my federal paperwork was in order. After Trump and practically the entire Republican Party ran campaigns that centered “eradicating” transgender people from public life, myself and many others saw the writing on the wall.

Our community had become a singular focal point, condemned and vilified beyond both what our population numbers would warrant (we are less than 2% of the total population) and in total disregard of the realities of our lives (we are over four times more likely to be victims of crimes than cisgender people). Through transition, transgender people go through a sacred and holy transformation that brings us closer to the truth of how God made us. No political power on earth can take that away.

Yet on January 20th, 2025 at his inauguration, that is exactly what Donald Trump intended to do with a sweepingly unconstitutional series of executive orders targeting various marginalized groups. One of these contained a fundamentalist playbook for redefining sex and gender in traditional terms as only two sexes, male and female. Not only does this completely ignore the very real existence of intersex people, but commentators were also quick to point out that because all fetuses “at conception” are female, the order actually implied that there is in fact only one sex–female. There were also a host of additional policies from removing support for LGBTQ people, to violently banning trans people from using the appropriate restroom and indicating we should be placed in prisons corresponding to our sex assigned at birth. The message was again clear: you are not welcome as your true self in public life.

The USCCB, (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops), had no criticisms for this portion of Trump's many executive orders, saying that his direct attack on trans people, “can be seen in a more positive light [...] recognizing the truth about each human person as male or female.” Memo to the bishops: did they forget that God created intersex people and that he made them as common as redheads? Sorry gingers, we are now only legally recognizing brunettes and blondes.

Image shows a side by side of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde giving a sermon with a visual of Trump, Vance, etc in the pews

Yet spiritual leadership has not been lacking. It just arrived in the form of Episcopalian Bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, a prophetic woman who “spoke truth to power.” After her remarks went viral and she faced intense scrutiny and backlash, she went on record to add, “I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others.” In the video clip of Bishop Budde's sermon that Trump and others attended, Catholic JD Vance can be seen shooting glances to his wife and squirming in his seat. Like many Christian nationalists, he has no capacity to metabolize the true gospel message. He worships the God of toxic masculinity, Supply Side Jesus, an inverted fever dream of gospel values, and a corresponding religion that would have surely inspired Christ to flip tables.

A panel from the comic “The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus” by al franken

The question is not whether Vance or any of these other queerphobic Christian nationalists are actually Christian. Orthodoxy debates and cries of “heresy!” play into their childish, immature understanding of faith. Faith is not about appearances. It is not about preening or posturing. Behaving as though Jesus Christ was a rich white American man creates a religion reminiscent of the scribes and Pharisees who were so sure of their righteousness that they were oblivious to the living God walking among them: the God who sought out the very people whom the Pharisees looked down upon. People like sex workers, probably including some trans people. Or lepers, chronically ill and living in poverty, like many of those financially crippled by the so-called American healthcare system today.

It doesn't matter how expensive the suit you wear to the cathedral is if you don't clothe the stranger in need. The words of Matthew 25 lay it out pretty clearly: “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.”

Across the country, Republicans have focused exclusively on attacking the marginalized in order to sow division while distracting attention away from their failure to materially improve people's lives. These Republicans are not the first to do such things, but are certainly some of the most publicly cruel, pushing out policies like dismantling DEI that even Ronald Reagan backed down from. Like Trump, Reagan lowered taxes for the richest Americans. He ignored the AIDS crisis when it was inaccurately viewed as a “gay disease” and was racist enough to literally refer to African delegates as “those monkeys” in a 1971 conversation with Richard Nixon. “It's Morning Again in America” was a Reagan television campaign, one that performs conservative values with cis-heteronormativity, visuals of American flags, and whiteness. So many white people.

A still frame from the “it’s morning again in America” television ad

It is morning again in America, and we are still the melting pot. No executive order can replace the vibrant, glorious reality of diversity. Human beings have not ever, and will not ever, come in only two packages. That concept of biology may be what we teach middle schoolers, but we would do well not to govern a nation according to a middle schooler's comprehension level. Transgender people are glorious. Intersex people are real. Non-binary people are holy.

If you read this far, I don't have to tell you these things. You already know, because the glory of the queer community is self-evident, as are the gifts, graces, and spiritual fruits they bless the community with. These next four years are going to be challenging, and we need support and encouragement now more than ever.

To that end, on Tuesday, January 28th at 7 pm EST, I will be speaking at a webinar on a panel of young LGBTQ Catholics sharing our thoughts and reflections post-election. I hope you can join us.

No one can take away the beauty of the trans and greater queer community. Diversity is a blessing from God and one we should respect and be deeply grateful for. The beauty and joy of queer people stands in stark contrast to the fear and hate-mongering of conservative fundamentalists. “To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing,” Raymond Williams. Let us follow the example of courageous hope and bravery modeled by Bishop Budde as we seek to conform ourselves ever more to the divine love of Christ.

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