Anabases of Our Trans Futurity: Dreams for Allies, Day 1

Looking back, we will never forget this day (May 3).

Here we are, still in the time after the inauguration and before the wall, as Trump’s relentless abuses continue with the recent signing of the new transgender military ban. As you know, we have been meeting downtown every Monday evening. We sometimes tell you about it afterwards, describing the specifics of the weekly ritual. (Has it really been 5 years since this all started? – May 4). How we would drink Rum and Happiness and then sit, in dialogue, as if walking along the river of time (all that philosophical and poetic nonsense – May 5), for an hour, sometimes more. Sure, we are all still so sad and angry, but we need this time to laugh together (a small group of artists, classicists and others – May 6), arms around each other’s shoulders (like Hermione, Ron and Harry – May 7), talking about time, our work and what we are planning next.

We know it will end, that it can’t last, and none of us know what lays ahead. Sometimes we feel like the five caryatids on the Erechtheion that you keep talking about. Left behind with our sixth sister’s screams still ringing in our ears and the image of her being pulled to the ground and driven off etched in our memory. Not knowing the future, our future, we turn to you and to your dream. You know the one.

You were standing in that living room in Nashville, dressed in red, with your best friend (we can’t recall if you told us her name was Marisa or Marsha). Both of you had just turned 13 and you were about to go to the mall, when in walks none other than Stokely Carmichael. He pats Marisa on the head, turns and addresses you, saying (May 8):

So you want to know why, out of the entire white segment of society, we want to criticize you liberals? Well, we have to criticize you because you represent the liaison between both groups, between the oppressed and the oppressor. You liberals try to become an arbitrator, but you are incapable of solving the problems. You promise the oppressor that you can keep the oppressed under control; that you will stop them from becoming illegal (in this case illegal means violent). At the same time, you promise the oppressed that you will be able to alleviate their suffering—in due time. Historically, of course, we know this is impossible, and our era will not escape history.

You run away sobbing, but Marsha comes after you. She tells you he didn’t mean it. That you are different. “How can he know about the changes within you?”, she says, “How can he understand  what we share?” She tells you that you will do great things together and, stroking your hair, she pleads for you to take your anger and sadness and steer it in a direction of positive change. She tells you her dream of the future (a dream within a dream!). About the fights you would have – from daily battles to testimonies in the state Senate (May 11), but also the community you would forge around you both and your shared vision (May 12).

As your tears dry, Marisa tells you – knowing how you like those ancient myths  – that your shared story is no odyssey, no return to home to some wife or child, to patriarchy’s semblance of civilization. No, your story will be an anabasis, an upward journey into the unknown. As you looked her in the eyes, she tells you how thousands of ancient Greek mercenaries marched with the Persian Cyrus, but who, on the death of their leader, went through a period of unguided wandering through unknown territories that ends when they reach the sea (May 13, May 14, May 15, May 16, May 17, May 18, May 19, May 20). “We”, Marsha concludes, “are like those mercenaries, we are on a mission, and although we may get ahead of ourselves, push for rapid results, get lost, fail and wander, losing sisters along the way, this is the only way we can approach the future. Our future. Fighting together. Side by side”.

Do you remember? With these words still ringing in your ears, you woke up and ran to us to tell us of the vision you had seen and how your future was our future too. Tonight is the night for us to share this dream within a dream with all who will listen. Tonight is the beginning of another dream, another anabasis of our trans futurity.