This is war.

Recently I received a request from GLAAD: "Tell us your story." 

The impetus was this disaster of a presidency it looks like we're in for. They wanted stories for their Trump Accountability Project.

At first I thought, "As a straight, cisgender person, I'm not their target audience." But then I remembered that the more advocates who speak out for LGBTQ, the more there are going to be. Also, I've been in that army for years, so I actually do have a story. And I do have a motive: fighting Trump/Pence and everything they represent.

Here's what I told GLAAD.

For over a decade, I've written novels about gay teens. I'm a cisgender, straight advocate, and I write these stories because I hate injustice, I hate fear-driven paranoia, and I'm distressed at the vulnerability of LGBTQ teens.

When I began writing, I was certain that I would not see marriage equality in my lifetime. I knew very little of the hell that trans individuals go through. I knew nothing at all about what intersex means.

And since I began writing, I have celebrated win after win after win for LGBTQ people.

I have blogged and written books and essays and letters and made phone calls and donated money to help move LGBTQ civil rights forward even faster than I had ever thought they could.

I blogged and yelled and wrote some more and then rejoiced at the ultimate fate of Mike Pence's horrendous, homophobic, hateful Indiana RFRA.

I cheered at the demise of Exodus International and wept with joy at the Obergefell v. Hodges decision.

I got to work on my next novel, which includes not only a gay main character, but also his intersex love interest.

Then came Trump.

No, I thought; no way can this clown be taken seriously by anyone for anything, let alone the U.S. presidency.

I was as wrong about Trump as I had been about marriage equality. And now I see there is an all-too-real chance that the rights and acceptance gained in the past decade could be eroded or worse.

I thought I was fighting for LGBTQ civil rights before. Wrong again.

Because this is war.

Subscribe to my blog