This is Not Why Your Bridge Collapsed
We just don't have that kind of power
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. Dangerous, I know. But every time I turn on the news, scroll through a feed, or overhear a conversation in line at the grocery store, I’m struck by how many people seem to have lost the plot entirely.
We’re living in a country where roads are disintegrating beneath our tires, where schools are running out of basic supplies, where seeing a doctor requires a spreadsheet and a prayer—and yet, somehow, some folks are convinced the true danger to our society is a trans woman using a public bathroom.
Let’s be clear: the absurdity is not just in the claim—it’s in the fact that millions of people accept it without question. So buckle up. Here’s your field guide to the ridiculous, the misleading, and the flat-out dangerous narratives that have hijacked our national priorities.
Infrastructure: Falling Apart, But Not Because of Drag Queens
Let’s start with something basic: roads and bridges.
Our infrastructure isn’t failing because someone wore a binder or changed their pronouns. It’s failing because we've ignored it. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the U.S. earned a C- on its most recent Infrastructure Report Card. That’s like getting a 71% on a final exam and proudly taping it to the fridge.
They estimate we need $2.59 trillion in improvements to get our roads, bridges, airports, water systems, and transit to a functional level.
But instead of investing in that, we’re watching legislative sessions spend hours debating who gets to pee where. You know what doesn't fix potholes? Passing laws banning drag brunches.
Spoiler alert: it’s not trans athletes with jackhammers tearing up your roads.
Education: Under Attack, But Not by Queer Librarians
Our public schools are in crisis. That’s not hyperbole—it’s math.
Teachers are fleeing the profession in droves, not because they’re “too woke,” but because they’re overworked, underpaid, and disrespected. School funding is tied to property taxes, which means poorer areas get less support. Books are being banned for including the word "gay" or for daring to tell the truth about racism. Libraries are being gutted. And instead of fixing any of that, lawmakers are worried about whether a picture book features two dads.
Public education is not being ruined by queer-inclusive story time. It’s being starved by policies that value test scores over curiosity, censorship over understanding, and profit over people.
Critical thinking isn't an enemy—it’s the point. We don't teach Frederick Douglass or Marsha P. Johnson to "brainwash" your kids. We teach their stories because our collective memory must include everyone, not just the people who wrote the first draft of the textbook.
Bathrooms and Boogeymen: Where’s the Threat?
Since 2008, there have been zero—zero—verified cases of a transgender person assaulting a cisgender person in a public restroom. Zero.
And yet, somehow, this myth persists. Entire bills have been written about protecting people from a threat that statistically does not exist. Meanwhile, trans people—particularly trans women of color—face disproportionate rates of violence, often just for daring to exist in public.
In reality, the people most at risk in public restrooms are trans individuals themselves. They face harassment, threats, and physical violence, all while just trying to pee in peace.
So maybe instead of bathroom patrols, we should focus on getting clean water into schools still dealing with lead pipes.
Trans Athletes: The Government’s Favorite Distraction
Here’s a rhetorical question: If a trans athlete wins a high school swim meet in a small town in Iowa, and no one outside of that town is affected in any way... why is it headline news?
In 2023 alone, more than 550 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills were introduced in state legislatures, according to the ACLU. The lion’s share of them targeted trans athletes, despite the fact that the number of trans students competing at an elite level is vanishingly small.
These bills don’t fix anything. They don’t even address real problems. What they do is create fear, drive wedges, and offer political fodder. It’s a sleight of hand. "Look over here!" says the magician, while the real issues—underfunded schools, rural hospital closures, unaffordable childcare—vanish behind the curtain.
We don’t need legislation banning children from playing kickball. We need policies that help kids thrive.
Immigration: Not the Root of All Evil
The image of the immigrant as a shadowy figure lurking just beyond the border fence is burned into the rhetoric of fearmongers. But the reality? Most immigrants are just... working. They’re delivering groceries, cleaning hotels, planting crops, building homes, and caring for elders. They’re doing the jobs many others won’t touch—with fewer protections, for lower pay, and while navigating a system that seems designed to confuse and punish.
Yet some politicians would have you believe these folks are public enemy number one.
If someone tells you immigrants are destroying the country but doesn’t mention the millions lost to corporate tax loopholes, the record profits of oil companies while you pay $5 for gas, or the ways that privatized prisons profit from immigrant detention, ask them who they’re really angry at.
Hint: It’s not Juan delivering your Uber Eats order in the rain.
The Planet, Spinning on despite the Gays
There is no secret queer cabal pulling the levers of climate collapse. The gays didn’t cause rising sea levels. Nonbinary people aren’t the reason for wildfires in Canada. Drag queens did not make your rent go up.
What is contributing to the environmental disaster? Deregulated industries. Politicians who take money from fossil fuel giants. Consumer culture that treats disposable goods as a birthright. A planet that keeps warning us louder and louder, and leaders who keep hitting “snooze.”
It’s easier to blame the person in glitter and heels than the executive who made $10 million while dumping waste into your river.
But if queer people had that much power? Trust me—we’d have fixed the climate and invented teleportation.
Women’s Rights? Voting Rights? Pay Attention.
While the nation obsesses over drag shows, entire civil liberties are eroding.
In state after state, women’s reproductive freedoms are being stripped away. People are driving hundreds of miles just to access basic healthcare. Some states are targeting doctors. Others are targeting patients. It’s dystopian—and it's happening in real time.
Meanwhile, voter suppression laws are tightening the screws. ID requirements, closed polling stations, voter roll purges—all of them disproportionately affect poor, Black, brown, queer, and trans voters. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, these laws often directly impact individuals whose gender identity doesn’t match what’s printed on their ID.
So while some are crying about a kid reading a book about Harvey Milk, actual democracy is being whittled down with surgical precision.
So, What’s Actually Going On?
Here’s the big secret no one on cable news will say out loud: Scapegoating is easier than governing.
It’s easier to shout about drag queens than to fix water infrastructure. Easier to ban books than to raise teacher pay. Easier to point fingers than pass meaningful tax reform. It’s easier to whip up a moral panic than to look your constituents in the eye and admit that fixing the real problems takes money, courage, and compromise.
This is not new. The playbook is old. When power is threatened, marginalized people get blamed.
And the result? We all suffer. Because the real problems—poverty, crumbling infrastructure, climate change, broken healthcare, and underpaid workers—don’t care who you voted for. They affect everyone.
A Better Path: Vision, Not Villains
If we want a different outcome, we have to stop looking for villains and start looking for vision.
We need leaders who invest in schools because they believe in the potential of every kid, not just the ones who look like their own. We need policies that repair roads and relationships. We need a justice system that doesn’t criminalize poverty or gender identity. We need an economy that rewards effort, not exploitation.
None of that happens by banning TikTok dances or outlawing rainbow flags.
It happens by organizing. By voting. By demanding more from the people in power. And by remembering, always, that progress is not a zero-sum game. When one group gains rights, nobody else loses theirs. That’s not how equality works.
Final Thought: This Ain’t It
Look, I get it. It’s a scary time. The world feels like it’s on fire, both literally and metaphorically. But the answer is not to turn on each other. It’s not to ban, blame, and bully until we’re all too exhausted to care.
The answer is solidarity. It’s investing in each other. It’s telling the truth, even when it’s hard. It’s looking someone in the eye and seeing them not as a threat, but as a fellow human being trying to survive.
We don’t need to erase anyone. But we do need to erase the idea that division builds a better future.
If we want to leave this world better than we found it—for our kids, our neighbors, our communities—we better figure it out, and fast. Because this?
This ain’t it!
Sources and Citations
Infrastructure
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2021 Infrastructure Report Card
https://infrastructurereportcard.org
Education
National Education Association (NEA)
https://www.nea.org
PEN America – Banned Books Report
https://pen.org
Trans People and Public Restrooms
Media Matters for America – Comprehensive Report
https://www.mediamatters.org
Human Rights Campaign – Anti-Transgender Violence Report https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-transgender-community-in-2023
Trans Athletes
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation Tracker https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights
Immigration
Pew Research Center – Facts on U.S. Immigration https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/immigration-migration/
American Immigration Council
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org
Climate
NASA – Climate Change and Global Warming
https://climate.nasa.gov
Environmental Working Group (EWG)
https://www.ewg.org
Union of Concerned Scientists – Corporate Climate Influence
https://www.ucsusa.org
Reproductive Rights and Voter Suppression
Guttmacher Institute – State-by-State Abortion Laws Tracker https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy
Brennan Center for Justice – Voting Rights and Suppression Reports
https://www.brennancenter.org