Kierra Johnson joined The National LGBTQ Task Force in 2018 as its Deputy Executive Director. She has served as its President since 2021.

METRO WEEKLY: Tell me about your experience on election night. How did you feel when the night first started, and when did it sink in for you that things were not going as hoped?

KIERRA JOHNSON: First of all, I couldn’t sleep. The night before, I was so — my family likes to say, “nervous-cited,” we created a new word that’s nervous and excited — so, I was nervous-cited. I was like, on one hand, the excitement of the historical moment that we are in was just so motivating. And I had just come back from Pennsylvania knocking on doors, and so, I was on a high from that, and I was talking to my kids. They walked with me to go vote. So, that’s the exciting part.

And then, the nervous part was we’ve been here before [in 2016]. I remember his first election. I remember everyone being so sure that he didn’t have a chance in hell. So, for me, there was a little bit of recall, remembering how I felt the day after that election. And that was definitely present for me.

I was on Howard University’s campus election night, so I was over on the yard, and it was really beautiful. It was intergenerational and the race diversity was just a rainbow of beautiful people talking to each other, celebrating, watching returns come in. And then, you could feel the energy shift.

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People were getting really quiet. You could tell the [nervousness] was taking over the excitement. We were all outside thinking we were going to be seeing Vice President Harris. And she didn’t come out. And we’re watching the electoral college numbers go up in ways that did not look good for us.

You could feel the energy in the space shift. I got a pit in my stomach, and was trying to stay positive. I was out on the Quad dancing, trying to hype up myself and other people, because that’s who I am. And then, I went home. I couldn’t go to sleep, but I refused to look at my phone because I think, internally, I knew I was going to wake up to a Trump presidency.

MW: So, this is our new reality, again. In your opinion, what are the greatest challenges facing the LGBTQ community under this renewed — and some would say, more dangerous — Trump administration?

JOHNSON: Unfortunately, I think we are not going to see a lot of progress, if any, at the federal level, around the expansion of rights for LGBTQ people or protections for LGBTQ people, whether that’s expanded access to healthcare, coverage for healthcare, or civil rights through the Equality Act. I don’t think we’re going to see those things. But even more alarming is, I think, we’re going to see a rollback.

The threats of dismantling things like the Department of Education, if that is a real thing, hurts all young people, but it especially hurts a diversity of young people who identify Black and Indigenous, and young girls and queer kids. There are a lot of protections and supports that come through the Department of Education that I worry are going to dwindle, if not be cut entirely. And we know when young people don’t have resources, they are more likely to attempt and succeed at suicide. And we’ve seen those numbers already.

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And then, beyond the policy framework, I think we’re already seeing upticks in hateful language and violence. So, I think we also have to be realistic when we’re talking about what we need to do as a community. We need to fight for policy and legislation at the local, state, and federal levels, but we also need to be vigilant in how we are physically protecting LGBTQ people.

MW: Yeah, actually, the education thing worries me. To use just one horrible example: rewriting the history of this country to eradicate any mention of slavery. Or we can’t mention Stonewall.

JOHNSON: Yeah. And the erasure of history is strategic. When you don’t have a history, you are erased. There is a reason why they are trying to take images and works of art and literature by women, Indigenous people, Black folks, queer folks out of schools and out of libraries, because they know what it means. There is power in identity, and identity is connected to a history, and people who don’t have a history are not anchored. And then, propaganda is easily forced down somebody’s throat.

It’s easier to convince people that they don’t matter, that they don’t have power, and to use them to your own advantage. So, it is not just an erasure of history or language. It’s an erasure of our people. And they know that’s about power.

MW: How do you plan to use your organization’s resources to fight the administration?

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JOHNSON: The important thing for us is that while we are all reeling emotionally right now, we’ve been in scenario-planning for the last couple of months. So, while there was no way to predict exactly where we were going to be today, we ran a number of scenarios over the course of months, and we’re going to start putting those things in motion.

So, we’re going to use our social media platforms. We’re going to use our Creating Change space. We’re going to engage with our partners on the ground that we’ve built across the nation to both create community and deepen community so that people know that they’re not alone. And also, really focus on leveraging our voices and our power at the state and federal level.

We’ve got a program called FedWatch. It is a coalition of folk from across movements who are looking at the Federal Register to ensure that things don’t slip through the cracks that could impact our people.

We’re going to make sure we have legal clinics at our in-person conferences and events because we know people have questions about what their rights are and aren’t. We’re going to create spaces for people to get real information, make sure that they have the right information at their fingertips because we know there’s so much misinformation out there.

And then, we’re also going to make sure that our progressive faith leaders, people of faith, are front and center to both be a comfort to so many LGBTQ people in these times, but also to be a guiding light of power. So, engaging them in advocacy and making sure these voices of faith are being heard in media outlets around the country.

MW: Some Democrats are now saying that we have to walk away from trans issues to make gains in the next round of elections, particularly the participation of trans women in women’s sports, which has become a major wedge issue despite the fact it’s small in its scope. How do you feel about this?

JOHNSON: Bullshit. The reality is that queer and trans issues and candidates won all across the country. That’s just scapegoating and a lack of responsibility, a lack of courage.

The reality is that racism and sexism were at play in this election. That is what this was about. We know that when you look at the exit polls so far, young people voted in their best interest. Black women voted in their best interest. There was overwhelming support of folks who identify as spiritual and religious outside of Evangelicals. This wasn’t about trans issues. This was about whether or not we had the courage to have a Black Asian woman lead us or not.

We know authoritarianism and fascism have taken root in this country. There is nothing she could have said or done because the rhetoric coming out of the Trump campaign, the bigotry leaking out of that campaign, resonated unfortunately with far too many people. And that’s why we are where we are.

MW: I think you’re absolutely right. I think all we have to look at is Sarah McBride’s win as a major win for the —

JOHNSON: And it’s only one of many, right? There’s a whole list of trans folks who won in different races across the country. I would tell these Democrats to step up. Freedom is not won by being mealy-mouthed. We don’t get closer to equity by not taking risks. We don’t get to a community and a democracy that we deserve by leaving our people behind. That’s not ever been the case. We have to show up for our people. We always win when we show up for our people. So, that’s what I would say: “Stop. Don’t be a coward.” To act like this is political expediency is just not true.

People are afraid, and they don’t know how to talk about these issues. They don’t know how to be in a community with queer people or trans people. But the reality is that we’re just people. And at a certain point, how do we lead with affirming the humanity of our communities, of our people, and just being unapologetic in saying, “We all deserve human rights, period”?

MW: What would your advice be to LGBTQ people who, after this election, are saying they just want to give up on politics, on activism, and even on community service and volunteerism? People who feel there’s no hope left.

JOHNSON: I would say, “Let yourself cry. Let yourself be mad. Let yourself be frustrated, confused, whatever it is you need to do to get back in it with us.”

The reality is that while I fundamentally don’t believe this is a good win for our community, there are many people who have been fighting for their lives day in and day out since they came into the world. Poverty, anti-Black racism, homophobia, transphobia. So many of us have been dealing with these things for decades — for decades. So, we’ve got to find the fire in our bellies to keep going. That doesn’t mean don’t take breaks. It’s another reason why we’ve got to lean into community. Because we also have to do what we need to do to heal, rest, find our joy, and then, get back in it.

Other people have to step in when some of us need to step out, but we need everybody committed to the fight. We didn’t get to where we are today by throwing up our hands. Kamala Harris said [in her concession speech], “Now’s the time not to throw up our hands, but to roll up our sleeves. It’s time to get down to business.” Women who were fighting for the women’s right to vote, folks fighting for civil rights, folks fighting to end slavery, folks fighting to stop the pipeline in the North. We don’t stop. We just work harder, and we work and lean on each other until we get where we need to go.

MW: How are you personally feeling at this moment about our community and our country’s future, personally?

JOHNSON: As a Black queer woman who is a parent of three with family living in Georgia, Florida, and Texas, I’m sad. I’m mad. I’m scared. But I’m not hopeless. I’m not hopeless. Part of the beauty of our histories is that it gives us perspective to know that we’ve been through hard things and have come out on top over and over and over again.

Victory isn’t a straight line, but we are progressing. We are at another one of those points where we are making history. And I feel lucky and deeply responsible to take action towards the next amount of progress in this country. So, I feel heavy with responsibility, but I also feel grateful to be in this time and to be at the head of the Task Force Action Fund and the Task Force, because it’s a platform that’s been around for 51 years, making progress. And we’re just going to keep on keeping on.

Learn more about The National LGBTQ Task Force and its programs, and how you can help, at www.thetaskforce.org.

The Task Force’s annual Creating Change conference is Jan. 22-26 in Las Vegas. Registration is still open. Details here.