No Matter Who’s President—We Will Defend Our Rights

Despite the dismaying outcome of the U.S. election, communities are resilient, powerful, and ready to resist.

In the wake of the bitterly fought U.S. presidential election, many of us are grappling with grief and betrayal. For the second time in a decade, a politician who openly campaigned on messages of hate and authoritarianism won the presidential contest by a narrow margin in the electoral college. 

The future of democracy in the United States has never felt more in jeopardy.

That is why UUSC is organizing a rapid response fund for community protection. Grants from this fund will finance safe accommodation in sanctuary communities for transgender and gender expansive people fleeing danger in hostile states. They will also support accompaniment and sanctuary for people in migration at risk of deportation, organizations representing communities of color facing criminalization and oppression, and more.

We have lived through this before—and that’s exactly what gives us strength to continue. Since the last time Trump was in office, our communities have only become more resilient. No matter what the incoming administration tries, in their quest for control and power, we will defend our rights. 

This means organizing and building power at the community level to be in solidarity with those whose rights are most immediately at risk: including women, people in migration, displaced communities, people with disabilities, and trans and gender-expansive people. 

These solidarity efforts are not a mere matter of protesting or “making our voices heard.” As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put it, in a 1967 speech, the “collision of immoral power with powerless morality” is “the major crisis of our times.” 

In the wake of this election, we do not need more “powerless morality.” Instead, we must mobilize to build power in the interests of justice. As Dr. King continued: “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

UUSC was founded to resist fascism more than 80 years ago. We will continue to fight it today. Likewise, our partners around the world have faced and are facing oppression, autocracy, and fundamental threats to their rights. We have been here before. We have fought back and prevailed. And we can do it again. 

Stay tuned to learn more and make a contribution so that we will have the funds needed to provide rapid response now and in the coming months.. A donation in any amount will help us backstop our partners’ work to defend our rights and protect our communities.