Sumiko Saulson

This is perhaps a controversial opinion, but I think that enjoying your life is a subversive act when you’re part of intersectional groups that are under attack by the government.

And even though I haven’t seen it stated this way by others, I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one feeling it.

Me and Princess had a big fairy wedding, and I noticed that over the last week another couple in our community had a big fairy wedding. I feel like big queer fairy weddings are pretty much flipping the middle finger at Trump and all of his bullshit. Like we’re out here experiencing queer joy and y’all can’t stop it.

My fellow by BIPOC horror poets are out there killing it right now and every time I see one of them winning I feel like it is joy and resistance in the same package. Like we’re out here living our best life while the government’s trying to stop us out of existence. All of my LGBTQ and BIPOC authors out there doing their thing, the artists, the cartoonists, the zine makers. Making art as a form of resistance like the hippies did it and the punk rockers did it in days of lore, days I’m old enough to remember in the case of punk rock, like rappers did it selling mixtapes out of the trunk of their car.

Every single one of my three sweeties in my polycule is out there getting gender reassignment surgery and I feel like that’s people living their best life and pretty much doing it despite the fact that the government is mounting up its forces to oppress us. Like we’re doing what we do and people feel like an urgency to do it now before the government tries to stop us, but even with that urgency there is a pure joy in living authentically.

I think that the open threats against our way of life is part of why people are really feeling more than ever motivated to hold on to whatever joy we can.

And that doesn’t mean that we aren’t out there protesting. That doesn’t mean we are out there voting. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t actively resisting in other ways like making political zines and stickers and disseminating subversive literature. It just means that we’re keeping up our strength for the fight by making sure that we center our happiness in difficult times.

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The photo from Princess and Sumiko’s wedding was taken by Tiffany Eilat 

~ by Sumiko Saulson on October 16, 2025.

Posted in Everything Else
Tags: BIPOC, books, Emily Loretta Flummox, joy, LGBTQ, life, love, Princess, queer, resistance, Sumiko Saulson, writing