Marzicastella's Pre-Trump Prep List!

[lb_lee]

Folks asked for it, so I got the following list from marzicastella about things to do in prepapration for the new administration. We have added a few things, but it was marzicastella who did the real work! Thank marzicastella!

For marriages vulnerable if Obergefell [legalization of gay marriage] is overturned:

1. Durable power of attorney
2. Healthcare proxy or living will based on your state [the person who makes healthcare decisions for you when you cannot, like if you're in a coma]
3. A will

Consider discussing with a family law attorney especially if there are significant or complicated assets. Do not forget pets. Custody of children if applicable should be discussed with an attorney and adoptions finalized. Be ready to potentially file federal taxes separately if federal recognition of same sex marriages goes away.

Added notes from LB: if you are like us and have neither corporeal spouse nor family who can be trusted to look after you in time of crisis, here is what we did to protect ourself which fulfills the above criteria:

• the Five Wishes Advance Directive, which is written in simple, everyday language, costs $5-15 depending on whether you get paper or digital, and works on its own in all the states except New Hampshire, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas, which require an extra step. It also sets up three healthcare proxies, which is the ideal, in case one is sick and another is out of town. Even we could fill it out, and our brain is a mess!
• If you are someone who either is disabled and worried about being left to die by medical staff, or are a weirdo like us who really, REALLY doesn't want to be put on life-support, there are state-specific forms to help control your medical care in an emergency (a very good bonus when your health care agents are brought in on it!). Both of these seem to be state-specific forms, sorry, and at least in Massachusetts, you DO need to get your doctor to sign and approve it, meaning this may take some time, effort, and persuasion. (We got very lucky; our doctor was fully on-board.) These forms are:
  • Do Not Resuscitate: you've probably heard of this one, but it has fewer options and is less flexible than a...
  • MOLST/POLST (which stands for "Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment" or "Portable Medical Order"), which is more thorough. Massachusetts has the file here, though it seems to be in a state of transition. The POLST seems to be more widely used, and includes things such as when to resuscitate (or not), what medical interventions to have (or not), and when you want a feeding tube or IV fluids.

All of the above things take some time to get through, so please start them sooner, rather than later!
For trans folks:

1. Update passport
2. schedule any surgeries needed sooner rather than later with the understanding that HRT may be harder to get in the future
3. Ask your provider if you can buy out your prescription for HRT. Insurance will not cover but you can pay for up to a year in advance.
4. [Update driver's license. Right now, you can change your gender marker to an X in MA pretty easily. The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition has a great Quick Reference Guide to Legal Name and Gender Marker Changes in Massachusetts! They also have some less MA-specific resources here.]
5. [See Janusz's comment on changing your name and dual-citizenship here!]

Added note from LB: getting your passport updated is just good practice in general. For those who are agonizing over an "X" marker on their passport, we ourself would recommend NOT getting it if you can stand it. The sole purpose of us having a passport is the ability to exit the country, and everything that might prevent that is unwanted. We're willing to accept the dangers of having an X on our driver's license, but our passport? No. (And it might be handy to have different but equally accepted government photo ID for Trans LB and Cis LB.)

For people who can get pregnant:

1. Consider long term birth control like IUD. If sure no kids or more kids wanted, consider bilateral salpingectomy [removing Fallopian tubes].
2. If taking oral contraceptives talk to MD about longer term options and/or buy out prescription so you have a years worth on hand

Added Note from LB: we ourself got a hysterectomy and salpingectomy last year in preparation for exactly this kinda shit. Most people do not need a hysterectomy; we chose one because we were full of fibroid/tumors that were wreaking havoc on our menstruation, and hormonal birth control made it noticeably worse. (If your period has gotten a lot heavier lately, and if hormonal birth control seems to make it worse, please go to your doctor and get checked out. You may have fibroids! Feel free to ask us about that.) If you don't have any concern asides from permanent sterility, just go with the salpingectomy. If you have any questions about hysterectomy and all that, feel free to ask us; our info is recent and fresh in our head!

For larger purchases:

Make them before January. Cars, clothing, anything that comes from overseas [LB note: ART SUPPLIES. If you're hooked on JetPens, maybe make your order sooner than later.]

For queer stuff generally:

1. Get media hard copy or DRM free, streaming services may remove things deemed obscene and that definition may change drastically
2. Consider your own risk profile and lock down, delete, etc. social media posts if you are concerned about harassment [note from LB: Zoe Quinn's book, Crash Override, and her website Crash Override Network are great for this!]
3. Turn off pop up notifications on Signal which can be accessed by others even if the end to end encrypted communications cannot. This is for privacy protection and also keeps most neighbors from viewing your texts.
4. Consider where you travel and where your connecting flights have you waiting.

Note from LB: we know a little bit about the changing definitions of obscenity in regards to queer and sexual art. Project 2025 and their ilk see trans people, just by existing, as pedophilic; we dealt with this in person at a protest just last month. When in doubt, just assume all queer content will be considered pornographic and pedophilic, and act accordingly. This is a VERY OLD tactic by bigots.

Google Drive was already booting off romance novelists and the like, though I can't find the source now. Please, for the love of god, make offline/local copies of everything like this, because you CANNOT trust places like Google Drive for this. We use a 64 GB USB key we bought from a Walgreen's and back up our files on it every month. It can be password-locked and everything and fits on our key ring.

Project 2025 is discussing strengthening the Comstock Act to prohibit mailing anything from abortion pills to discussions of abortion, sex ed, queerness, and so on. The Comstock Act was responsible for harassing Ida Craddock to death in 1902 (a woman who married an angel and made sex ed manuals), and Anthony Comstock was a heinous anus of a man.

Money:

Have not looked into whether to diversify my savings into foreign currency or not yet as I’ve been busy but this is something that was suggested. There may be tax implications if you do that.

Final LB note: marzicastella also forwarded us this post, which we found very useful for sanity-boosting! So is this Self-Care Assessment PDF!

Comments

[talewisefellowship]

[Janusz]

Things I would like to add:

• If you were born in a state that allows you to change the gender and name on your birth certificate, do so as soon as you can, if you can. In Connecticut, change the gender and name on your birth certificate at the same time in order to get a new birth certificate that shows no indication of ever having been changed. (if you change only the name, it may get crossed out with the new name added over it) I would ask to confirm if the certificate will be reprinted with the new name and gender without any obvious indication that they were changed, or ask if they can do that for you.

• If you have or are eligible for dual citizenship, consider confirming your citizenship and getting a non-US passport, if that option is available to you. Because I was able to change my birth certificate without any indication that it was changed, I can confirm my Polish citizenship as a man without having to go through Poland's difficult legal gender change process.

[lb_lee]

Oh hey, thanks for that stuff, Janusz! That stuff we didn't know and can't do ourself, and will surely be handy to people!

[talewisefellowship]

[Janusz]

yeah these are definitely not options that are available to everyone but they are worth considering if they are available

[starfallhaven]

We're trying to get out long term birth control renewed but it might be scheduled post January. I just hope we'll be able to get it.

The car thing too 😭 we need a newer vehicle but good God it's going to be hard to pay for it. -Natalya (she/her)

[lb_lee]

We hear ya. We just blew quite a bit of money snatching up all the queer books that normally we would've bought over the course of months or years. T_T But cars are so much worse!

*looks longingly at our kei truck dreams* ...farewell, tiny truck... maybe in another life...

[beepbird]

Passing along a computing-related resource: if you're worried about accessing the internet or searching for something without leaving a major trail, Tails is an operating system that runs off a USB and wipes itself every time it turns off. Just be mindful of what you log into while using it- it's only traceless if you're not signing into accounts attached to your legal name / etc.!
You can also put other operating systems on a USB and run them from that, incidentally. There are even a few designed for that (like Tails).

On the digital backup side: if anyone wants pointers on how to turn an old laptop or computer into a backup/media server, feel free to shoot me a message. I've set that up a few times and can probably point you in that direction.

Seriously, though. Get or make physical copies where you can, and back everything up. Digital backups are great, but they're not perfect and they can fail. If you keep backups, keep more than one on different drives.
I was taught the "3, 2, 1" rule: three backups, hosted in at least two different locations/devices, one of which should be offsite. Three backups protects against file corruption, two devices protects against drive failure, and one offsite protects against something like flooding or a house fire (or the inverse: if Google Drive is your backup and takes it down, then you still have local copies).

[lb_lee]

We have used Tails and run it from USB! It was a royal pain, but it did indeed work!

[writerkit]

PenBBS, but yes, I did order myself a second fountain pen on the grounds that having more than one in the house is a good plan.

I've also ordered a HEPA filter and a solar charger that is probably overkill for my purposes.

Clothing wouldn't have occurred to me.

I've been learning the "release that which you cannot change" from that article on a smaller scale at work-- I'm spending the entire day talking to people who don't have basic utilities, there are thousands of people applying for help, and I am exactly one person and cannot solve the problems of everyone I talk to. (Which is how I know I'm not very good at it; my director remarked to me today when I complained of the volume that "We can only do what we can do.")

[bodyetal]

all off the top of our head (mostly crow&’s):

for immigrants (including first gen immigrants—us-born kids of immigrant parents): try to find an immigration lawyer. if on a visa, get it renewed ASAP by any means necessary. also have a plan to (ideally straight) marry a white friend if necessary. if your visa requires you to spend a certain amount of time in your home country and there’s any way you can start burning through that time now, book the flights! it’ll only get harder to re-enter the country from here on out. if you have citizenship in one or more other countries, get your passports in order for them!

for people getting bottom surgeries: either be ready to stockpile hormones or do not remove hormone producing organs (ovaries/testes) if at all possible. you need sex hormones to live, and you either need your body to make them or you need medication to provide them. make super sure that you have a plan there.

also, for everyone: safety plan, but to quote timothy snyder, “do not obey in advance.” safety planning does not mean (and does not require) divorcing partners, detransitioning, hiding your racial or other marginalized identities, or disengaging from your local communities! if one or more of those things is part of your safety plan, that’s okay—but be careful jumping the gun on undoing things that make your life good.

also there’s this weird idea in the trans community that detransitioners are automatically accepted by the cis, and that therefore if you detransition you will automatically be safe and accepted. this is,,, not true. detransitioning for safety is a thing and for some is a valid or necessary choice, but do not make that decision on the false assumption that the cis will welcome you with open arms and that you will be instantly made safer by doing so, especially if you’re already in the process of medical transition. it’s an incredibly serious decision and should be made with full awareness that it is not automatic protection. (speaking as a collective whose body is multitransitional and knows many multitrans/detrans folks—we’ve detransitioned, retransitioned, and plain old transitioned a number of times. we’ve never recloseted, so we’re always socially trans no matter what we are medically, but still we are not treated better when detransitioned and we don’t actually know many people who that’s true for.)

*

[minoanmiss]

May I link to this in my journal? I'm currently making a go abg and working my wway through passport ppwk for myself and S.

Re: *

[lb_lee]

Sure go for it! A lot of folks could probably use this.

Passport links from minoanmiss!

[lb_lee]

ETA passport links.


https://www.usa.gov/renew-adult-passport

https://www.us-passport-service-guide.com/passport-name-change.html

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/forms.html?os&ref=app

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/change-correct.html

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/change-correct.html