Hello and welcome to Outward, Slate's podcast about the LGBTQ world we're living in. And this week, that world

looks a little darker for a lot of us. The United States reelected Donald Trump. I'm sorry

if this is the first you're hearing of that. But that means two main things for trans and queer people.

One, a lot of the rights and protections we currently have are more at risk now than they were a week ago.

And two, new proactive attacks on LGBTQ people will likely ramp up, especially since, according to news reports,

Republicans believe that their ads attacking trans people were some of the most successful ones of the campaign.

So before we get started on this episode, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that a lot of you are probably feeling upset.

Doesn't really begin to cover it.

Horrified maybe, terrified, deeply sad.

And I hope you're taking care of yourself and your people. You know, this isn't a show

where we need to pretend not to care about how politics affects us and the people we love. So I can

say, I'm right there with you, which I'm sure is cold comfort right now, but I just had an interview

with a political operative earlier today who reminded me that for fascists to retain their power, their goal is to make the rest of us feel alone and powerless.

So whatever we can do to stave off that feeling, that's what we should do.

And for me, one thing that feels productive in this moment is getting a clear-eyed sense of what the next four years and beyond might bring.

So to help me suss that out, I've invited my esteemed colleague and Bloomingdale, D.C. neighbor, Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern.

We're going to talk about the legal threats to LGBTQ people under the next Trump administration.

We're going to take a quick break and then we'll be back with Mark Joseph Stern.

Mark, thank you so much for making time for us.

Of course. Thank you for having me on in this bleak stretch of, I think, recalibration and questioning how in the world we got to such a dark place and where the hell we go from here. I can't say I'll have all the answers, but I'm happy to talk it out with you.

Great. That's all we ask. So, you know, a lot of us are worried about what another Trump term will mean for us as queer people, as trans people. I know the morning after the election, we have a Slack channel at Slate where all LGBTQ people who work at Slate can chat with each other. And one colleague who is

getting engaged to their partner, but they might not have a wedding for a while, they were asking us,

...