Fighting to Vote
Previously, whenever we moved to a new state, switching our driver’s license over was way down on the list; somewhere between locating a dry cleaner and buying new address labels. You’d think that as soon as I’d moved to Brooklyn, I’d want to be a card carrying NYC resident, but instead I held onto my MA license until it expired. (Note: Don’t do this. You are then required to take the road test all over again. Pregnant even.) However this is an election year. And yes, I know I now live in the bluest state in the nation, but as we all painfully learned in 2016, to assume is to make an ass out of the Office of the President and me, so you can be damned sure I’m voting in this one and every other one until I’m voting from the grave. (Kidding!)
To get your license altered in the great state of Massachusetts, appearing at the Registry only gets you a 10 second conversation with a lovely security guard wearing a kind smile who directs you back to your car and your computer. One must sign up for an appointment with one of the 28 offices of the Registry of Motor Vehicles—from Pittsfield to Nantucket—online. Once you click the box of the office you’d like to visit, you are given a series of dates and times to choose from. Not all offices appear at all times. This means they have no appointments until… well, maybe forever. And when you find a location to click, the dates and times available will change if you step away from your computer/accidentally hit a key/sneeze. Trying to get an appointment is Registry Roulette.
This morning, by the grace of God, all 28 offices were available. I was gleeful until I started clicking on them, only to realize that all dates available started two weeks after Election Day. Except one. Tomorrow I will make a five hour round trip journey to make sure I can vote in MA. When I went back to the screen to select the next available time for Brian, all appointments started on November 17.
Last week, I read “Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Comeback” in the NY Times and had the gut punching realization that soon, at a federal level, gender affirming care might not be available for Michael. This doesn’t just mean no surgery (which, by the way, we aren’t even discussing in this house yet. And frankly, I’m more than a little pissed that people feel like they have a right to ask if we are. I’ll cover that in another rant… I mean post.). This means I might not even have the ability to get my kid into a gender therapist or an endocrinologist to discuss what happens next for him. So fuck yeah, I’m going to drive 268 miles in one day to make sure I have a say in whether or not that happens.
And you should too. This is absolutely no time to get complacent or assume “it will all work out”. It isn’t working. My 23 year old nephew recently told me that everyone his age that he knows has pretty much just given up. “Both sides are so extreme and no one who really represents us. Whatever we do it is just… what’s the point,” he said. I know how he feels. I stood on the steps of the Capitol bursting with hope and anticipation that our essential caregiver bill, H.R. 3733, would at least Band-Aid a raucously broken system. A year and a half later, there are 77 supporters of the bill. That’s 17% of the House of Representatives. (And to make that number you have to count people like Madison Cawthorn who blew up his career, but is still listed as a supporter.)
We can’t relax. There is no more time to waste. The stakes are so high we can’t see them anymore and they are still climbing. Every action might not seem like a big one, but if you have ever played Jenga, then you know it only takes one move to end the game. Voting districts are being redrawn. Rules governing voting methods are changing. We must act now.
Ready for this? I just received an email from the Registry. In my panic to get a reservation I overlooked the notice that I had to confirm my email. Because I waited 20 minutes to respond, my reservation has been cancelled. Unless I can get another appointment, I won’t be voting in Massachusetts.
But can I still vote in California?
Be diligent. Never give up.