Editor,

People have been asking me why I am giving “You’re safe with me” pins out all over the island. This is the reason why:

Following the election in November, S.O.S. (Solidarity Over Supremacy) had a series of meetings in Langley, which I chose to attend. The purpose of these meetings was to bring people together in our community in order to help relieve our anxieties brought on by the election results and to point us in the direction toward action rather than fear. They explained how it was the purpose of the new administration to throw us into chaos, with the result of causing us to feel powerless and disabling our ability to organize and fight back.

We were asked to divide into action groups we felt best fit us. I chose the group aimed at “Protection.” As a current board member of South Whidbey Pride, a past member of TransSpectrum of Arizona board and group facilitator of parents of trans kids and a retiree of Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, I have always found myself in the role of protector of people.

While discussing with others how we can, as individuals, find some action that we are able to realistically do to protect people in our community, I came up with the idea of somehow identifying others as safe persons. As part of a vulnerable group, being able to identify people who I can trust is integral to feeling safe in my community. Growing up queer in a small town in the early 80s, and finding it near impossible to identify role models and adults who were safe havens, made life a scary and precarious struggle. Thirty-five years after coming out, things seemed to have gotten much safer, with books, TV, and movies reflecting more and more people like me. Until 2025!

As a person who has fought with depression and anxiety for much of life, finding a supportive community and safe people has made the difference between fighting for survival and thriving. Because I know what it’s like to be on the outside looking in, always feeling like a target to bullies, I wish to do something so others don’t have to experience what I have. I especially don’t want the youth of today to have to struggle just to live their lives the way I had to for all those years of Queer marches and fighting to be treated like respectable human beings. And yes, the trans women of color were the ones leading the fight and we will continue to acknowledge them as leaders for us all.

Now in 2025, we are being denied our humanity and safety at the hands of our government, those who swore to protect us from enemies foreign and domestic. What do we do now, when the biggest bully holds the highest position in our country?

This is what we do: We admit we aren’t powerless and we fight back in any way we are able. For some that is writing letters and making phone calls to our elected officials. For others it means taking a seat on boards like PFLAG and South Whidbey Pride and serving our community through support groups, marches and Pride parades, or standing up to ICE with picket signs and chants.

As a protector, I chose to hand out “You’re safe with me” pins, with the colors of the gay rainbow, the trans flag, and black and brown circling the words, in case there is any doubt who we are protecting. My thought is that if so many people on our island go everywhere wearing one of these pins, then vulnerable communities within our larger community will feel and be safer. By lifting up these vulnerable communities, we are all stronger and no one feels or is helpless.

Wolfgang Nyland

Freeland