By now, it’s been a few weeks since the 88th State Legislative Session ended. Today is the last day Governor Abbott can veto the bills that have passed out of the Senate and House before they become law, with or without his signature. If you’ve been tuned in to the results of the regular session, you know that just 7 of the 140 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills passed. While that is a huge feat considering just how many horrific bills were on the docket, it can still feel a little disheartening. Some of the most harmful legislation will go into effect within the next few months. For some, it feels like we lost.

I’m going to be honest, in some ways we have–consider the families fleeing the state to protect their trans and gender expansive youth, the LGBTQIA+ performers moving to more supportive cities to ensure they can continue their careers, and the thousands of trans people who have no choice but to stay at the risk of their physical and mental health. It’s hard to step back and look at the bigger picture when you’re in fear for the lives of you and your community who are being threatened with the criminalization of their existence, and even worse, an increase in hate-fueled assaults.

So what do you do now? How do you contend with the highs and lows of the legislative session? What’s the point in attending protests or contacting representatives if at the end of the day, you know they’re going to push forward harmful bills anyway?

In March, I was invited to join a panel about being trans in Texas hosted by Union Coffee. At the end, like most every panel event, the panelists took questions. One of them was very similar to that last one in the last paragraph: why keep taking these actions if we know the legislators aren’t going to listen?

Well, if it’s any consolation, I’ve been wrestling with how to answer these exact questions. I definitely don’t have all the answers and I certainly don’t want to drown you in toxic positivity. But I will share one thing I’ve been comforted by in my study of movement building and organizing around social and political issues:

Even if the bad bills pass, there are still people doing everything they can to rebuke them, whether they’re in the spotlight or in the background. There are people in your community who have spent the last few months or even the last few years showing up to protests, educating folks on how the legislative session works, holding space for their community, developing toolkits, testifying at the state Capitol, showing love and giving hugs, emailing their state representatives, creating meaningful art, poetry, or music–all to fight back against fascism.

Isn’t that extraordinary?

Each one of these people has provided their unique skills, background, and talents in a mutual desire to do something. That’s what sustains me even when the future feels plagued with more hardship. Because that kind of love and support just proves that the world can look different; that it doesn’t have to be this way. If there’s anything that demonstrates our collective care for each other, it’s the mutual aid networks that sprung up in response to COVID-19, it’s the crowds and crowds of people rising against state violence, it’s the trans people of color who have time and time again refused to submit to white supremacist culture.

My answer to that Union Coffee panel attendee’s question was grounded in realism, which is kind of hilarious to me as someone who is very much a dreamy Pisces. I told her something I’d learned from another organizer: even if legislators don’t read our emails or the messages we leave with their staff, they log every single one of our statements in a database. There’s a record of our discontent. That kind of thing builds up especially as these movements grow. And I don’t about you, but I plan to do what I can in the movement for trans liberation.

I don’t know what we do next. I don’t know how to face the mix of emotions gripping many of us right now. All I know is that we will never resign ourselves to defeat.

We will not only survive this, we will thrive. Hold space for your emotions. Care for each other. Keep practicing hope.