I'm Nonbinary, Gay-Married And Just Moved To The Deep South. Here's Why I Got A Gun.

The sign said, “Satan is a Democrat!” It sat outside a small prefabricated building off Highway 441, the main shopping strip that runs through Milledgeville, Georgia. The sign’s marquee lettering was only recently changed from its previous message: “Democrats are the enemies of America!” Another sign next to it, this one screen-printed, advertised a church called The Society for the Ten Commandments. Brett Kavanaugh was about to be confirmed onto the Supreme Court, so the sign stung a little extra. My wife, Katie, and I decided to stop and take photos in front of it to post on Instagram. It was our small way of saying fuck you right back.[1]This was where we lived now. And signs like this were part of the reason I decided to buy a gun.I should mention who ― and what ― I am: a 43-year-old, transmasculine, nonbinary, gay-married, atheist Jew; the child of NYC schoolteachers and a grandchild of Holocaust survivors. I am also, yes, a hard-left Democrat. In short, I am Satan incarnate, the enemy, something many of my new neighbors wish didn’t exist. Courtesy of Katie Anania Plaut scrutinizing a local church sign in Milledgeville, Georgia, in September 2018. When we first arrived, we found hundreds of Brian Kemp[2] campaign signs sprouting along the country roads like weeds. The land itself was beautiful. The miles of farms were new to me, and it was thrilling to see cows, horses, deer, turkeys, and armadillos (mostly in the form of roadkill) whenever I drove anywhere. At times, when the sun was just right, it was no wonder why people loved this country so much.Indeed, there were American flags everywhere you looked. But something about all the flags struck me as aggressive, performative. They were on houses, mailboxes, pick-up trucks, and the message seemed to be, “I’m

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