The following is an adapted excerpt from Be Gay, Do Crime: Everyday Acts of Queer Rebellion, edited by Riley Clare Valentine, Blu Buchanan, and LGBTQ Nation contributor Zane McNeill.These days, one often sees the slogan Protect Trans Kids emblazoned on T-shirts, painted across banners, or chanted on the streets during a demonstration. Radicals have added a twist, interspersing illustrations of a rose and a dagger between those three simple words, giving them a more edgy feel. Yet a fifteen-year-old queer anarchist friend of mine recently shared their critique of this popular phrase, adamantly declaring, We can defend ourselves!Their assertion points to the superpowers of many young folks today, at least as witnessed from my vantage point as an older queer anarchist on Turtle Island. They already know, at an early age, that they dont fit into heteronormative boxes. They already seem openly comfortable in who they are, in so many fabulous gender-nonconforming and even gender abolition ways. And as teenagers and even preteens, they are already both bashing back and striving to create their own queer utopias. Related Trans darts player vows not to let new anti-trans ban ruin her love of the sport Yet these youths are frequently unaware that their fighting spirit isnt so different from that of their ancestors, nor is their dedication to community self-defense. Take just one quote from this wide-ranging sampler of everyday acts of queer resistance and rebellion, proclaimed by gay antifascist Willem Arondeus as he faced execution for militant direct actions against Nazism Homosexuals are not cowards. In fact, many of us adults dont know our own histories-from-below either. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today History, as the truism goes, is written by those in power, intentionally scheming to solidify their coercive and violent hold by erasing all that doesnt conform to their narrative. The victorious hegemonswhether colonialism and capitalism; states, police, and prisons; or homophobes, transphobes, and fascistsin essence put our grassroots histories into a closet and lock the door.Or so they think. Be Gay, Do Crime, with its abundance of calendrical offerings, acts like a bolt cutter. Each entry snaps open another padlock, allowing us to steal back what is ours. To reappropriate the many scraps of our bottom-up legacies of good troublemaking that otherwise would be lost to top-down histories, and use those glorious remnants, those f*g ends, to figuratively craft our own amulets of mutualistic protection. And to share those talismans of remembrance freely with accomplices, coconspirators, and other visionary heretics as the material that sustains our unsanctioned, unabashedly magical world-building.[T]his book is indeed a form of communal protectiona theme that threads its way throughout these pages. Its the kind of protection that comes from learning about radical history and revolutionary predecessors, thereby drawing strength from knowing that weve done this before, and not just one or two times. For centuries, weve resisted and rioted, made strides, grieved beloveds, experimented and sometimes failed, carved out autonomous spaces, graffitied walls and blockaded buildings, chosen our own kinship, lent our hearts and solidarity, lived dangerously and danced illegally, acted up and come out, fought back, defied borders and smashed binaries, remained illegibly subversive, and so much more.As piece after piece reminds us, when push comes to shove, we defend each other, and wisdom doesnt disappear, even if the powers that be connive to bury our stories. Were here, were queer, we wont disappear (Norway, June 25, 2022). And whether were young, old, or anywhere in between, as this book underscores, we persist in everyday acts of reciprocity that reduce harm and alleviate suffering, within and outside our circles.Or as poet Federico Garca Lorca put it I will always be on the side of those who have nothing and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.