To my community and all of our allies: 2025 was heavy. But we are still here.

I’ve spent the last few days thinking about everything we’ve been through this year—the setbacks, the noise, and the moments that felt designed to break our spirit. In my year-end essay, I’m sharing why I believe our strength now lies in three things: Active Hope, Radical Solidarity, and a renewed sense of Grace.

We don’t need to be perfect to be powerful; now more than ever, we just need to be together.

Wishing you and yours a very Safe, Happy, and Healthy New Year!

As we close the door on 2025—a year many of us will remember as our annus horribilis—it is tempting to retreat into the quiet safety of our private lives. We have weathered a relentless season of setbacks: the erosion of hard-won protections, the weaponization of our visibility, and a global political climate that often felt designed to remind us of our own fragility.

But if this year has taught us anything through its many trials, it is that the “humiliation” we felt was not a sign of our defeat, but a clarification of our task. We have been reminded that visibility, while beautiful, is not the same as power. We have learned that being seen is no substitute for being organized. And most importantly, we have rediscovered that we cannot simply rely on the benevolence of institutions; we must rely on one another.

As we look toward the horizon, I want to offer three pillars for our community: hope, solidarity, and a renewed sense of grace.

On Hope as a Strategy

Hope is often dismissed as a passive emotion, but in times of systemic pressure, hope is a form of resistance. It is the refusal to accept that the current darkness is the final chapter. Our hope should not be rooted in a naive belief that things will “go back to normal,” but in the concrete knowledge that we have survived before. We are a people of resilience. Our hope for 2026 must be active—a commitment to building the independent infrastructure and the “alternative tables” where we are not just guests, but the architects of our own security.

On Solidarity Beyond Purity

This year has exposed the cracks in our movement, but it also highlighted the urgency of repair. To meet the challenges ahead, we must trade the “purity tests” of the past for a robust, messy, and expansive solidarity. We cannot afford to discard those who are imperfectly aligned with us while our fundamental rights are on the line. Solidarity means recognizing that while our experiences of the world differ, our fates are inextricably linked. We are strongest when our sense of community outweighs our impulse for exclusion.

On the Necessity of Grace

Finally, I wish for us a renewed sense of grace. We are all carrying the weight of a heavy year. Grace is the recognition that we are all operating under duress, and that the first person we must forgive for not being “perfectly strong” is ourselves. Let us extend that same grace to our peers. As we navigate the reckoning ahead, let us move with a spirit that seeks to call people in rather than calling them out. Grace is the lubricant that will allow our community to bend without breaking.

2025 may have been the year that tested our limits, but let 2026 be the year we reclaim our power. We are not a collection of victims of history; we are a people who choose to be a people. Let us walk into the new year with our heads held high—not because the road is easy, but because we are walking it together.