Member-only story
Bamboozling a Trump impersonator on November 6
I spent America’s election day in Boston, getting four new testosterone pellets implanted in my upper thigh before walking home in a daze, allowing a close friend to text bare-minimal news updates through the evening, and eventually going to bed at 2AM in tears, aided by lemon balm tea and melatonin gummies. Things obviously didn’t go the way I had hoped.
Nonetheless, even when I’m afraid of dying, I have a routine, and the following morning was not about to be different. I blasted my most despondent playlist on the Minuteman Bikeway and treated myself to an iced coffee before slogging back up to the Airbnb and my daily standup call. As if I’d actually be able to write a single line of code or give a single shit for the rest of the week.
That’s when I saw him.
At a Mass Ave street corner, a middle-aged guy in a black suit, distinctive red tie, and unmistakable yellow wig bounced around and waved happily at passersby, most of whom wanted nothing to do with him, the rest of whom yelled creative and unsavory things from their car windows. My first instinct was to stay on the opposite side of the road and take the long way home. But that’s when it hit me.
I had opted to wear a Texas-themed Pride t-shirt that morning, in solidarity with those who still live in my increasingly-dangerous home state. It’s a relatively subtle design that gets the job done: the shape of Texas, and then “Y’all Means All” emblazoned atop that in the specific pink, white, and blue…