2025 was one of the most trying years of my life. As an elder millennial, Ive lived through my fair share of bad news over the past four decades, including multiple recessions, pandemics, and wars (both literal and figurative) not to mention an increasingly inequitable economy, progressively more dysfunctional and divisive political system, and an aggressively endangered planet. And yet, with the inauguration of the second Trump administration, things have gone from being a hot mess to a five-alarm dumpster fire. Related When the going gets tough, the queens get going: Why drags rich history should fuel the resistance In this cruel game of 2025, I personally could have called bingo multiple times over from living through the Los Angeles fires, to surviving existential cuts to university funding, to being made the poster-child for Marjorie Taylor Greenes defunding campaign against public media. Ive also witnessed and stood in solidarity with those facing more immediate and violent attacks, including migrant neighbors kidnapped by ICE, Palestinians in Gaza fighting for survival amidst starvation, and trans friends preparing to leave the country. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today Unfortunately, this is likely only the beginning. According to multiple organizations tracking Project 2025, approximately 50% of its far-right policy agenda has already been achieved, though we all know the goal posts will only continue to move further as they rack up more wins. If the leaders of this authoritarian agenda truly get their way, I could almost certainly be locked up (or worse) for the queer-affirming work I do with children and families.In the face of fascism, its all too easy to give in to despair. And lets be real: many in the Democratic establishment including many mainstream LGBTQ+ organizations arent giving us a lot of hope. This is especially true as liberal leaders rely on consultant-tested political messaging and organizing tactics that promote respectability (and self-preservation) over systemic change. But its time for us to put aside those tired old rules and start making our own.In 2026 and beyond, its time for LGBTQ+ and other social justice movements to get more playful. Play is serious business AliKofi Bell dances with a bubble gun outside of the Supreme Court to protest LGBTQ+ book bans When I talk about play, Im no Pollyanna. For me, play is a deep practice that, among other things, can help us experiment with ideas, exercise new skills, and develop techniques to beat our opponents. That is, its not all fun and games, but a strategic orientation that deserves to be taken seriously. At the same time, play also reminds me that sometimes were most successful when we allow ourselves to not be too serious.Not surprisingly, I first started thinking critically about play through drag. When I began working with Drag Story Hour, I realized drag is itself a form of play. Incollaborative research on drag pedagogy with education scholar Harper Keenan, I discovered that much of its culture reflects and expands the kinds of play I loved as a child: Creating characters, building worlds, being silly, and making magic with other people. In our ongoing work, Keenan and I have begun to document many aspects of play common to queer cultures, including facilitating structures of communication and consent, humorously addressing shameful or taboo subjects, and creating spaces for mess and mischief. However, as designer Cas Holman notes, many adults have forgotten how to play. Except for in a handful of sanctioned spaces, most adults have suppressed the spirit of curiosity and freedom inherent in play in favor of social conformity and productivity. And that is, in many ways, by design. But leaning into play offers many pedagogical and political opportunities that are not only beneficial but also necessary in our current world.Put simply, play offers us a toolkit or better yet, a toy box for building a more just and joyful world. It does so in multiple ways. Play helps us imagine and experiment with our values, it gives us tactics for advocating for real change, and it offers opportunities for rejuvenation that help sustain our movements. If were going to not only resist the ongoing attacks against LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities but also build a better alternative, were going to have to get more playful. The power of imaginationA large number of protestors hold signs at a No Kings protest at the corner of Daniels Parkway and U.S. 41 in Fort Myers on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. They are protesting President Donald Trumps policies. It is part of a nationwide effort. | Andrew West/The News-Press/USA Today Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesOne of the major challenges of combatting fascism is the constant barrage of action and discourse that attempts to shape the terms of debate, forcing the rest of us to occupy defensive positions and fight back against doom-and-gloom, rather than thinking critically and creatively about the kind of world we want to live in. Thats why attacks on educators and cultural institutions including public schools, media, libraries, and museums are not merely distractions from real political issues, but foundational components of historical and contemporary authoritarian playbooks.While it may not seem like it, villains like Trump deeply recognize the power of imagination, so much so that they work overtime to replace it with fear, order, and obedience. This is why a program like Drag Story Hour has been subject to so much backlash: Demonstrating to children (and adults) that we can all play with gender is a crack in the wall, revealing the many ways we can express ourselves outside of strict binaries. If we can do that, we can question all sorts of social norms and test the limits of many different kinds of conventions. This helps us see not only that other worlds are possible but often preferable, because theyre fairer and more fun.Within LGBTQ+ movements, I fear we have too often fallen back into defensive postures. Particularly in discourses around trans rights and especially trans youth many elected and movement leaders have resorted to a born this way argument, suggesting that we are only deserving of liberties because we cannot help being different.In contrast, a playful mindset can remind us that part of the freedom we are fighting for is to be able to express ourselves with complexity, and that we are all worthy, not merely those deemed winners by arbitrary rules. Surprise, delight, disruptA drag queen dances on the sidewalk along Kumpf Boulevard Friday, May 12, 2023 outside the Peoria Civic Center during a rally to protest Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visit to Peoria for the annual Lincoln Day Dinner. | MATT DAYHOFF/JOURNAL STAR / USA TODAY NETWORKBeyond envisioning a better world, play also offers us novel strategies to bring it into existence. Indeed, under repressive regimes like Trump, where traditional forms of protest like petitioning elected leaders and mass demonstrations yield fewer results, I think we need more playful techniques that help us innovate our tactics, keep our foes on their toes, and force real change.In this respect, I look to myriad historic examples of playful queer and trans activism that have made lasting change. For example, in the 1950s, drag icon and soon-to-be-political candidate Jos Sarria led performance-based protests against all-too-common police raids of gay nightlife venues, often parading bar patrons down to the local police precinct to sing a parody, God Save Us Nelly Queens, as both a spectacular demonstration of injustice as well as a serenade to those locked up. In a spirit of camp, Sarria also subverted anti-trans/queer vice laws by having drag performers pin labels stating I am a boy to their costumes, playfully resisting arrest on charges of alleged deception.I also look to activist groups of the 1980s and 1990s like ACT UP, Queer Nation, and the Lesbian Avengers that often demonstrated the power of playful protest and direct action. For example, ACT UP activists notoriously wrapped the home of Senator Jesse Helms in a giant condom to prevent unsafe politics, dressed as Santa Clauses to sing Christmas carols to protest the firing of an HIV-positive Macys worker, and regularly held kiss in demonstrations to combat homophobia and HIV disinformation. The Lesbian Avengers, in a direct adoption of carnivalesque tactics, learned to dramatically eat fire, organized marching bands, and distributed balloons to families outside of elementary schools to advocate for inclusive curricula. As a slightly earlier antecedent, I am also quite fond of the banana cream pie that found its way into the face of notorious anti-gay crusader Anita Bryant, an act committed by Thom L. Higgins in 1977, though I personally would never advocate wasting a good pie.These playful tactics offer multiple opportunities: They not only draw dramatic attention to the absurdity of those in power quite literally ridiculing them for their unjust ridiculousness but in many cases they disrupt business as usual. In so doing, they expose and shift the rules of the bigger game, so that theyre not so stacked in favor of those who already hold the cards. Plus, such playful tactics can invite more people into social movements, highlighting the importance of joy and desire in organizing.In recent months and years, I have been inspired to witness and occasionally take part in similar playful actions.Many student and community actions against the genocide in Gaza often organized by queer/trans people have incorporated diverse religious and cultural rituals, singing, dancing, and other festivities. Like many others, I also took delight in the viral videos of the Portland frog, originated by nonbinary activist Seth Todd, dancing in the face of violent ICE raids. In a particularly beautiful example, a line of geared-up agents timidly retreats as the frog performs a series of simple dance moves. Still, as journalist Talia Jane has noted, there can be limits to such playful actions, particularly when they are not adequately responsive to the urgent stakes of political violence. The dance were fighting for Shaquille Edwards, right, of Green Bay, dances in the street during a No Kings Day protest march on Saturday, October 18, 2025, along Walnut Street in Green Bay, Wis. The march and rally were part of a nationwide day of protest against the Donald Trump administrations policies on a wide range of issues.Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin | Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesStill, play can also help sustain social movements by creating moments of joy and delight in otherwise dark times. As disability justice activists like Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha remind us, working ourselves to burnout is detrimental not only to our bodies but also to political organizing. While discourses of care and self-care have become commodified in many ways, play can still offer accessible and meaningful opportunities for personal rest and collective rejuvenation.Earlier this year, I was struck by a comment made by writer Dan Savage on his podcast. Reflecting on the death of Anita Bryant and the second inauguration of Trump, he noted, During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night, and it was the dance that kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for. In this way, play is not merely a tactic of imagination, nor of implementation, but also of inception. The moment we start to play, we actually begin to remake the world.So, as we look forward to 2026, its time to mostly ditch our pantsuits for our playclothes, ones that were not afraid to get a little bit messy. In uncertain times, its common to reach for order, but we must be willing to do the opposite, to playfully improvise, to strategically bend the rules, maybe even let our freak flags fly. In so doing, we can discover our sense of solidarity that will allow us to rewrite the rules of the game.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.