The gun battle is ours now. It will be the newest item on our gay agenda, and another jewel in our legacy.

I let my country down on December 14, 2012. That was the day a man shot and killed 20 children and six of their educators. Was I shocked? Yes. Horrified? Absolutely. Did I argue about gun rights, and make angry Facebook posts and comments? I sure did. How long did I hold on to those arguments, and keep those kids’ memory alive, with conviction? About two months. I didn’t donate any money or attend any vigils or protests. I didn’t even call my senators. I failed, and I’m ashamed.

I know I’m not the only American who failed those children. It’s obvious, seeing that virtually nothing was done to tighten gun laws then, that the majority of us let them down.

On June 12, we the queer people of the United States of America were presented with an opportunity to make up for this failure. Along came another attack — this one not on children or a group of random adults, but directly on us.

If you’re like me — enraged now, ashamed about your inaction in the past — then this is our chance. It’s time to step up, grab your weapons, and report for duty. We’re not forgetting this one; we are going to avenge those 49 people in Orlando, those 26 people in Newtown, the fallen in Aurora and Tucson and Charleston and all the rest. We’re going to make gun-rights activists, the higher-ups at the NRA, and the politicians who have been obstructionist asshats wish they’d never gone after us.

In short, we’re coming for your guns.

YOU’VE DISTURBED THE HOMOSEXUAL HYDRA

Did you hear the collective eye roll from the gay community when the news came out that the Orlando shooter had been to Pulse a dozen times, and had potentially chatted with other men on gay dating apps? As soon as I read it, I could almost hear the thought come telepathically from my LGBTQ family: This again. Of course.

For members of the LGBTQ community, there’s nothing new about that story — our worst tormenters, from schoolyard bullies to top-tier politicians, are so often closet cases. It also wasn’t a surprise to us that this tragedy happened in the first place. Murder, torture, constant fear, bloodshed, and invasion of safe spaces have been part of the gay story since the gay story began.

Perhaps the only thing more predictable than this latest development is the shitstorm of idiocy, hatred, and ignorance that comes in the days and weeks after. There’s always a spike in vitriol whenever the gun debate flares up. But with the combination of factors tangled and twisted around Orlando — gay panic, islamophobia, ISIS, hate crimes, assault weapons, mental health — the ugliness on Facebook and Twitter has set a record.

Amongst those hateful messages and confused arguments, though, there are always a few beautiful things that appear out of the darkness. Social media, while also bringing the worst of the leeches and troglodytes, brings us a new platform and medium for critique, commentary, humor, art, and beauty in the face of tragedy.

My favourite sentiment to come from the conversations I’ve seen over the past few days says this to the LGBTQ haters and the gun-obsessed out there: Good job. Now you’ve got our attention. Now we’re focused on guns. And unlike many other segments of the American population, we have long memories and incredible stamina.

There, in those posts, is the sentiment I crave. After reading stories about people a lot like me cramped in bathroom stalls, bleeding, playing dead, piled on top of one another and yet feeling so alone and terrified, I want to feel that unity in anger.

It’s not the first time I’ve felt this from my gay siblings — the notion that people really shouldn’t fuck with us. We are a hydra, many-headed and multi-faced, and when you cut one, or five, or fifty of us down, you get twice as many in return, hissing and loving and making jokes that cut through your shitty arguments with ease.

There’s a reason for this, and it must be scary as shit for people who have bought into the lie that being gay is a choice. The reason we won’t go away, that after hundreds of years of suppression we are still here, is because we are genetic. We are in the DNA. We have effortlessly infiltrated the entire population, because that is the way human biology is designed. We are a part of the microcosm. The world learned this in the 1980s, when we were going extinct. A generation of us was wiped out, and still we came back in the next one. We are like sexy cockroaches that know how to sing and mix cocktails. We will be here as long as the human race is a thing.

Think about that power in the context of the gun debate. Consider what our community could do to guns. We will have to accept the fact that it will take a long time, and that more of us will become casualties. There will be more shootings and violence, some with lower body counts and very likely some with higher. The war has already started — in fact, it never stopped.

That’s why it should be no surprise that some of our number are already talking about this. But it’s not enough of us yet. This is the first large-scale single act of violence against us in a generation. This is momentous, something we can’t let go. We all need to do a lot more talking, starting now.

In the last few days, I’ve heard plenty of people argue — sometimes loudly and stupidly, sometimes wisely and passionately — that this tragedy is not just about the LGBT community but all Americans. Of course that’s right. We have a gun problem as a nation and a homophobia problem as a nation. Everyone knows it, even if they won’t say it: America is fucked up.

But don’t be fooled — this is an argument our enemies will use to muffle us. Politicians will make speeches saying this, with the subtext that we shouldn’t worry our pretty little heads about the issue. But think of it this way: If the public isn’t going to stand up for those 20 kids, then they sure as hell aren’t going to stand up for 49 LGBT people and their allies, most of whom were people of color.

But we can stand the fuck up on our own. We can add the gun issue to the agenda.

We can turn the attention of the gay hydra on anyone who tries to make a case for keeping weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a population that increasingly demonstrates its inability to act coherently. That means we are going to fight politicians and gun lobbyists, yes. But we also must go after friends, family, coworkers, and strangers who publicly produce shallow, labyrinthine, manufactured, and packaged statements about why they should get to hold on to a weapon that is pointed at us.

We have won some epic battles, and we didn’t do it at the ballot box. Our numbers aren’t high enough to win solely through votes. We’ve won by loudly being ourselves, by showing the world how gorgeous and fun and weird and artistic and smart we can be. By showing them that we are, indeed, quite boring and normal. We have won our battles through persuasion, and hell, that’s what America needs right now.

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON

First things first, it’s time to study up. We can always be more informed, so it’s time to arm ourselves to the teeth — not with guns, of course, but with facts.

This isn’t a new debate, so one fortunate thing is that most of the arguments you’ll hear are old and tired, which makes them easy to beat. It’s not hard to prepare yourself for the shallow, illogical, and deceptive arguments coming your way. We can beat them back with statistics, studies, and historical data of all sorts. I’ll get you started:

You’re going to hear about Chicago.

They will try to twist the second amendment.

They will say gun restrictions have no correlation to lower gun deaths.

Brush up on your gun lingo and history.

We all should be up on our facts, and demand them from the other side. But truth isn’t the only weapon in our arsenal.

I’ll say it now to get the cheesy part out of the way. There is one weapon we gays have at our disposal, the one that has worked time and again as we’ve fought our battles over the years: Love. It sounds tacky, but then again, that’s a word that describes the beauty of the gay community. We know this: Love is the only way forward, and it’s a weapon all of us can tap into.

There is veracity in this. But we can’t let that statement become our version of the GOP’s empty prayers and moments of silence. We can’t say “love will overcome” and then go to sleep. We have a lot more to offer on this issue than just our love.

We are a diverse army. We have intimidating lesbian lawyers, silver-tongued drag queens, and powerful trans athletes. We have high-powered gazillionaires with plenty of resources. We have talk-show hosts, news anchors, pop singers, and best-selling authors. We have homeless teenage artists with loud ideas, nerdy hackers on college campuses, and fucking bears.

We have an equally stunning mosaic of straight allies, who are more than willing to use their voices in our support — they inherently get the opportunity to speak more than we do, and we’ll use that to our advantage as well. The grieving parents and lovers of the already-fallen will be among our ranks, and we’ll help them continue the fight they’re already undertaking.

We also have proud and sensible gun owners among us who understand the need for stricter gun regulation. They’re fighting with us too: to poke holes in our arguments to make us make them stronger, to help us negotiate and compromise, to show what responsible gun owners look like.

You fit into this massive army somewhere. Figure out your role, pursue it viciously.

IMAGINE IT

We have a long, long history of winning wars. We won a war last year, one of our biggest yet. We aren’t tired; we are energized. And this time, we’re married.

What a surprise it will be, when we come for them in our wigs and black latex and power suits and college hoodies. It won’t be Obama or a totalitarian government in disguise who comes for their guns: It will be us. The gays. We are going to keep guns away from our dance floors, because we already need more room to do our high kicks.

Imagine adding that on to our legacy, which is already so beautiful. Think about being old and in bed, talking to your great-great-great-great-grandwhatever, telling her that you were a part of the gay generation that not only brought about marriage equality for the entire country but, after that, walked over and put the guns back where they belong — locked in a closet that has only recently become vacant.

Turn up the music. It’s time to go to war.