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This Week in The Resistance: Inauguration Jitters

Trump

Leading up to the inauguration, there's drama involving "Strange Fruit," the Rockettes, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

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Goodbye, 2016. Hello, January 20. I couldn't help thinking about the impending date of the inauguration during the holidays. There was no shortage of Donald Trump news, but it wasn't all dark and gloomy. There was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singer who spoke out, saying, "I could never throw roses to Hitler."

Several members of the Rockettes expressed concerns over having to perform for the president-elect. "If I had to lose my job over this, I would. It's too important," Mary, a Rockette using a pseudonym, told Marie Claire. Trump makes some people want to hide, turn off the TV and radio, and turn away from Facebook and Instagram because of the barrage of posts and news, while others take the negative and reclaim it as a form of resistance.

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Since we were gone last week because of the holidays, this week's letter is shorter and will focus on some inauguration-related bullet points that happened during the break.

* A member of the Rockettes spoke to the media, saying she's willing to lose her job for refusing to perform for Trump. It was initially reported that members of the troupe were contractually obligated to perform under the agreement negotiated by their union, the American Guild of Variety Artists, although Rockettes management later said dancers could opt out.

* Shortly after the news about the Rockettes came out, Jan Chamberlin resigned as a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, saying that if she were to sing with the choir at the inauguration, she would be "endorsing tyranny and fascism." "I simply cannot continue with the recent turn of events. I could never look myself in the mirror again with self-respect," wrote Chamberlin.

* Rebecca Ferguson, a British pop singer who was invited to perform at the inauguration, promised she would sing for Trump on one condition. The condition? That Trump let her sing "Strange Fruit," a protest song about racism and lynchings, made famous by Billie Holiday in 1939 and since recorded by numerous other artists. Will Trump let her perform the song? Probably not -- but it at least gave Ferguson a platform to speak out against him. Ferguson said she put the condition on her performance because the song is "a reminder of how love is the only thing that will conquer all the hatred in this world, then I will graciously accept your invitation and see you in Washington."

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Yezmin Villarreal

Yezmin Villarreal is the former news editor for The Advocate. Her work has also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Mic, LA Weekly, Out Magazine and The Fader.
Yezmin Villarreal is the former news editor for The Advocate. Her work has also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Mic, LA Weekly, Out Magazine and The Fader.