In a New Era of Awakened Fear and Hatred, a Few Reasons to Stay Hopeful.

I know that many of my dear friends who are members of the LGBTQ community, who are immigrants, or people of color have been physically and verbally assaulted in the past few days. I know that many feel as if they are no longer appreciated or welcomed in this country due to these increasingly frequent acts of hate. I know that many of you feel hopeless, and I know that you have every right to feel that way. But in spite of all of the reasons to be fearful, here are a few reasons to not lose hope.

Love will always trump hate. I know that to many of us it may not seem like love won this time, but I promise, if love has not yet won, then it is not yet over. We will keep on loving each other across communities. We will continue to love one another and we will continue to stand up for one another, and we will bring forward a new movement.

There are still good people out there. You do still have allies, and we will mourn with you, defend you, stand with you, and fight for you. We will fight hatred and bigotry with love and compassion, and when they go low, we will keep going high.

Change starts from the bottom up. It is terrifying that we may be facing an administration that openly supports shock conversion therapy, racial profiling, and disavows women's reproductive healthcare, but through open dialogue, and peaceful protests, we can still make a difference. It may take time, and it won't be easy, but as long as democracy still stands, we can still stand with each other against discriminatory or potentially harmful legislation that may be put into place.

Many of Trumps' supporters were motived by intolerance, but (I hope) that they all weren't. Even though we are seeing white nationalist and closet racist coming out of the woodworks right now, I do still want to believe that many Americans are single issue voters. Many Americans who were privileged enough to be able to look passed the threats made to minority communities, and casted their vote in this way, may have truly done so because of their stances on single issues. I strongly believe that a lack of education lead many Americans to believe that these intolerant stances are okay, but as Hellen Keller once said, "The highest result of education is tolerance." We must educate those around us now, because while it is perfectly okay to disagree on issues of policy, it is not okay to disagree on the value of other humans.

It is clearly obvious that America has a severe tolerance problem right now, but with open dialogue, I have faith that we can learn to understand each other, and work together to re-create an America where no one is afraid to go outside because of who they are, how they pray, or who they love.