“These are dark times, there is no denying. Our world has perhaps faced no greater threat than it does today.”-Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister of Magic

I firmly believe in these words. No matter who you are, what you are doing, where you are from, and what you believe of the world today, we are without a doubt living in darker times. As a generation that grew up casting spells with Harry, Hermione, and Ron in the wizarding world of Harry Potter, we faced countless forms of evil only for goodness to prevail in the end. Those lessons we took away from the wildly popular series by J.K.Rowling we must now unfailingly apply to our society today.

As a white, openly gay middle class man in America, I certainly feel that I am living in a dark time. My current President-Elect is actual garbage, and may or may not have won the Presidential Election with the help of Russians hacking into essentially every unseen element of American culture (except for this article). Trump, as President-Elect, hosts a variety of threats to Americans-regardless of gender, race, religion, sexuality, etc. What I see daily in the mainstream media is that the American people, as a society, did not want him. To my friends outside of the United States and to those whom I don’t know-he does not represent me, my family, my friends, and more.

Identifying as gay in 2016, or this general time is unique. I have a current President who supports marriage equality-but a President-Elect and a Vice President Elect who seemingly do not. They believe that conversion therapy, which has murdered innocent souls before, is an effective way to cure someone of being gay. You cannot cure someone of their gender identity, or their sexual orientation. You can however, cure someone of being an asshole. Of being intolerant. Education in these instances is important, because without education we would never learn from our history. I would certainly never think of someone as a slave or as property, so why would I think in any form of discrimination today towards someone whose different than me?

This is the era we are ushering in with a new Presidency. An era of allowing hate to seep back into the soul of the American people. I am proud that I live in an era where people of color are demanding equality in representation throughout entertainment. I am proud to live in an era where women are demanding control over their bodies and the healthcare choices that come with it. I am proud to say that I am a part of a community that does not know rest when it comes to fighting for civil rights. These are the highs we must take when the opposition goes low (shout-out to Michelle Obama). Rather than letting fear take over our bodies, we must use the fear as fuel to inspire change. To demand representation by a Commander in Chief the majority wants. To inspire and create change in a country where people don’t know discrimination based on the uncontrollable such as race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

Personally, I use my god given knack for not knowing when to shut the fuck up to fight for equality for things I know I want and need as an American. Just because I can marry a man I may love does not mean we have access to the same benefits as heterosexual couples. It does not mean I would face no less prejudice when walking around holding his hand as an openly gay man. I’ve petitioned my own college to act better and to do better when it comes to representation of their LGBT community. I demanded change when our men’s basketball program was scheduled and ultimately sent to North Carolina to play Duke University, despite #HB2 laws. I, a young man in his mid-twenties, sat across from the President of Marist College and debated about whether or not this was the right thing to do and where we go from here. I try to support organizations and companies that line up with my own morals and values, something we all must do. I surely ruffled feathers fighting for something I believe in, and that others believe in, knowing that in order to enact even conversation about change, someone must do something.

We must do more, we can do more, and we will do more. Collectively, each and every one of us is impacted by this election and its results. We are in some way shape or form impacted by any form of hate crime that is reported in the media that encourages violence based in hatred (though almost never is violence the answer…almost). Though we are living in dark times, it is up to us to determine how much light gets let out vs. let in. We are living in dark times, there is no denying. But there is not denying we’re going to make them brighter again.