On November 8th, 2016 the United States of America elected into the white house presidential-elect Donald Trump.
On the morning of November 9th, 2016, I witnessed my friends experiencing levels of distress that were beyond any measure. We talked, we wept, we watched the rain fall, almost as some sort of cosmic sign or reflection of the previous night's events.
Some may call this kind of reaction over-dramatic or pointless, but consider what this means for the country and for millions of people living here.
The LGBT+ community was the target of the United State's largest mass shooting in June of 2016, and five months later the people voted in a man whose vice presidential pick wrote "Congress should oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with heterosexual marriage," and supported funding for conversion therapy.
Citizens of the United States of America have this wonderful thing called the first amendment right, which grants the people freedom of speech and the freedom to practice their religion without persecution. Yet after the election, there were thousands of men and women who had to choose between this right and their safety, due to Islamophobic rhetoric used by Trump throughout his campaign and how very well received these messages were by his supporters.
One in five women and one in 75 men will be raped at some point in their lives, and 63% of those cases go unreported. And why shouldn't they go unreported? Women have been filing lawsuits against Trump since the 1990s and now here he is, our presidential elect, saying things like, "Grab her by the pussy," and further validating the very real problem of rape culture in our society.
So now that the LGBT+ community, Muslims and people who look like they could potentially be Muslim, and women must deal with the reality that the man their country just elected as president has elicited so much hate against them, what are they supposed to do?
Well, we all must stand together. We must fight for one another. We must project the voices of those who are silenced and protect them. We must fight in the name of equality, justice, and peace. It is up to us now to take the phrase "Make America Great Again" and do our parts to make it truly so.
Let's make America great. A great place for ALL people, not just the rich middle aged white men.
