Throughout American history, women have been told to wait.

We’ve been told to wait our turn for the right to vote, the right to run for office, and the right to have our own jobs, live on our own, and support ourselves without being under a husband’s thumb. And we’re still waiting on many fundamental human rights, such as equal pay for equal work and the right to have a drink at a bar or walk home alone without constantly worrying about our safety.

The waiting game dates all the way back to the creation of our nation—and so does the fight against it. From Abigail Adams urging her husband to “remember the ladies” when declaring independence from England (even though we were still forgotten in that revolution, along with everyone else in America who wasn’t a white man), to Alice Paul fighting for our right to vote, to Betty Friedan fighting for our right to be treated as equals in society, women have been fighting for the right to be taken seriously for centuries. Now Hillary Clinton has picked up the torch, and is fighting for our right to be seen as equals in politics, and to shatter that final glass ceiling by becoming our first female president.

But like every other woman in American history who has stood up, raised her voice, and demanded to be taken seriously, Clinton has faced monumental backlash. From the smear campaign against her that was taken up by the Republicans and Bernie Sanders—claiming she’s untrustworthy, and not really for the people, and not really fit to be president—to scores of Internet trolls that invade her campaign’s social media accounts and litter the feed with propaganda about alleged mistakes from her past. And some of them have dug deep, all the way into her past career as a defense attorney—which, by the way, if you believe the lies that have been spread about her career as an attorney, I invite you to read this Snopes article debunking the Internet rumors.

Even Clinton’s nomination—a historic victory for American women—was littered with angry “Bernie or Bust” protestors who are demanding that Clinton hand over the nomination to Bernie. The Democratic Party’s nomination, which Clinton rightfully earned in the primaries by nearly 4 million popular votes.

This is the clearest evidence of sexism thus far in the 2016 presidential election, though there are many other examples to choose from. No matter what your defense is—whether you think Clinton is corrupt, or a liar, or untrustworthy, or you’re still pushing for Bernie’s “political revolution”—no matter what excuse you hide behind, this act is rooted in sexism.

If you think I’m lying, or that I don’t understand how Bernie (a career politician) is supposedly better than Clinton, or that I’m just another angry feminist with a keyboard, just imagine if the situation were reversed. Imagine that Bernie spent decades supporting the Democratic party, ran for president in 2016, rightfully won the party’s nomination by nearly 4 million popular votes—and was then asked to hand the nomination over to Clinton because he somehow “stole it.”

I think we can both agree that scenario is laughable. If that one doesn’t get you, just imagine a women asking a man in her office building to hand the job he earned over to her because the promotion he got was “stolen” from her. That’s ridiculous. It’s completely, utterly laughable, and it’s because women have been expected to kowtow to men for centuries, not the other way around. But asking Clinton, a woman, to hand the nomination she earned over to Bernie, a man who can supposedly do a better job? Suddenly, we have people thinking that scenario has merit, and it’s only plausible to them because of the centuries of misogyny women have endured, and the centuries of privilege men have enjoyed at our expense. And we’re tired of being told to wait for our turn.

I’m not ever going to say that Clinton is a perfect candidate, or a perfect person. She’s not. But I will ask this: how many “perfect” presidents has this country had? The answer is zero. We’ve had zero “perfect” presidents, and we’ve had 44 imperfect presidents, all of them men. Without a doubt, some of them have achieved legendary greatness while in office, but were they perfect people? No.

And that’s why we refuse to wait any longer. We refuse to wait for the “perfect” woman to be our first female president, because there’s no such thing; and everyone who is arguing that we should wait for that perfect woman to come along just wants to see us constantly batter against that final glass ceiling for the rest of time, without ever actually breaking through.

This is why, despite the insults, despite the lies, and despite the hate, so many of us still rally around Clinton. We can see greatness in her, because we know how difficult it was for her to even get this far, and how much she had to endure. The fact that she’s still fighting, while so many of us would have thrown in the towel and decided the hatred wasn’t worth it, shows that she’s strong enough to hold the highest office in America and lead our country forward, instead of back. Because every time a woman matches a man’s achievements, she has to work a little harder, and put in a little more effort, and push through many more obstacles just to get to the same place.

So no matter whom you support in this election, all I ask is that you keep your hatred to yourself. Whether you support Trump, or Bernie, or a third party candidate, or you’re ready to stand with Clinton, just don’t spew forth any more hateful comments, memes, articles, or words. We don’t need to add any more fuel to the fire, and there’s never any justification for hate speech. Just let us enjoy this historic moment—we’re on the cusp of having our first female president. Perfect or imperfect, we’ve done our waiting—240 years of it. And it might just be our turn, finally.