Many of us living in America, and other parts of the world, woke up this morning hoping that last night’s announcement of reality-TV star and bankrupted businessman Donald J. Trump beating seasoned politician Hillary Rodham Clinton to become the next President of the United States was a big joke. We awoke to the harsh reality that a man with no political experience who spewed hatred towards Black people, Latino people, women, Muslims, handicapped people, LGBTQ-SGL citizens and Jews won the presidency not by popular vote but by an electoral college, a system that allows the popular votes per U.S. state – instead of the collective country – dictate the win of a presidential candidate.
As LGBTQ-SGL people of color in America, we have witnessed discrimination on our ethnicity, sexual identifications and gender identities throughout this year of U.S. political campaigning. Latino people have been demonized as criminalized deviants. Black people have been demonized as a group to ignore and left to tear each other down. Muslim people have been deemed as the world’s public enemy. Women have been demonized as incapable of significant leadership but better off as sexual property to men. LGBTQ-SGL people have been demonized as substandard, immoral Americans. Handicapped people have been demonized as taunting targets by bullies.
Many of us fit in more than one of the aforementioned terrorized groups. Being a part of those terrorized groups, we have been made to feel less American in a country where some of us lived our entire lives or have legally became citizens. Under Trump’s leadership, will this avowed discrimination continue over the next four years? If so, how do we survive this?
My fellow LGBTQ-SGL people, I assure you that despite Trump’s victory, in addition to the Republican party winning the House of Representatives and Senate majority, we can continue to thrive. Yes, we can thrive in a country where half the voters championed a platform built on hate and discrimination towards people like us. We can thrive in a country where the incoming president was endorsed by hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan. We can thrive in a country where people voted for the incoming president because of hatred of a Black man running the country for eight years and his woman political ally ran for office to succeed him.
How do we succeed the Donald J. Trump, Republican-ruled era?
Every moment counts; let's capture them.