The Next President...

I didn't sleep last night; I was too afraid that America was going to make the worst possible decision.  And we did.  Somehow, Donald Trump became the president-elect.  Somehow, enough people actually voted for him.  Somehow, people support his racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia.  Somehow, people were able to look past not only the fact that he has virtually no political experience and was the least qualified candidate for the job, but they were also able to look past the way he treats women and the fact that he's sexually assaulted multiple women.  (Wondering why it takes people so long to come forward about abuse?  Because we live in a country where their assailant can become leader of the free world.)

A Trump presidency scares me so much. It’s not solely because of him, not only because he’s a republican, but because we’re going to spend the next four years with a republican-controlled house and senate. Because the Trump and Pence are both very anti-LGBT and favor anti-LGBT legislation. Because the next 1-3 Supreme Court justices who are chosen will likely have similar views as them, Supreme Court justices who Trump has said he hopes will overturn marriage equality.  Yes, there is a system of checks and balances that we all learn about in third grade and then touch upon again in middle school and then spend maybe a week on in high school, but with republicans controlling all three branches of government, face it - there are no checks and balances.  The last time all three were controlled by the republicans was after the 2000 election, when Bush took office in 2001.  We were left with a financial crisis and a global economic meltdown that was comparable only to the Great Depression.

 A Trump presidency scares me not only because of his and his VP’s comments and viewpoints on LGBT+ people, people like me and like a good portion of my friends, but because of his statements about Muslim people (including wanting to establish a "database" of all Muslims currently living in the US), the fact that he openly mocked a reporter who had a disability and kicked a child with cerebral palsy out of one of his rallies, the fact the he barely supports paid family leave (he's for six weeks, despite the fact that the twelve weeks is allotted by national law and the ideal amount of time is actually forty weeks) and even went as far to call women needing time off to care for their newborn children an “inconvenience” to employers.

I worry about what life will be like under his presidency. I worry about my uncle, who moved here from Pakistan and who did legally become a US citizen. I worry that his family may not be able to visit him or he may not be able to visit them. I worry about my two cousins and their safety. I worry about my cousin, and his safety on his college campus. I worry about my aunt, who has done nothing, but I’m sure is seen by Trump’s supporters as just as “bad” as my uncle and cousins - because she married a Muslim and had two kids with him. I worry about bigots coming out of the rocks they live under, fueled by the “support” of the president elect, committing hate crimes against my family.  Over fifty-nine million people voted for Trump and the hateful rhetoric he spreads.  That's fifty-nine million people who believe his racist, Islamophobic lies.  Fifty-nine million people who are okay with the way he speaks about Muslim people, who don't raise an eyebrow when there are news stories about mosques having been burned, who don't care that children are bullied for embracing their heritage, who don't care that there are Muslim women in the US who are now afraid to wear the hijab out of fear for what will happen to them.

I worry about myself, my girlfriend, my friends, and the people I know who are gay or trans*. I worry about our safety. I worry if those who are married will be able to stay married if marriage equality is overturned. I worry about the fact that if it is, I might never get to get married.  I don't even know at this point in my life if marriage is something I want, but I want it to be an option, just like it is for people who fall in love with the opposite gender. I worry about the next generation of LGBT+ kids. I’m scared, knowing what they are going to grow up seeing. I’m scared that conversion therapy could become legal again in the states where it is currently illegal, as a “cure” for homosexuality.  The fact that we are going to have a vice president who would torture young people into "straightness" is sickening.  Conversion therapy often leads kids to "depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and suicide."  With a Trump presidency, we are going to have a vice president who would rather see dead kids than gay ones.  I am so, so scared that we’ll see suicide rates for LGBT+ people, which are already higher than those of straight people, skyrocket.

I worry about women and what our future holds. I worry about the fact that a large number of Trump’s supporters trended the hashtag #repealthe19th because despite the fact that they can’t take away our right to vote, the fact that so many would is terrifying. I worry about women who become pregnant and who don’t want a child- if Trump makes abortions illegal, it won’t eliminate abortions, it will eliminate SAFE abortions.  I worry because it isn't hard to see that Trump doesn't believe women are equal to men.

I worry about the children who will grow up seeing this man on television. I worry about how much hate they will grow up seeing, and thinking is okay. I worry about the kids who have parents or siblings who are LGBT+ and the things they will see those family members suffer from. And about kids who are a race other than white, they all deserve to grow up and feel safe in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods, but how can they when we as a country chose the most racist person in the running to win?  I worry about the girls growing up hearing his comments on what a woman's body "should" look like, about the girls growing up thinking it's okay for boys to "grab them by the pu**y" and the boys growing up think it's okay to talk like that, growing up thinking it's "just locker room talk."  I worry about the kids who are going to grow up knowing that Trump called their fathers or uncles or grandfathers criminals or rapists simply because of their race.

I am scared about the future of this country. I am angry that this man won the election. I'm just in shock.  I can't believe this really happened.