Breathe In. Breathe out.

Ok… hold on…. Here we go.  Breathe in. breathe out.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around last night.  I invited friends over to watch the election coverage –they brought champagne.  We planned on celebrating.  No one saw what happened last night coming.  He was not supposed to win.  We as a country were supposed to be better then that.  Here’s the thing, he was a Democrat his whole life, and he was friends with the Clintons.  He is a New Yorker –and more liberal then he let on.  He doesn’t want to be President. He wanted the title, and the attention, and to be honest what will most likely happen is that he will put people in place to run this country so he doesn’t have to.  At the end of the day we will be ok. There will be a lot to recover from, but it’ll be alright, or at least I hope.

Here’s why it’s upsetting though, and why it should upset you. He ran a campaign without ever really having a plan.  For all that time he was not ashamed of his blatant racism. He is a racist and he is sexist. These aren’t things people believe to be true about him –these are things we know to be true about him.  He picked a running mate that is anti the LGBTQ community.  In Indiana Pence advocated for public spending on conversion therapy, and has opposed marriage equality.  Pence voted against fair pay for women and minorities, and passed multiple bills to defund Planned Parenthood.  He will have a larger roll in Trumps administration then probably any VP to come before him.

We elected them into office.  America voted yesterday, and we said that in 2016 that we are still a country made up of racism and sexism and homophobes. We are filled with hate.  I cannot have a conversation with anyone right now that supports him.  If you tell me you voted for him because it was a vote against Hillary because she’s a criminal… that only tells me that you are okay with overlooking racism, sexism and homophobia.  She’s a criminal, but those things are ok.  That is what I hear.  This affects all of us.

I had an exchange last night on Facebook, with a friend, I should have shut social media down.  I reposted a picture that I’m sure many of you have seen by now, “IF YOU VOTE FOR TRUMP TODAY, make sure to explain to your lgbt+, female, black, lation/a, Muslim friends why they don’t matter to you.”  She replied, “How could you say I don’t care about my friends.”  I replied after too many glasses of Chardonnay.  I’m usually good at not doing that, but last night I was an emotional wreck.  Here’s why I take it personally, because for me it is.  Trumps racism –I take that personally because I am Hispanic.  His sexism, because I have a sister and females friends that I love and that don’t deserve that.  I don’t think Trump is homophobic… but Pence certainly is.

Listen, I live in Chicago, and I’ve never really experienced true racism or homophobia.  There’s some kid though in rural America who will live his life in fear because he is gay… he will be afraid to come out.  He will be afraid to be himself.  There is a family that is here illegally from Mexico now paranoid about being deported when they’re just here trying to do the best they can.  As a country, we should care about them.  I don’t care if you’re a Republican… without dissent there is no Democracy.  Last night wasn’t a Republican versus a Democrat –it was us, as a country, validating the terrible things that Donald Trump has said.  It was us, saying it’s okay to have a Vice President, that could very well become President, that is against my basic human rights as a gay man.  So last night, it felt personal, it felt like all those people that voted for him said… we don’t give a fuck.  We need to start caring more.  About each other.  We are here, in this, together… next time choose love, America…