Today is the day this country decides whether a competent person becomes the first female President of our great nation, or if a bunch of idiots put a dangerously-incompetent imbecile/racist/homophobe/asshole in charge of our nuclear weapons. The choice is clear to anyone with half a clue, but not so clear to those clouded by ignorance, anger or hatred.
In these past few weeks, I’ve had to step away from the political scene because it’s simply too frightening to think of a nation where Donald Trump is the Commander-in-Chief. Mostly, I’ve been concerned for what it means to me and my family. My niece and nephew, at the impressionable young age of six, will have a world irrevocably ruined for them if Trump comes into power. That is not a world I want for them. Their world should be open and accepting of difference, a world that values love and compassion over greed and selfishness. Their future should be one in which they strive for intelligence and grace, dignity and honor, not divisiveness or bullying brutality.
Of course, I must also think of myself and my own marriage. That was my main worry when Trump chose the virulently anti-gay Mike Pence as his running mate, and when the whole notion of the basic (and official) Republican platform was revealed, in which they propose gay conversion therapy and the overturning of marriage equality. That’s terrifying in itself, and the closer we inch toward the possibility of such hatred worming its way into the White House, the more upsetting it was for me.
Then I realized something: even if Trump were to become President of the United States, I’m lucky enough to not have my life ruined by it. Even if they strip us of our marriage, that won’t change the love between Andy and myself. We managed just fine for ten years before we got married, so it won’t really change a thing. That’s always been the underlying fact about those who fight against marriage equality, and why they will never win: they cannot stop our love. They can take away a certificate, they can take away our rights, they can do everything to treat us as less than them, but they can’t take away our love.
I’m also in a lucky position where the “policies” and tax-everyone-but-the-rich plans of Trump won’t send me into ruin. The same can’t be said of most of his supporters. They will be the ultimate victims of a con perpetrated by a man who already cheated countless people with his Trumped-up university, whose corporations declared bankruptcy four times, and who proudly proclaimed he liked to grab women “by the pussy” without their consent.
I know some people have a hard time considering a vote for Hillary Clinton, and I’ve never been her biggest fan either, but when you consider what’s at stake, when you think about who you want in control and command of the world’s most powerful nation and all its nuclear codes and secrets, that person is not Donald Trump.
It’s time. Make your choice.
