Words To Live By. 

“I first ran for Congress in 1999, and I got beat. I just got whooped. I had been in the state legislature for a long time, I was in the minority party, I wasn’t getting a lot done, and I was away from my family and putting a lot of strain on Michelle. Then for me to run and lose that bad, I was thinking maybe this isn’t what I was cut out to do. I was forty years old, and I’d invested a lot of time and effort into something that didn’t seem to be working. But the thing that got me through that moment, and any other time that I’ve felt stuck, is to remind myself that it’s about the work. Because if you’re worrying about yourself—if you’re thinking: ‘Am I succeeding? Am I in the right position? Am I being appreciated?’ – then you’re going to end up feeling frustrated and stuck. But if you can keep it about the work, you’ll always have a path. There’s always something to be done.” (Humans of New York)

I know there are a lot of people terrified of a Trump presidency for a lot of reasons, but some of the most vibrant horror I’m seeing is coming from young queer people. These people were in middle school or grade school when Obama was first elected, when Glee came on with its revolutionary act of portraying a blatantly Disney-saccharine gay love story. RuPaul and Ellen are huge tv stars, Sulu owns Facebook. RENT is a musical theatre standby performed in high schools. Marriage equality and bathrooms have been their biggest fights. So this? Looks like the apocalypse.

It’s not. Within my lifetime, a president laughed at hundreds of thousands of people dying of AIDS. Within my lifetime, that was a death sentence, not a footnote on a Grindr profile. Within my lifetime, “transsexuals” only existed as cruel punchlines. The only trans guy I had even heard of at 19 was from a movie about him being murdered. Ellen was a pariah who had lost her show for coming out. Being gay was career suicide if you were anything but a hairdresser. It was automatic dishonorable discharge from the military.

This is not saying Trump couldn’t undo a lot of that. But not all of it. And even if, EVEN IF he did? Queer people survived. Flourished. Got to where it is now. And where it is now includes a younger generation who will not go back, and in another 20 years, will be the CEOs, the senators, the governors, the president.

If you don’t give up.

Don’t you fucking dare give up.

We are stronger together and will go forward together. And you should never, ever regret fighting for that. Let us have faith in each other. Let us not grow weary. Let us not lose heart. For there are more seasons to come and… more work to do.

Hillary Clinton (via nomatterwhatuniverse)

what do we do tho? like, honestly? what happens if he’s elected? what do we honest to god do?

wait what about mike pence and conversion camps?

here, from politifact

Newsom, a prominent LGBTQ rights supporter, said Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Pence “advocated for diverting taxpayer dollars to so-called conversion therapy.”

Conversion therapy is a controversial practice that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation from gay to straight. It’s banned in five states including California, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont and New Jersey.

When asked about the claim, Newsom’s spokesman pointed to Pence’s own words. During his first successful run for Congress in 2000, Pence wrote on his campaign website, under a section called Strengthening the American Family:

“Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.”

Also on the website, Pence wrote: “Congress should oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with heterosexual marriage.” And “Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexual’s [sic] as a ‘discreet [sic] and insular minority’ entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.”

Our research found no evidence Pence has walked back his stance on public funding for conversion therapy. His spokesman did not respond with information about Pence’s current position.

and in case you didnt know, conversion therapy is horrible for LGBT youth

listen.

even if trump wins, it doesn’t mean it’s over. congress will not let him do most of what he wants to do (i mean, a lot of it’s unconstitutional, lmao). even if they do, it will a take a long time, perhaps even bleeding over into the next president’s term (and i hope to god that next president is a democrat). so do not assume that everything he proposes will happen! and voting is not our only way to participate in the government. protest. lobby. fight. don’t just accept a trump victory. if he wins, we need to fight harder than ever. we can’t give up. we can mitigate the effects of a trump presidency, but we need to fight.

millennials are a powerful group. we can make our voices heard. i know it’s scary. but it’s more important than ever to fight. don’t give trump an easy victory. fight as hard as you can for the entire 4 years he might be president. and help each other, protect each other. lift up your head and fight together. it’s easy to be discouraged, but the fight is not over.

i’m scared, too. i’m scared for my life. and take the time you need to take a deep breath and get away from everything for a little while. but in the end, if trump wins, we cannot make that easy for him. people are making a trump presidency seem like doomsday right now, but congress, checks and balances, and the actions of people – like us – can stop most of it from happening. the only bad thing that is really guaranteed to happen under a trump presidency is the appointment of some conservative supreme court justices (but even then congress has to approve them).

so tl;dr: if trump wins, the fight is not over. take a deep breath and hold your head high. he cannot, and will not, do everything that he’s proposed. so keep fighting and don’t let him destroy everything we’ve worked for.

#NotMyPresident

choncegiving:

The electoral college does not vote until December 19th. We have 40 days.

What does this mean?

Right now, the presidential election results are only a PROJECTION of the election outcome. They are PRELIMINARY RESULTS. A candidate still needs to earn 270 electoral votes to win. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, which means that more than 50% of the voters wanted her for president. The electoral college shouldn’t guarantee an override of the public’s opinion– and it doesn’t have to.

There are 21 states that do NOT restrict which candidate the electors vote for. Out of these 21, Hillary lost the following:

As you can see, these states are worth 166 electoral votes. As it currently stands, Hillary Clinton is projected to receive 232 votes. Trump is projected to win 306. This means that 37 votes need to be taken away from Trump to bring him down to 269. Hillary Clinton needs 38 votes ADDED to win 270. These electoral voters can also abstain, which means that they can refuse to vote for either candidate. If 37 of the voters within these states abstain then no candidate will have reached the required 270. In this case, the vote would be taken to the House.

Trump won Pennsylvania, a state that typically votes blue, by less than 100,000 votes. While it is highly unlikely to get all 20 electoral voters to cross party lines and vote democrat, it also isn’t impossible to convince a few of them to be “faithless electors.” We only need to convince 38 out of the 166. That is 23%. There are SIXTEEN states we need to focus our attention on.

A move like this would be unprecedented. However, as we all saw on November 8th, odds don’t guarantee reality. Trump had a less than 20% winning, yet given the circumstances, enough people came together and made it happen. We can make this happen. 

Ask yourself this: What do we have left to lose? We can stay complacent and accept that this country will be run by a racist, sexist, islamophobic, homophobic, ablest bigot, or we can at least try. 

How?

SPREAD THE WORD. Trend #NotMyPresident to let people know that we do not accept being led by a man who does not care about our wellbeing. Email your professors, email the dean of your colleges. The last thing a university wants is negative press. Millenials can take a stand, but that doesn’t mean we have to be the only ones. Church-led events helped bring a lot of disillusioned voters to the polls. Spread the word in any way possible, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or even in person. Stage a peaceful protest. Hand out flyers. Let the people around you know that you don’t accept this man as your leader when he won’t even accept you as a citizen with your designated rights.

These 166 people need to face the consequences of electing this man. 

Do this for the people who couldn’t vote. Do this for the people who live in the very real fear of being deported. Do this for the people who will have to face the rise in hate crimes. Do this for the people who have a very real possibility of losing their rights. Do this for the people who will no longer afford necessities. 

“So What Do We Do Now?”

*pulls your face real close to mine* Listen. To. Me. 

You fucking fight

I’m not american, I can’t imagine how terrified those who are LGBT+, POC, Disabled, Female, Islamic, and any other minority of the US must feel right now, despite how scared I am myself. 

But you wake up tomorrow and you fight. You show that fucking orange dickbag that you will not go quietly. You will survive. You are smart, brave and important to your country no matter what anyone tries to tell you. 

You fight to keep yourself safe, you fight to make your voice heard, you fight for your future, you fight for those around you. 

This is not the end, this is the beginning of a long road ahead but I believe in you. 

Stay safe, look out for yourself, stay informed, and survive just to spite them. 

I love you all. Let me know what more I can do. 

“so what now?”

now? now we support the supporters. now we give time and money to organizations that fight the good fight on our behalf and that protect those who are vulnerable.

Planned Parenthood

American Civil Liberties Union (including immigrants rights)

Equality California (or the LGBTQ org in your state)

Southern Poverty Law Center

please share with me and others your top picks for where we can do good, so we can do more good together.

so what now? now we do what we can, where we can, because we can.

ithelpstodream:

Bill Clinton cheats on his wife. Impeach him. Trump proudly brags about sexual assault (and has cheated on his wives). Elect him.

Hillary oversaw the department of state while 4 people died in an embassy attack. Put her in jail. 2 Republicans were in office while over 200 people died in embassy attacks. No problem.

Immigrants don’t pay taxes. Round them up and kick them out. Trump doesn’t pay taxes. He’s a business genius.

Hillary’s foundation only spent 87% of their donations helping people. She’s a crook. Trumps foundation paid off his debts, bought sculptures of him, and made political donations to avoid investigations while using less than 5% of funds for charity (and he got shut down by NY State). So savvy… Put him in the white house.

Trump made 4 billion dollars in 40 years, when an index fund started at the same time with the same “small loans” he received would be worth $12 billion today… without a trail of bankruptcies, thousands of lawsuits and burned small business owners. He’s a real business whiz. Hillary took a loss of $700k. She’s a criminal.

Trump is the first candidate in the modern era not to release his tax returns, and took a billion dollar loss in 1 year. Genius.

Hillary takes responsibility for private email servers and apologizes. Not credible. Trump denies saying things (on the record) he actually said (on the record), he’s just telling it like it is.

Your arguments are thin. Your ignorance of reality is shocking. Your double-standards are offensive, and your willingness to blindly support him and recycle the rhetoric is absurd. Your opinion is not fact. Your memes are not news articles. And your hypocrisy is not a platform.

- Alex Schiller