Eleven years of blogging about being a lesbian mom means I’m pretty much as out as can be—but this year, on National Coming Out Day, I’m thinking about the importance of being out during one of the most contentious U.S. election seasons ever.
In this last month before the election, then, I feel it is my responsibility to come out even more visibly about how my family would be affected by a Clinton versus a Trump presidency. I want to be out not only for my family, however, but also for those who do not feel they can be out yet, who still fear for their safety or job or community acceptance.
Presidential politics has always been part spectacle, but this year, more than most, it verges on the absurd. Amidst the name-calling, publicity stunts, and lewd remarks, however, is a cold truth: this election will have a definite impact on real families and our everyday lives.
It is perhaps no surprise that I am a Hillary Clinton supporter. Clinton has long championed women’s rights in the U.S. and around the world, including reproductive rights, economic fairness, and addressing violence against women. She understands the need for paid family leave and quality, affordable child care. She has become a strong supporter of LGBTQ rights as well. Among other things, her website talks specifically about issues related to LGBTQ youth and families, and says “Hillary will end so-called ‘conversion therapy’ for minors, combat youth homelessness by ensuring adequate funding for safe and welcoming shelters, and take on bullying and harassment in schools. She’ll end discriminatory treatment of LGBT families in adoptions, and protect LGBT elders against discrimination.”
No, she didn’t start out as a strong supporter of marriage equality, and her campaign clearly struggled with what to say on the matter, as leaked e-mails have shown—but while they struggled, Clinton came to a decision, and was both strong and humble enough to change her mind, “evolving” on the matter just as Barack Obama did.
She also understands how the systems of criminal justice, education, voting, immigration, and more intertwine to create barriers based on race, and will work to dismantle them. She supports stronger background checks and other measures to end the epidemic of gun violence that has taken so many lives. I also believe she is aware of the intersectional nature of our identities—both her page on racial justice and her page on LGBT equality, for example, mention the need to end violence against transgender women of color.
Compare her position and record to that of Donald Trump, who not only opposes most of those positions, but in some cases has worked or said he will work against them. At Sunday night’s debate, for example, he said he wished to appoint Supreme Court justices like Antonin Scalia. Scalia, you may recall, dissented in the landmark cases on sexual orientation and marriage equality, Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas, U.S. v. Windsor, and Obergefell v. Hodges, and urged striking down the reproductive rights decision Roe v. Wade.
As for Trump’s attitudes towards women, I won’t repeat them here since they’re all over the news. Suffice it to say they are degrading and disempowering. Throw in a bullying, narcissistic, petty personality, and you have a man whom I don’t want held up to my son (or anyone’s child) as an example of American leadership.
I hope that those of you who can be out will similarly talk with your neighbors, relatives, and friends about what the election means to you and your families. We might not change every person’s mind, but perhaps we can change enough to make a difference.