I cried like a girl.

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday June 08, 2016 · 9:49 PM PDT

2016/06/08 · 21:49

I cried like a girl.

I cried like a girl who, for the first time in more than two hundred years, woke up to a country that did more than just say that a woman has the right, the ability and the experience to run for the highest office in our land. I cried because it’s no longer just words and empty platitudes. It’s reality. She is there. She can run like a girl, fight like a girl and, I have no doubt, win like a girl.

I cried like my father, a lifelong Democrat, who worked his entire life to see the barriers that divide us be torn down and discarded. He wanted nothing more than to vote for Hillary, but he passed away two days before our state’s primary in 2008. He voted for every Democrat from FDR to John Kerry. (She won the first battle, Dad!)

I cried like my mother, a woman not far apart in age from Hillary, who witnessed something she never thought she’d see. I cried when I saw the fear and uncertainty in her eyes, that someone was going to try to deny this woman the thing she had worked, sweat and struggled for. That she would be denied the thing that she was not given, but the thing that she earned. I cried because that fear didn’t just appear. It was a fear she had lived, and she couldn’t bear to see it happen to another woman.

Then, I cried like myself.

I cried for eight years worth of work, of knocking on doors and calling strangers and begging them to vote. I cried for everyone of us who has gotten knocked down but refuses to stay knocked out. I cried for the fighters, the activists, for the people who do the unsexy work of shattering glass ceilings and ripping up sticky floors. I cried for the people who came before me, the gay rights pioneers who refused to accept that there was something “wrong” with us. That were were not deserving of the same rights as a straight person. I cried for the work we’ve done, and the work we have yet to achieve.

But then something happened.

I laughed.

I laughed that Donald Trump has all of us to answer to. His reckoning will come at the hands of the thing that he and his small handed and small minded ilk fear most: a multicolored, multigendered, multisexuality, and multicultural quiltbag of people.

He will answer to men who refuse to live in a country in which their daughters are not afforded the same rights as their sons. He will answer to women who refuse to allow hatred to divide us, when there is so much more that unites us. He will answer to Christians who say in a loud voice that he does not get to determine what religions are acceptable in this country. He will answer to straight allies, who happily march, with LGBT people to fight for the right of a transgender woman to use whatever bathroom she wants. He will answer to African and Asian Americans who stand side-by-side with our proud Latino/a Americans when we say “Basta!” to your bigotry. I laughed when I realized his wall was going to be turned into a ladder to better jobs, a secure retirement, and more affordable healthcare. I laughed when I realized each of us has the opportunity and obligation to deny this bigot another minute in the spotlight. And make no mistake, he will be denied. Because we will win. We have to.

And then I cried like a girl again.

Why this Millennial Supports Sec. Clinton

adam387

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday March 23, 2016 · 11:05 PM PDT

2016/03/23 · 23:05

While I’ve been a lurker on Daily Kos for years, I’ve always been too afraid to jump into the pool and post a blog. But, I’m so excited by this election, I wanted to take the time to make my introduction.

I’m a 20 something gay man who is working his butt off to make sure that Hillary Clinton is our nominee. I was a supporter of hers in 2008, knocking on doors, making phone calls and pretty much annoying anyone and everyone I could find. I did this because of my dad.

I was a late in life baby, born when my dad was already in his 60s. A child of the depression, and a life long Democrat, he forced me to go with him to campaign events, to knock on doors, to stand with the unions and to watch him like a hawk in the ballot booth. To him, FDR could walk on water, and he’d happily tell you stories about how the New Deal saved his family from starvation.

He taught me things. The value of exercising your right to vote. Of fighting for the people who need your help. Of standing up to racism, sexism and homophobia every time it rears its ugly head. He told me to never, ever refuse to get back up when something or someone puts you down. Fight for what you believe in and what can make the party and the country better.

In 2008, he, like a lot of us, was torn. While he liked then Senator Obama, and he digested every bit of news he could going up to the primaries, he also adored Senator Clinton. He would tell me, over and over, how he’d never seen someone so intelligent, so qualified and so ready to lead the country. He wanted to vote for her more than anything else.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get that opportunity. He passed away days before the primary. So, this year, in memory of him, I worked my butt off to deliver Ohio to Hillary. Every phone call, every person I helped get to the poll, every time I opened my mouth to explain why I support Sec. Clinton was done in memory of him. To show him that, yes, the next generation of Democrats is willing and able to do the grunt work necessary to elect, not just a President, but Congress people, Senators, Representatives and Governors.

Hillary reminds me of my dad. Hard working people, who have been knocked down and knocked around. But they always, always get back up, get to the business of working to make the Party and the country better. They’re not perfect, none of us are, but their pragmatism and practicality is inspiring to me.

RSS