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Statement from Mara Keisling on the Election of Donald Trump

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Yesterday, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. Transgender people and those who love us are understandably gravely concerned about what this election will mean for our families, our communities, our children, and our country.
 
On the campaign trail, President-elect Trump has been more divisive than any candidate in our lifetimes. He has denigrated immigrants, people of color, women, Muslims, disabled people, survivors of sexual assault, journalists, and those who disagree with him. He has painted himself as a defender of those struggling economically while advocating policies that would only lock them into poverty.
 
Vice President-elect Pence has made clear during his tenure as the governor of Indiana that he is completely opposed to the liberty of LGBT people. Vice President-elect Pence has made clear that President-elect Trump will roll back recent LGBT equality gains. Yet at the same time, President-elect Trump recently posed on stage with a rainbow flag, and in his victory speech last night, he pledged to be ‘president for all Americans.’ It is now our job to make sure he lives up to that promise.
 
Let me say what it would mean to live up to that. It would mean keeping in place the federal policy changes that have advanced the lives of transgender people. It would mean being on the side of trans children in their hopes of just going to school like other kids. It would mean speaking up for us as President Obama has in our ongoing conversation with America. And make no mistake: it would mean being anti-racist, pro-immigrant, pro-woman, pro-Muslim, pro-disability rights, and pro-worker. Trans people are all of these kinds of people. We are all these people he has denigrated.
 
There is no doubt that we are facing difficult times, and there are many questions about what comes next. This is how we will get through them.
 
We will do everything we can to take care of each other and keep each other safe, especially those among us who are most vulnerable. We will continue to build up our communities and strengthen the ties we have with other marginalized communities. We will continue to show the nation who we are and continue working towards the day when trans people and other people are not feared or hated. 
 
We will try as hard as we can to work with the Trump administration, and all individuals, regardless of who they voted for, to build support for a more inclusive vision of society.
 
And to be clear, we will continue to fight. Over the last two decades, we have made faster progress than any movement in American history. The progress has come through supportive and unsupportive presidents because we always fight. Transgender people will fight to show the people in their lives who we are. We will fight to show America who we are. We will fight to protect our children. We will fight against attacks on any community. We will fight to advance justice, and we will fight hard to defend every single advance we have made. We simply will not stop fighting.

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