Watch: President Obama Delivers Pointedly Feminist Speech At United State Of Women Summit

You are going to run this country, and this world, very soon. So you will not listen to this man, or the 75-year-old, doughy-faced, gray-haired nightmare men like him, when they try to tell you where to stand or how to behave or what you can and cannot do with your own bodies, or what you should or should not think with your own minds. You will not be cowed or discouraged by his stream of retrogressive babble. You won’t have time to be cowed, because you will be too busy working and learning and communing with other girls and women like you, and when the time comes you will effortlessly flick away his miserable, petty misogynistic worldview like a fly on your picnic potato salad. He is the present, sadly, but he is not the future. You are the future. Your strength is a million times his. Your power is a billion times his. We will acknowledge this result, but we will not accept it. We will overcome it, and we will defeat it. Now find your team, and get to work.

‘Parks and Recreation’: Leslie Knope Writes Letter to America Following Donald Trump’s Victory (via Yahoo)

Today, Wednesday, November 9, 2016, is my 18th birthday. The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was check the news. It was despairing. The United States of American had the opportunity to elect as the 45th president, a woman, for the first time in our country’s history, and we failed. Instead of crying over the news of an alleged sexual assaulter, chauvinist, sexist, homophobic, and racist person winning this election, I could have been crying tears of joy, that on my 18th birthday, the first female president was elected in the United States. That would have made me so proud of the country I love.

But that was not the world I woke up to. It was hard enough knowing that I missed being able to vote by a single day, but to have our country’s values skewed in such a way that we take steps backward in progress, and after the first African American president was elected, is terrifying.

I refuse to fear Donald Trump. He seems to thrive off of lies and hatred in order to further a personal agenda for power and money, and he represents everything I hate. What is really worrisome is what he represents. The fact that so many people have been convinced of his lies, empty promises, and regressive ideas that go against the true values of freedom and democracy that America is supposed to represent shows that we still have so much work to do.

I respect and love this country enough that I decided to study law and possibly devote a career to representing and fighting for the rights of the people of the United States. I believe we can do better, but I also know that it is much easier to succumb to fear than togetherness. Turmoil in the United States and across the world has always been there, but we have to decide how we react to those situations: with impulsive hostility or with measured foresight.

America has made an irreversible mistake, and though these words are nothing new to the ears of American citizens, they are essential to keep in mind. Law and government are supposed to represent change, our values, progress, and our democratic standard. If our government does not represent us, is not treating us in the way we deserve, it is in our hands to make that change. Bad laws are brought into being, but if they do not reflect us and the health of our society, we have the right to challenge them. Laws are malleable, not stagnant, and ever changing with progress. Never forget that our government works for the people, not for themselves. They represent all of us, not just a few. Regardless of personal beliefs and party affiliation, legislators’ responsibility is to represent everyone. 

I encourage everyone, especially young people, to not be passive and apathetic about politics and government because it is in our hands to decide change. If you claim that politics is unsavory, it is your job to fix it. Get involved, spread love, and stand strong in your beliefs because they belong to you and no one has the right to take them away.

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.

Words to live by. 

small reminder that if trump ever abuses his power we have the legitimate constitutional right to overthrow the government

I’m gonna outlive donald trump i dont care how long i have to wait i wanna live in a world where he doesnt exist and I dont have to hear or see him 

Spite, fuel me

im not goin anywhere

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To those of you despairing because of Trump's success in your area

What you are seeing is not being surrounded by a majority who hate you.

It’s not a room full of 10 people where 6 enthusiastically support Trump.

It’s a room where 1 enthusiastically supports Trump, 2 always vote Republican regardless because they’re party loyalists or single-issue voters, 1 who is refusing to vote because Bernie didn’t get nominated, 1 who hates Trump as a person but believes conspiracy theories about Hillary and thinks the Republicans can hold him in check or he’ll be impeached anyway, 1 who is voting third party, 1 who refuses to vote because they hate the whole system, 2 who are enthusiastically supporting Hillary, and 1 who is voting Hillary because fuck Trump.

And yes, that means 3 for her, 4 for him, and 3 cowardly fuckers who could have tipped it easily. But it also means only 1 person in that room who actually wishes you harm and 9 who, votes aside, will have your back. 9 who are the reason we have marriage equality and have come so, so, so far in the last 15 years that it’s unbelievable. Not to mention that even people who hate and fear in the abstract or about groups very very often feel differently about those they know as humans. “I hate Muslims and gays! Well, except Mohammed at work and Craig and Harry next door, but they’re just good people, even if I don’t agree with them.”

Do not despair. This country is a lot less fucked than this election makes it look, and people as a whole are always kinder than you fear.

There are three things to remember tonight

1) There are 70 days until Donald Trump’s Inauguration. 70 days left of Obama as our President. There’s time. You can breathe.

2) There are Checks and Balances in the way our Government is run specifically to prevent a Dictatorship. While Donald Trump will soon be given a lot of power, it may not be as much as you think. He can’t change anything he wants at the drop of a hat, and he definitely can’t overturn any legislation previously deemed Unconstitutional. This includes Same Sex Marriage and other things. 

Unless he can come up with a new, strong case against it (and the man can barely read, so, doubtful), that won’t stop being a thing. Many other things won’t stop being things the minute he sits in that chair. There’s time. You can breathe.

3) You are worth 100 of Donald Trump. He is a weak, pathetic little man who can only get what he wants by bullying or throwing money at it. Don’t let him take away the freedoms and rights that your predecessors fought tooth and nail for. You can still fight against him by voting in every upcoming local, state, or senate election you can over the next 4 years. By rallying and spreading the word and growing your own politics. 

Don’t give up because the Boogeyman is President. You still have a big, glorious life to live full of new and fantastic experiences and feelings ahead of you. It doesn’t end here. You’re stronger than him. You can outlast this.

To the young people in particular, I hope you will hear this. I have spent my entire adult life fighting for what I believe in. I have had successes and also set backs. Sometimes really painful ones. (..) This loss hurts, but please, never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.

Hillary Clinton, in her concession speech a few minutes ago. (via taylor-svift)