It’s been a week since America elected Donald Trump as its next president, but many in the LGBTQ+ community remain disappointed. Nearly 90% of LGBTQ voters voted for Kamala Harris, according to an NBC News exit poll.
Ashley Marie Preston is an LGBTQ+ activist and community leader. She balances disappointment with motivation to create a better future.
“At this moment, we just have to keep moving forward,” Preston said. “I wanted to bring people back from the depths of despair, and the truth is that that’s part of how you build a revolution.”
Preston is also a trans woman. Transgender people were one of the groups often targeted by the Trump campaign. At one point during the campaign, President Trump said, “We’re not going to change the gender of your child because of all the transgender craze.”
“They’re clearly targeting transgender people,” Preston said. “They have to find a scapegoat. It’s a very small community that doesn’t have the power or the ability or the resources to advocate for itself and uses that as a distraction.”
Since Trump’s victory, LGBT groups say their crisis hotlines have been flooded with calls. The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention group, reported a 700% increase in calls to crisis services the day after the election.
The LA LGBT Center shared similar news.
“Here at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, we are seeing an increase in demand for our services, and the highest demand service is mental health support,” said LA LGBT Center CEO Joe Hollendner. “I think people are understandably scared about what the future holds for our community.”
Hollendner has this message for those he serves:
“Here at the LA LGBT Center, we have fought for the rights and freedoms of our community for the past 55 years, and we will continue to do so in the face of the attacks that President Trump may seek to use against our community. ‘I’m going to continue to do that,”’ he said.
But not everyone in the community is disappointed by Trump’s victory.
“We’re basically excited for the next four years,” Jake Iorio said.
Iorio is the president of the Los Angeles chapter of Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest LGBT conservative group.
“Basically, we have the most inclusive president in Donald Trump,” Iorio said. “Despite opposition from social conservatives, he was able to remove opposition to same-sex marriage from the RNC platform. He has also included LGBTQ people in past administrations, and he has included LGBTQ people in the current administration. We’re going to include people.”
As for Preston, even though his candidate lost, he doesn’t feel defeated.
“Yes, we can be upset, we can be frustrated, we can be afraid, we can be anxious, but we can still think about what the next step is,” Preston said. . “I think we really have an opportunity to think of this as a transit to a more desirable destination that truly values dignity, safety and access for all Americans.”
