Do you stand with me?

I feel safe tonight, safer than I’ve felt since the election results came in.

I feel safe because my boss stated directly and unequivocally that my job and my person are safe.

I feel safe because of my co-workers who have expressed their unwavering support for me and for the people in our community who stand to be negatively impacted by this new government.

I feel safe because of my friends who cried with me and embraced me Wednesday evening and spoke to me of my worth and value and declared that they will stand with me regardless of the changes in our society.

I feel safe because I live in a community that has chosen to value diversity, to exalt love over hatred, inclusion over exclusion.

But I still don’t feel like I am welcome in my own country. I don’t feel that I could travel around my country with the expectation that my rights and my personhood would be respected. I don’t feel safe from the new government of my country, because I do not believe that they are committed to upholding my civil, my human rights. Because I don’t fit their definition of an acceptable person. Because as an old acquaintance said bluntly to me, my lifestyle is shameful.

And even if I am feeling safe at the moment, my heart aches for my friends who still fear for their safety: for women in general, because we have a new leader who has said it’s okay to violate women’s bodies as a man; for people of color, against whom violence by those who are supposed to protect them will now be further legitimized; for my Latinx friends, especially those who fear that they or family members will be deported regardless of the fact that they contribute so much to this country; for my LGBTQ friends, many of whom do not enjoy the safety net that I have and against whom discrimination has become acceptable; for people who do not identify as Christian, and particularly those who are Muslim, who are labeled as potential terrorists simply because of their faith.

Many Trump supporters, including some acquaintances, will protest that they do not hate me. They do not hate minorities or immigrants, etc. And probably most of them don’t. I know my friends and understand that they are not hate-filled people. If they were, they wouldn’t be my friends. But they fail to understand how their vote for a man who used hatred and fear as a (sadly effective) campaign strategy has made it acceptable for those who do view people who are different with actual hatred and who act against them with violence, both physical and psychological. You have elected a candidate who has said heinous things about people from so many groups, basically against everyone but straight white men. And you cannot understand why we are afraid?

Some have protested that Trump didn’t say he hated all these groups, that it’s just the way the media has portrayed him. But his own words condemn him. His own actions condemn him. The plans he has for policies and legislative and executive action immediately upon taking office condemn him. This is not a man seeking to unite a diverse nation. This is a man who represents and acts on behalf of those who want to make America great by making it a country controlled by straight white people again.

People say I just need to get on with life. That I need to accept the results and stop protesting. But I will not stop protesting. I will oppose this immoral man with every fiber of my being as long as he is in office. I will give him no more respect than so many conservatives gave to President Obama, a man of far superior moral character, throughout his eight years in office. I acknowledge that Donald Trump was elected president, but I don’t respect him and I do not acknowledge him as having legitimacy. He is not my president. I respect this nation, but I do not respect a man who would turn this nation back to a darker past.

Above all I will oppose him by acting to stand together with those who will suffer from his government’s policies and actions. I will stand by the immigrants: undocumented or documented, refugees and economic immigrants, Muslim and Christian and Buddhist and atheist and any other flavor. I will stand with my fellow women as we face an erosion of our rights. I will stand with my LGBTQ brothers, sisters and gender fluid siblings. I will stand with those who find themselves in poverty because their government cut funding for the services that helped keep them out of it. I will actively demonstrate that love conquers hate, that the future of our society rests in embracing our diversity, in welcoming those who are not just like us, in standing with the marginalized, outcast and disadvantaged.

And if you voted for Trump but want to demonstrate that you do not support his message of fear and exclusion, of discrimination and hatred, then I challenge you to stand with me, not just in word but in deed, because otherwise your words will continue to ring empty and your assertions of love for us will ring untrue.