He attended a city hall meeting and sat earnestly listening, thoughtfully engaging, and encouraging those around him to see that he and other gay youth are not all that bad.
He sat through hours of the kind of shockingly hateful ignorance that shakes a person’s belief in the capacity of people to see each other as human in spite of differences.
A week later his parents were planning his funeral.

I stayed awake the night before last trying to put into words what it’s like to grow up in a society that’s convinced you are evil and that has you almost convinced as well.
Words fail me.
But if we’re hoping that things will get so bad under a Trump presidency that we’ll bring the revolution we should first do an inventory of who we’re leaving on the front lines of that hate and ask them if they’re willing to make that sacrifice.

I’m not a single issue voter. I’m not voting only because my rights as a gay person are on the line in this election. I’m also voting because American Muslims, American Mexicans, people of color, and the poor are being demonized and blamed for any struggle they face. I’m voting because stop and frisk policing puts our officers in unnecessary danger and demeans the lives of people of color. I’m voting because I love our veterans and I abhor the congress members who have blocked their access to care at every turn. I’m voting because women’s rights are human rights. I’m voting for universal healthcare, affordable college, a better economy, environmental protections, and because Trumps nihilism is not just in conflict with the Christian values I was taught as a child but they are in fact the polar opposite of those values.

I’m not a single issue voter. This is not a single issue election. But every single issue in this election, and every person it affects, is too important to walk out on.

#ImWithHer #StandUpForYourFriends #YourFriendsWillRemember