When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. My mom was a die-hard Baltimore Colts fan. I don’t know if I ever confessed that I admired another team’s cheerleaders (smile). I think they were just talked about so much that it brought my attention to them. If I close my eyes, I can still see their uniforms and sparkly pom poms.

When that phase passed, I aspired to be one of Charlie’s Angels. I wanted to fight crime just like them. I also desperately wanted hair like Jaclyn Smith (smile). She had brown hair like me and I strived for many years to achieve her look.

As I got older and thought more seriously about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I did think about being a teacher. I had some old school text books and during the summer months my friends and I would “play” school. We took turns being the teacher and students. I’m pretty sure we roped my sister and younger cousins into being students from time to time as well. My favorite teacher was my Miss Smith, my 4th grade teacher. One of the assignments she gave that I loved was taking our spelling words and making up stories with them. She would always give us silly or interesting themes that we would have to build our stories around.

There were many adults that I looked up to as a kid. Some fictional, but most of them real people. I can’t say that I ever noticed the president, but I would say that is an office that should be occupied by someone that kids, and adults for that matter, can look up to. I would say that kids today hear way more than I did back then due to our constant news sources and social media. Quite frankly, it’s hard to get away from it.

I keep seeing social media posts making fun of people being upset about the election results. I’ve had family question me because I’ve made it clear I’m not happy about who won. This post is an attempt to answer the question…

Why am I upset about the election results? I think I need to start with why I didn’t vote for the person who won. There was talk way back in I believe the early 2000’s about him running for president. At the time, he said he wasn’t interested, but it piqued my curiosity. I thought…how interesting…a businessman for president. I thought…why not? So I did some research.

I was disappointed to learn that he did not respect his first marriage.
I saw interviews where he talked about his daughters in ways that were disturbing to me. He spoke about them in a way I feel was inappropriate for a dad to talk about them.
When I looked into the way he ran his businesses, I did not respect the way he ran them. I found that he cheated many people out of A LOT of money.
Then I watched Celebrity Apprentice. I liked that version because they worked with all kinds of different charities. I stopped watching, however, because I could not stomach the way he treated the women contestants.
Fast forward many years and he did run for president. I thought people change let me see what he is about now. We all know about the hot mic moment when he bragged about how he treats women.

I can go on and on, but I don’t want to harp on the things we already know. Things that his supporters said are jokes or hyperbole during his campaigning. I don’t believe this as he has shown me who he is over and over again. But the number one reason why I didn’t vote for him is something my mom taught me. My intuition. My mom told me to listen to my gut. When I see him, everything inside of me says “Run!” And I’m not trying to be funny.

But this is just me. You don’t have to agree with me. Other people listen to him and they see and hear a great man. Personally…I don’t get it. I hear divisiveness and personal attacks. This is America though and we are allowed to have our opinions and our beliefs. This is not the first time that someone I voted for lost an election. Why is this time different?

I believe there is a plan in place to try to take away the rights of my son and a community that I love. It’s called Project 2025. Now when asked, he said he didn’t know anything about it. I saw an interview with him before I even heard about Project 2025. Honestly, I’m not sure if it existed yet. But in an interview, when asked if he ran again for president what would he do differently. What would he do to get done what he couldn’t get done the first time? He mentioned that they didn’t have enough time to prepare. He said there were people who needed to be in certain positions to help things happen. He said there are people working on a plan so that this time they would be ready. He mentioned that the people working on the plan were from the Heritage Foundation (HF). Now we have this document known as Project 2025. This project was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation along with other conservative groups. When he says he doesn’t know anything about it, I simply don’t believe him.

I’m not going to list here what this project says about the LGBTQ+ community. You can do a simple google search to find it. It’s not surprising that since this comes from a conservative group that it is going after the LGBTQ+ community. These groups tend to think that the community is damaging the family. They are especially targeting transgender people.

Here’s the rub for me…other than I believe everyone should have equal rights of course. When we talk about these things, they are not issues. They are human beings. They are living their lives just like us straight people. If my son gets married, it will have zero effect on you and your family. None. “But the kids. What about the kids? Doesn’t it confuse them?” I will give my friend’s granddaughter as just one example. It was about two weeks before she turned four years old. She was at the playground with her dad and one of her dad’s female co-workers. They had a playdate set up for their kids. When they were finished playing and it was time to go home, my friend’s granddaughter asked her dad why wasn’t her friend’s daddy there. He simply said, “She doesn’t have a daddy. She has two moms.” She looked at her dad and said, “I want two moms! I’m going to ask for one for my birthday.” He thought, “Thanks kid!” (smile). That was it.

Being involved in the different organizations over the past 15 years has given me the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. Many of them are transgender people or parents of transgender kids. I have known some of these kids since they were little four year old preschoolers, middle schoolers, and young adults. They have been allowed to be themselves and have blossomed into beautiful high schoolers, college students, and older young adults. They go to homecoming dances, study to be what they’ve wanted to be when they grew up, and work just like the rest of us. They are living their lives and it has absolutely no effect on yours. If a child comes to a parent and tells them they are not the gender their parent believes them to be, there are so many things that go into figuring that out. They don’t march them to the nearest hospital and chop off body parts. It’s not happening. And it certainly isn’t happening while they are in school. Could it confuse a child that sees this happen to someone they know? I suppose it could. That’s why we discuss these things. It’s why doctors are involved. These kids and adults for that matter have been used as pawns to scare people into voting a particular way and honestly it makes me sick.

Look, I know that there isn’t one perfect politician. Not one. And because we are human, they have all made mistakes. Every one of them. But I want someone that has the highest ranking position in our country to be someone that if I had grandkids they could look up to. I would want my grandkids to be kind and loving people. I get that you have to be tough to get things done sometimes. I’m not saying that our leaders need to sit around and have kumbaya moments every day. What I do believe is a leader can be strong and direct and get things done without demonizing other people, attacking their looks, threatening to beat them up, etc. Someone that doesn’t have to create an enemy to get ahead or a vote. Someone that builds others up and not tear them down. I would like a leader running for office to say these are the issues I see that need to improve and here is what I plan to do about it. Period. This is important to me because as a leader they have people that follow and look up to them. If they behave in an unkind way, it gives people permission to do the same.

I refuse to lose hope in all of this. I think we are going to go down a tough road. I will fight for my kid and all the kids and adults I’ve met along the way. And if you are thinking…Lesa you are wrong about Project 2025. I would like nothing more than to be wrong about this administration coming after the LGBTQ+ community. I would celebrate being wrong on that all day long. And I would say to you in return…I’m glad you are so confident about something that has no effect on your life.

Where do we go from here? I really don’t know. In a lot of ways, we have to wait and see what happens. As we continue to process remember that you are loved…and it matters. And YOU matter.

If you are struggling with the outcome of the election, reach out. There is help out there.