I remember 2016 pretty well. I was 10 years old and I remember seeing ads for a woman running for president. Plainly, I was so excited. My parents let me stay up late to watch the election because I was so excited. As I lay on the couch, watching the states turn from pink to a deep red, I asked my dad if he voted for the girl and he paused before telling me he didn’t.
Eight years later and 3,000 miles away, I asked my father the same question. The very same man ran against another woman and I had to know how he voted. This year, he could finally tell me he voted for the girl.
As a nation, we were on the cusp of following through with the promise every little girl was told in elementary school: that anyone can become president, even us. But, it must be hard to keep saying that if it’s not reflected in our history. We could have made history as a nation but instead, we reelected a man who has already held office. Instead, we reinforced the idea to girls that the phrase that ‘they can be anything’ came with the terms and conditions that it can’t be the same thing a man wants to be.
This was the first election I could vote in and I was so proud. I’d been looking forward to it since the beginning of the year when my AP Government teacher spent a whole class showing us how to register to vote. The AP test was months away and we could have spent the hour practicing but she felt our voting was more important.
Despite the outcome being far from what I expected, I’m still proud. My civic duty has been done, a privilege that I am aware not everyone has access to. I can be disappointed and still acknowledge that this is how democracy works. We vote and we elect and things won’t always go my way. I made my voice heard and that’s all I can really do.
Coming from one blue state to another, I can sleep with the knowledge that I will be okay. I am a cis, straight, white woman. My access to birth control will never be taken away from me in California or Massachusetts. I will never lose my ability to have an abortion if I need one, in either state.
But, I didn’t vote just for me. It wasn’t for the women in my life, the LGBTQ+ members in my life. I didn’t vote for them because we live in blue states. California and Massachusetts will continue to have our best interests at heart. So, my mind wasn’t on them when I placed my ballot in the mail.
I voted in the interest of LGBTQ+ members in Southern states. My vote was a vote to return a voice to minorities. I cast my vote to protect women in red states. My vote was even for the woman who voted against me. The right to choose does not stop at party lines.
They are ever-present in my mind as I feel as though I’ve failed them. Women all over the nation will be impacted and I will have to watch from my protected states. My empathic heart goes out to them.
