And so we wait. As a handful of states continue counting ballots, with results likely to be challenged, you may well share my sense of disappointment and anxiety. Disappointment that America did not ringingly reject a president so inimical to truth, justice, and decency – and nearly everything that Horizons Foundation stands for. 

Anxiety for reasons too obvious to state. 

Waiting is hard. Waiting can also make us feel powerless – as though there is nothing we can do. It’s true that we can’t go out and vote or volunteer or give money now that will affect any outcomes. The votes have been cast.

But it’s not true that we are powerless. Even as we wait, there is power in community – in our community. There’s power in our commitment to the work that we know must continue whoever resides in the White House. There’s power in our resistance. There’s power in our voice.

There is power – enduring and inspiring power – in the vision we hold up even when the going is the roughest, when anxiety runs highest, when we may feel that matters are beyond our control. That vision of a world in which all people -including every single LGBTQ person – can live freely and fully; a world where Black Lives Matter; a world where women are truly equal; where people’s access to health care, housing, and vital services are assured – that vision will never lose its power. 

And even as we wait, let’s celebrate the victories we can already count. Last night, America elected the first Black LGBTQ members of Congress, one of whom is the first Afro-Latinx LGBTQ member of Congress, and the first openly transgender state senator, among others. Here in California, voters restored parolees’ right to vote: a major win for justice.

Finally, Horizons Foundation is right here with you - with you in this anxiety-filled waiting, with you in holding fast to our vision of a just world, and with you in the power that we will always have, together. 

On Thursday, November 12 at 5:00 - 6:15 p.m. PT, Horizons will convene a virtual dialogue with preeminent leaders of the LGBTQ movement to discuss where we go from here. I invite you to join the State of the LGBTQ Movement – you can register today.