On Nov. 7, the Los Angeles LGBT Center hosted a post-election community space to process the results of the 2024 presidential election and the return of Donald Trump to the White House.
“Yesterday, the majority of voters in this country re-elected the most dangerous president to ever occupy the White House,” said CEO Joe Hollendoner in his opening remarks. “A man who, during his first term, made countless attacks on the rights of LGBTQ+ people, installed an activist Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, and incited an insurrection that sought to overturn our democracy.”
The gathering welcomed more than 100 guests from the Center community, including staff, clients, and supporters of the organization. U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove, who represents much of South LA including Center South, was in attendance to share her reactions and plans for the future.
“We don’t have a lot of time to sit around and breathe,” Kamlanger-Dove said. “We have to do that while we plan.”
Hollendoner and Kamlanger-Dove both pointed to positive outcomes in down-ballot races as signals of hope. Measure A, which funds homelessness and housing services in LA County, appears likely to pass, and Californians voted overwhelmingly in favor of enshrining marriage equality in the state Constitution.
“I actually do believe that if you decouple the economy and national security from rights and freedoms, the American people are really focused on doing the right thing,” said Kamlanger-Dove. “And we did see that play out in a couple of states.”
Kamlanger-Dove sat down with the Center’s Director of Policy and Community Building, Joey Espinoza-Hernández, to discuss everything from her reactions to local results to how supporters of LGBTQ+ rights can activate in the years to come.
“We have to find our power,” she said. “We have to brace ourselves for what is to come next. We have to center ourselves in our power groups. We have to be unapologetic about being inspired. We have to redefine what civility means for us in 2024. We have to be okay with calling people out.”
We have moved mountains before, and we can continue to do so.
U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove
She went on to highlight organizations like the Center as an example of how our communities can show up in defense of one another as the second Trump administration begins: “The economy was what drove people to the polls. Helping people put food on their table, clothes on their backs, shelter that is sustainable, a little extra coin in their bank account—you are addressing poverty. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about all of these organizations that are doing their part to address poverty so that folks can live a dignified life. That is powerful.”
“We will get through this,” she continued. “Because he is not stronger than everybody in this room. He is not. And we have moved mountains before, and we can continue to do so.”
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