By Jackson Hare, Education and Enrichment Coordinator

After the election results declared Donald Trump as the next president of the United States, many Americans took to social media to encourage their followers, friends and family who voted for Trump to unfollow them as they no longer want to associate themselves with them. 

In response, the people targeted by these statements argued that there is no reason to lose friends over politics, calling it silly and immature. Oddly enough, I resonate with this claim. I too am afraid that I will lose friends as a result of this election. It does seem absurd that politics could have this effect on the people in my life.

However, I hope, I beg and I plead that I only lose friends through the click of the unfollow or block button. What a privilege that would be. Instead, I fear the violence that will take the lives of trans people and people of color. I fear the despair that will enter the minds of many trans individuals unable to access gender-affirming care in their home state that could have saved them from ending their own lives. I fear the deaths of women unable to access safe abortions.

So, yes, I feel for those of you who are sad about losing friends on social media post-election, but that it is the extent of the loss you face in the coming years. I suspect for some, including myself, that the mere loss of a friend via dissociation would be the best case scenario.

And that is where my sympathy ends for those folks. My friends who are trans or queer, the women in my life and people of color are far more deserving of my sympathy. To them, I say this: The results of this election are not only disappointing, but terrifying. I believe I share the anxiety that within the next four years — and likely for many years after — we will encounter violence, discriminatory legislation and mounting conflict that will particularly impact already marginalized populations of people. 

This anxiety, depression, anger, grief and fear are deeply oppressive and those feelings are incredibly important. Many people, including those experiencing the same emotions during this time, may have told you to allow yourself to feel these emotions for a couple of days but to then mobilize in action afterward.

And they are right, except for one thing: Don’t stop feeling the anxiety, the melancholy, the fear and the anger you have. These are powerful emotions that can empower activism. Instead, make your grievances known. Make your anger loud. And while you articulate these emotions, you must ground them in the disturbing circumstances of your political existence. 

Do not allow people to pathologize your depression, because we know full well you and I are depressed because of the re-election of the felon and KKK-endorsed sexual predator the majority of voting Americans wanted as president.

Let your anger and anxiety propel you. Make that Thanksgiving dinner as uncomfortable as possible for your Republican uncle. If we are going to be uncomfortable for the next four or more years, the people who put us in that state should feel it with us.

Above all, please hang in there. If my time studying politics, queer theory and the civil rights movements in the 60s has taught me anything, we are a miraculously resilient people. It’s less accurate to say that we will prevail than to say that we must. This is not to ignore that people will now inevitably suffer, but it cannot be for nothing.