Twice. Ran. Secretary Clinton Committed.

I've seen this woman over the years as a state First Lady, to a very well respected Secretary of State, and eventually a nominated President in national political party. Nominated as a President for any political party as a first for a candidate who happened to be a woman.


She's not perfect, but totally qualified in all the positions she's held. This book to me was an honest, touching, and very fair assessment of her loss in the 2016 presidential election.


I appreciate her candor, reading about her upbringing, and understanding her path to where she is today is amazing. She may think it's privilege, but the bottom line is you have to do the work in the end. No matter who you are, she truly believes you can accomplish anything. Just as she has. Despite my own opinion that Donald Trump had no business applying for this job to run the country. He speed bumped into a lane really wasn't his path. But he did and his candidacy added another layer to Hillary's added challenges. It doesn't really seem to stop. But she presses forward.


I had an opportunity to meet and shake hands with my hero, at a San Francisco book signing event the following year. There were hundreds of us waiting in line for hours to get a glimpse of this amazing woman, president or not, she has character. When I shook hands with her, I was star struck and asked her a really dumb question due to my nerves and all those hours thinking of what to say to her when I met her. It was all based on a t-shirt a wore that day, it said, CHOOSE YOUR PARTY, and below were 3 boxes to Democratic party, Republic party, and Cocktail party being the one checked. I asked her what was her favorite cocktail and she obviously has had her head down for hours just signing hundreds of books and never really saw my t-shirt. She threw back my question and asked me what was my favorite cocktail, I was stumped. We barely were allowed to small talk or take selfies it was very restricted, but in the end even though it was surreal and a blur, it was all worth it.

So, goes this book about the 2016 elections and what happened, it was so surreal and a blur to this day, that I really thought it was a slam dunk and we would be grilling a Madam President who would hold press conferences on a regular basis, unlike our current president, I hear nothing really significant that would contribute to change for all Americans. What did the other half of the country really thought when they choose him to run our country?


In her last sentence in her book, she asks the question, "What do we do now?" I said. There was only one answer: "Keep going."


I couldn't agree more.

Stunned. Sad. Setback.

Two days after learning that Hillary Rodham Clinton will not be our 45th American President became a reality. I was stunned.

I went to work stoic, no emotion, it was surreal. I wanted to get through the day in order to just retreat. I immediately took down all of HRC's campaign flyers, buttons anything that would remind me of this unexpected election loss. I was emotionally, socially, and economically invested in the last year in hoping and expecting her to become our President. It saddened me to know this was not the case.

I had no intention of finding out why or what happened. Political TV News was turned off; I continued to remove myself from the energy of the election buzz.

Soon after coming off of the setback, I came out; took my dog for a nice walk around the neighborhood. Outside of our doors, I was not the only one who encountered this surreal experience of an election loss. I walked towards the Castro district and saw hundreds of people gathered on Castro and Market Streets. Sequestered by police officers and traffic officials as people appeared to meet to huddle on what happened. The smell of burning sage was in the air, my guess is to cleanse the election, lit candles as a vigil. The gathering turned out to be one of unity, rejection, and goals of making the decision go in the right. But, with what's been decided, personally, I thought it was moot to try.  

Just off to the side of the rally, or gathering, someone sprayed on the ground, "10% of SF voted for Trump". No need to fact check, but it may be true. Most of the SF bay area was Pro-Clinton supporters.

So this leads me to slowly understand what this means to our LGBT community in terms of rights and services. If what Trump campaign promises holds true, San Francisco city and some of its health and social issues may be cut. I don't know the exact specifics, but I'm sure it will be significant. The recipients of these services will not have any back up plans. For many others, this will be only the beginning.

I've gotten through most of the phases of this election outcome, stunned, sad, and dealt with a setback. But what other phases will I encounter?

Let's hope its positive and an inclusive one.