Today I wonder how full Republican access to political power will affect Americans living with HIV? And people like me who are living with multiple medical conditions that require expensive treatments- I am able to get them but my healthcare is a complicated house of cards...

I believe that some people voted Trump because he fanned the flames of fear and exploited victimhood, while some voted Trump because they always vote Republican... many others voted because they dislike Hillary Clinton. On a deeper, darker level, I think that some voted because they resent the thought of women in positions of true power. If you think I’m going overboard then I’ll remind you that women continue to enter marriages to the words that they must obey the man.... a notion supported by a many religions that the hierarchy in place where men stand above women, always and without question.

Others voted Trump because they wanted change. A wildcard with no political experience. The Anti-Clinton. They wanted their lives to somehow improve in ways, they feel, a Democratic president slightly left-of-center could not deliver. I don’t see how the promise of putting a wall alongside the Mexico border and deporting Muslims would somehow make another human’s daily existence more peaceful. Are there really people who can’t manage their daily lives until those things happen?

Change isn’t always a good thing. I used to fear the entire concept of it. After my HIV diagnosis I wanted nothing to change from there- I wanted to freeze in time and not walk forward to inevitable sickness. But puberty came and I was really scared when I lost the joy in flinging wrestlers from one side of a plastic wrestling ring to the other. Realizing I wasn’t a kid anymore. It took a decade to realize that change could be a good thing and I found the courage to not think of HIV as a private, ticking time bomb.

Fast forward to today’s reality. When Trump takes office in January there will be no wall built, no Muslims deported... peace and comfort in your own skin isn’t attained by a political upset and those of us who will be facing real change over the next two years will have to roll with the punches, pick ourselves up... and then do what we can to make America grace again.

Positively Yours,

Shawn