You can bet your ass that #ImWithHer but, while I proudly support Secretary Clinton, I’m not voting for HER.
I’m voting for every woman who has ever been called “too earnest” “too loud” “too opinionated” “too pushy” “too demanding” or “too much, just too much.”
For the women who have been guilted, shamed or dismissed because their victories and successes and triumphs made pathetic men feel small.
I’m voting for the next generation of girls who deserve to live in a world where they don’t have to constantly fear for their safety, a world where 1 in 4 won’t be raped by the time they graduate college.
I’m voting for the little girls who still believe that “pretty” is a measure of success, for little boys who are taught that doing anything “like a girl” is an insult.
I’m voting for my female friends of color who are too often left out of the conversation entirely, whose experiences are undermined and ignored.
I’m voting for those we’ve lose to suicide because people with small minds and twisted hearts made my friends feel like being queer made them less than, made their very existence wrong.
I’m voting for my Muslim-American friends who continue to be treated like the enemy when they are really anything but.
I’m voting for the White Helmets in Syria and the bright-eyed, badass little girl in Seattle who just got her first bike and helmet and the badass little girl across the world that is dreaming about food and a roof and an end to the bombing. For the mother of that little girl who dreams of nothing more than safety for her child.
I’m voting for the refugees and the immigrants and those who have forgotten that this is a country built by and for refugees and immigrants.
I’m voting for the founding mothers who are mentioned in footnotes if even at all. For the women throughout history who have gone by “anonymous” because the byline of a woman would devalue the words that they had written.
I’m voting for the Mexican-American Abuelita that raised me, the woman who came into this country undocumented and cleaned houses and raised other people’s children because she had the audacity to believe that her own children deserved to have a better, brighter life ― that all children do.
I’m voting for my mama, whose heart is in Peru. Who taught me by example that lifting other women up is the very best way to fight all the people who so desperately want to drag us all down.
I’m voting for my late grandmother who was born in Warsaw and came to the United States with nothing, who would’ve been dead if she hadn’t come here, would’ve been gassed or starved for being a Jew.
I’m voting for my sister ― a successful business woman and investor who uses her privilege and platform to elevate others that would rarely get their foot in the door.
I’m voting for those around the world who are at this very moment risking it all for a shot at a democracy of their own.
And yes, I’m voting for Susan B. Anthony and Rosa Parks and Lilly Ledbetter but even more than that, I’m voting for the women whose names I’ll never know, the women who fought and sacrificed and suffered for equality. The women who died believing that they’d lost because they were much smarter and faster than history allowed.
For my friends and my family, for all the people I’ve ever loved and all the people I will love...
Hillary Clinton gets my vote but these are the people that I’m voting for.