Many many people are unhappy today. Many many people are also happy today. The election was close in terms of the popular vote. This has caused quite an uproar. I think the same uproar would have come about if the result had been exactly the opposite. What I did notice from many people who are unhappy is the fear. They are truly afraid of things that will overturn years and years of decisions. It is this fear that makes me write this blog post. It may be a very unpopular blog post. Those of you who know me personally know how I voted. Those of you who know me personally know whether I am one of the unhappy ones or the happy ones. Those of you who do not know me personally, I am among the unhappy, but honestly, I was not that thrilled with our alternate choice. I was thrilled at the idea of a female president though. So, now that you know how I feel let me put some of the fear to rest:
YES, I am saying that with absolute certainty. SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IS NOT GOING AWAY. How can I say that with such certainty you might ask? Well, simply put a Republican controlled Congress and a Republican President and a primarily Republican Supreme Court cannot change the law that was established in 2015. The only way to change this is for someone to file a lawsuit in any state alleging that a same-sex marriage has harmed them somehow some way. That lawsuit will take years to go through all of the state courts and then find it’s way to the federal courts. Then it must make it to the United States Supreme Court. If, by some miracle, it makes it to the United States Supreme Court, they have to decide that they want to hear it. Then, and only then, will argument be heard by the Justices. Then and only then will there be the possibility of an overturn, but…… this will not happen. First of all, that person that files the lawsuit is going to have to show that they were harmed. How does a same-sex marriage harm that person? If they want to marry a opposite-sex person, my same-sex marriage is not preventing them from doing so. In fact, I would venture to say that same-sex marriage actually helps people. It certainly helps the federal government because of taxes. But even if the person could show some harm, this process will take years. Longer than the 4 or 8 years that Donald Trump is our President.
2. Roe v. Wade will not be overturned
Same argument as above. This will still have to go through the same process as above in order to truly overturn Roe v. Wade. Now what could happen, and has been happening, is states limiting when you can have an abortion. This was already happening prior to the election. Many years before the election. The possibility that these limitations will be brought to the United States Supreme Court is a true possibility. It is possible that they will uphold these restrictions. But, these restrictions were happening long before Donald Trump let it be known he wanted to run for president.
I cannot speak to all the other fear at this time as I just do not have enough information in that regard. I do hope that the hatred and racism that was portrayed during the campaign through the media dissipates. I hope that we can all look at each other again with respect. I hope that everyone can respect that nearly half of the country voted for Mr. Trump and nearly half of the country voted for Ms. Clinton. It was probably one of the closest elections in recent times which makes it all the more difficult for the other half to wrap their heads around. I hope that President-elect Trump will make good on some of the things he promised during his campaign. I also hope he fails on some things. I hope that everyone else soon becomes as united as we can be. No one person could make an entire population happy and we need to understand that our position is not always the right position.