The Ring-tum Phi operates on a two-week cycle, which means two weeks before we publish, we pitch ideas and pick up stories. So two weeks ago, two days before the presidential election, I decided that no matter the outcome, I would write a piece reflecting on the election. After former president Donald Trump was reelected and became for the second time president-elect of the United States, my co-editor and I wanted to frame this story as a “where do we go from here,” something with a mix of “optimism and realism” (credit of the poetic phrasing to my co-editor). But now, after the events that came in the wake of the results, the optimism I can see is fading.

As a queer student, I have struggled to find queer spaces on this campus for the past three years. I was incredibly lucky in high school to find small outcrops of spaces I could belong in. I have an all-queer friend group from high school that I go home to for every break. I haven’t found that here.

Of course, there are queer spaces here. Well, at least one: the Queer Liberation Alliance (QLA) and the Red House. I never found that I fit in there either (which is to say absolutely nothing against the QLA. They are amazing people who do important work). But being queer is also not a monolithic experience, and frankly, one space isn’t enough to house us all.

So maybe it is partially my fault that I never found a space to fit into. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough, maybe beggars can’t be choosers. Call me an optimist (which I am not known for being), but I thought we as a campus and a community could do better.

But when I woke up last Friday to an email from President Will Dudley informing the campus community about an act of vandalism against the one queer space on this campus, I couldn’t help but feel my optimism was misplaced.

Having stepped foot in the Red House a total of two times during my first year here and then never again, I didn’t expect the news to hit quite so hard. It felt incredibly isolating. And save for one amazing friend here, all of my support came from my friends and family at home. The main source of comfort they could give was at least I’ll be home soon.

It feels dramatic to say that the days following the election pulled the rug out from under my feet, but I wasn’t expecting what followed. I should have, though, because we have done this once before.

A study published in the Social Science Research Network in 2018 found that there was a statistically significant surge in reported hate crimes after President Trump’s election in 2016. This idea surfaced after the election and was reported on by the Associated Press and the Washington Post, among others. The data and these claims are not universally agreed on by experts, nor do they go uncontested, but I would say it is not a reach to find some validity in them.

I am in too many statistics-based classes this semester not to know the difference between correlation and causation, so let me clarify my perspective. Trump is not causing hate crimes across America, nor did he when he was elected the first time. I, for one, refuse to give him more credit than he deserves for anything.

While he may not be causing hate in America, he helps perpetuate it. The power of representation is feeling heard, seen and emboldened enough to express and act on shared beliefs. Trump preaches hate in his actions — hate against racial minorities, against immigrants, against women and against the LGBTQ+ community. So it should come as no surprise to any of us that when a majority of America elected this man as the President of the United States, at least some of that majority found a renewed sense of power to share and act on their hurtful beliefs.

I have no idea what was going through the heads of those who vandalized the Red House. I have no idea what their political ideology is. I have no idea if Trump’s victory had anything to do with it. But, I do not think it is a reach to say that there may be a correlation.

I don’t walk away from this election thinking that everyone who voted for Trump did so with hate in their hearts. That is an incredibly ignorant position to put faith behind. Americans were pushed towards him for many different reasons and this election should be a wake-up call to liberals and Democrats across the country to work harder and do better next time.

But regardless of President Trump’s economic plans or commitment to the Second Amendment, or the many flaws in the Biden Administration and Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, hate won on Tuesday, in more ways than one.

So where do we go from here? What is my optimistic spin?

Honestly, I am not sure yet other than this: we take it one step at a time because we have no other choice. The American people have chosen. We have a new president-elect who will be inaugurated in January and we must respect the democratic process.

So one day at a time, we support each other, we take care of ourselves, we think about where the Harris campaign went wrong, we learn better, we grow stronger, we make our voices heard and we come back for the midterms.

We just keep going and every day, we choose love.