Randi Weingarten: Which candidate will stand in your corner, not put you there?
I’m voting for Hillary Clinton enthusiastically because I want a president who will be in my corner, not put me in a corner.
As a lesbian and as a woman, I know what it’s like to be put in a corner. I came of age when being a lesbian meant living in fear and in the shadows. And as a woman, I’ve been told that I’m too ambitious, that I should smile more and be less intense and less assertive—hallmarks of the sexism women regularly face.
One thing I’ve learned in the labor movement is that when you have someone in your corner, you’re so much more likely to win.
Donald Trump is a bully’s bully. He’s spent his whole life backing others into corners to enrich and entertain himself—and that’s the only person he’s looking out for.
Half of America’s public school students qualify for free lunch, yet Trump wants to eliminate funding for essential programs that help poor kids escape poverty.
He thinks he has a right to do anything he wants to any woman because he’s famous.
He wants to round up 11 million immigrants and tear apart their families.
He wants to expand stop and frisk and racial profiling of people of color.
He wants to ban Muslim immigrants and police Muslim communities.
He wants to break critical international alliances and go it alone on the world stage, backing our country into a corner all by ourselves.
He talks about making America great again, but he doesn’t pay taxes, manufactures his products overseas, buys cheap imports instead of American-made products, and puts working people out of business to boost his own bottom line.
And for my LGBTQ brothers and sisters, Trump doesn’t just want to put us in a corner, he wants to force us back into the closet. He would push to end marriage equality, and his running mate has one of the most anti-LGBTQ records of any modern-day politician.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has spent a lifetime in our corner.
As we fight for raising wages, rebuilding the middle class and ensuring equal pay for women, Clinton will fight for and with us. As we fight against discrimination and bullying, and for dignity for all—for example, for transgender people in public accommodations—she will fight for and with us. As we fight for infrastructure Randi Weingarten: Which candidate will stand in your corner, not put you there? / LGBTQ Nation:
