Dana Beyer, M.D.

Dear President Trump,

We’re all aware that few expected you to win on Election Day. One could say that the only one more surprised than the rest of us is you. You haven’t prepared for the job, arguably the most important in the world. You’ve undertaken no efforts to divest, to put your business holdings, if any were viable, in a blind trust. You didn’t bone up on foreign or domestic policy, leaving that for the running mate. You’ve treated this leveraged buyout, hostile takeover as a reality show.

You have no qualifications for the job, as you’ve hardly read anything for the past sixty years. Your character hasn’t changed, as remarked by those who knew you in military school. You’ve no experience in government, working in coalitions, or building support for policy. You’ve never served your country, or given back anything to the system that allowed you to become a celebrity. You are a rupture in the history of presidential qualifications and the expectations of the citizenry the president is supposed to lead.

Given that you’ve now taken the celebrity culture as far as it can go, and given that there are tens of millions of people in this country alone who are counting on being able to continue to live their lives with an understanding of the rules they’ve played by throughout their lives, I respectfully ask that you resign your position.

All our intelligence agencies have seriously called your patriotism into question, as your actions and those of your advisers may very well amount to treason. You cannot escape the taint of that treason, just as Hillary could not escape the taint of corruption with which what’s left of the Republican Party saddled her beginning in 1992.

During the past seventy years, when the United States was much more united than today, this country struggled to become a more perfect union, and tens of millions of people found hope in being themselves and working to live to their full potential. Women, African-Americans, the LGBT community, immigrants from Latin America, Africa and Asia — all have worked to become a part of the tapestry of American society, just as your forebears did. They deserve the opportunity to continue their lives in peace and with hope.

Please spare us the coming constitutional crisis and global chaos. You won a dirty election, but you won. You’re an old man in poor shape — don’t push your luck. Take your cake and go home and enjoy it. Don’t struggle for the approbation of those, Democrats and Republicans alike, who are in on the con. You’ll never get it. Don’t destroy the work of millions to satisfy your own ego. If you do, you’ll soon find the pleasure is an empty one. Salvage the joy of your revenge, and save this country that helped you become the man you are today from a descent into hate and misery.

Dana Beyer, M.D.

Executive Director
Gender Rights Maryland
@DanaBeyerMD

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Danielle Moodie-Mills

Dear President Trump,

As a black lesbian American, who is the grateful child of immigrants that sacrificed and struggled to leave their homeland of Jamaica in the 1970s, to rebuild their dreams in this great nation, I remain incredibly disturbed by your thoughtless words against the communities I am proud to represent.

Sir, your unfounded and dangerous comments about immigrants in this nation as well as the black community are unbecoming of any person that seeks to be the president for ALL Americans. Immigrants and people of color built this country off of their backs — and did so under the domestic terrorism of slavery, Jim Crow and now the indentured servitude that too many new immigrants to this country must face as they battle unrelenting racism and xenophobia.

This country’s creed of “We the People” will not be undone by one man or one administration that seeks to roll back progress because they believe that people that don’t look like them, love like them, or worship like them are less than. This country is already great because of its diversity, acceptance and willingness to strive towards our highest ideal of becoming a more perfect union. We can’t find perfection in discrimination, hostility and hatred — that is not who America is at its core.

Know this, sir: I will work tirelessly over the next four years to ensure the safety and freedom for all people — the documented and the undocumented, the straight and the LGBTQ, the Muslim and the Jew — we are America and we are great because we believe in our fundamental ability to progress in the face of evil. We will continue to make certain that America remains the beacon on the hill and symbol of democracy by continuing to fight tirelessly for our inalienable rights.

I urge you sir, to read more and tweet less. Education is at the core of any great nation and those that close their minds to the wonders of the world and the great people of all colors, religions, and groups that make it go around will petrify in their close-mindedness and become obsolete. If you choose to work with us, we will find ways to work with you. If you continue on the path that you outlined during the campaign than know that you will face opposition at every turn.

The choice is yours to make, sir.

Sincerely,

Danielle Moodie-Mills

Advocate, Writer and Strategist
Politini Media
@DeeTwoCents

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David Mariner

Dear President Trump,

Soon you will be living (part time?) in Washington, D.C., where Hillary Clinton won more than 90% of the vote, and where, not surprisingly, you will not find many fans. There are those who would suggest, of course, that Washington, D.C., is just another urban bubble, ignorant of the realities of small town America.

I can assure you, however, that this is not the case. Many of us, including myself, come from a small town and know the struggles they face first hand. Others follow one of the finest American traditions coming from other countries to seek new opportunities, much like my own mother did more than fifty years ago.

I have never felt more of an American than I have living right here in Washington, D.C. Not because of the monuments, or the Congress, but because of the people — my neighbors. My Washington, D.C. is where Ben Ali, a Muslim immigrant from Trinidad, came with virtually nothing and over time built Ben’s Chili Bowl, one of our city’s most iconic restaurants. This city is a place where homeless LGBTQ youth arrive from other parts of the country with little more than a bus receipt, and have the opportunity to rebuild their lives thanks to the work of folks like Ruby Corado at Casa Ruby. My city is a place where undocumented residents can get a limited purpose driver’s license, where asylum seekers and refugees find sanctuary, and where transgender residents can get gender-affirming care. Most importantly, Washington, D.C. is a place where we strive to live together in peace.

We are not perfect, but it is here, working with the local community where I feel we are closest to that perfect union where everybody — yes, everybody — has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the daily work of our fine city, and frankly for me and for countless others, this is what makes America great. I might add, we do it all without a vote in Congress (it’s called taxation without representation and it’s not fair).

I hope you take the opportunity to learn from your new neighbors, but if not, please know that we will not be divided. I consider an attack on any one of our fine citizens an attack on all of us, and I know other community leaders feel exactly the same way. We don’t know if you will go through with pushing for a Muslim registry. We don’t know if you will go through with your threats to start deporting undocumented residents on Day One of your Presidency. We don’t know how many of the executive orders protecting individuals from discrimination will be rolled back. What I do know is that we will resist. I know the “bubble” I live in is growing bigger every single day. And I know that ultimately, we will win.

David Mariner

Executive Director
The DC Center
@DavidMarinerDC

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David von Storch

Dear President Trump,

Trying to figure out where you really stand on LGBT issues, or any issue for that matter, is a vexing process.

You say on 60 Minutes, for example, that marriage equality is settled law, yet every name you have mentioned as a possible nominee to the Supreme Court views our community as perverted and deserving of no rights to anything except perhaps to conversion therapy paid for with funds diverted from HIV treatment programs.

Your Cabinet choices almost to a man (there are a few women — Senator Mitch McConnell’s wife was a smarmy homage to that shining example of cooperation and character that now presides over the U.S. Senate) abhor according any rights to our community or respecting those rights we have fought for far too long to achieve. So while you’re busy tweeting the nonsense that has earned you the distinction as the most unpopular incoming President in modern U.S. history, your Cabinet will no doubt be creating and implementing policies that are likely at every corner to attack us, marginalize us and and demean who we are as human beings. As such I don’t believe anything you say, except for some reason I can’t quite explain, I do believe that your 3 a.m. tweets reflect the inner-workings of your third-grade bully’s soul.

So, while I could go on and on pleading for you to stand up for what you’ve said about those LGBT rights you believe are fair and just, I won’t bother. You’ve shown us who you are by the company that you keep. You are no friend of ours, Mr. Trump, and anyone who says otherwise is buying the orange fool’s gold that you are peddling in the form of $26 cocktails at your new Trump Hotel in my hometown.

Every single day when I get out of bed, I will do my best not to get distracted by your childish prattling and insidious gas lighting. At times my better angels will try to find something positive in the words you read from the TelePrompTer that Kellyanne Conway so artfully crafts. Yet while you and the Republicans in control of Congress drink from that false cup of mandate that makes you drunk with power and hubris, the seeds of our discontent have been firmly sown.

I do have just one request. Please don’t come to Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, Shaw, NE, SW, SE or anywhere adjacent. We will try to be civil but it’s a really big ask. When you go out, I’d recommend Georgetown. It’s not Mar a Largo, but it’s the best we can offer.

Enjoy your stay in our town. We are ever-hopeful that in no time you will return full-time to your gilded tower of excess in New York in whose escalators you descended from the heavens to burnish your brand and somehow, through no fault of your own, landed in the most powerful seat in the land.

Welcome to D.C.!

David von Storch

President, UA Companies
VIDA Fitness, Bang Salon, Capitol City Brewing Co.
@davidvons

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Emil de Cou

Dear President Trump,

I am a musician. Music is what I know best and may be the only thing I know well. Music saved me during a difficult and even dangerous time in the early years of my life. Orange County, California was not the easiest place to grow up gay in the 1970s. Being adrift, like many during their teens, I was especially sensitive to nearly daily taunting, name-calling, and ridicule because I was a mixed-race, gay youth.

After spending years trying to hide my true self from others (and even me) I came across my own personal “life preserver,” and a very unlikely one at that — my high school band room. With my fellow nerds and geeks I finally found my voice and acceptance and, most of all, I found music. Although the taunting never stopped outside of the band room, it seemed to sting less knowing that I could find refuge in music. Those years of refuge, supported by my wonderful teachers and friends, have never left me.

I have been lucky enough to have made a life in music and throughout my career the most fulfilling experiences I have had as a conductor have been to bring music to young people and, above all, to the most vulnerable around us, including other racial and sexual minorities. Music cannot put food on the table or employ thousands of people, but I know from first-hand experience that music has a positive influence on the lives of all Americans. Music is at the center of every milestone event, be it a birthday, a wedding, national mourning, or a spiritual gathering. Music, even in its most basic form (e.g., the birthday song or “Now I know my ABCs”), can entertain millions. Music can also give a voice to the voiceless, and, in my case, save a life by providing a refuge to a developing young, gay musician.

Every time I speak to young people about the power, joy and fun of music, I tell them that they — or anyone — can have a voice. We need to become a singing nation, and less a shouting one, once again. In the words of James Johnson, “lift every voice and sing.” And if by doing so we save one vulnerable child or a forgotten, lonely soul we are that much closer to fulfilling that glorious promise to become a more perfect union. Vilification and vitriol have no place in the arts, just as they have no place in American life.

To date, it seems that mere “words” have not unified this great country. Perhaps it time to give the arts a chance.

Emil de Cou

Music Director
Pacific Northwest Ballet
emil@pnb.org

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Eric Schaeffer

Dear President Trump,

Over the course of decades in America, the one thing that has brought a divided country together has been the arts.

The arts are a vessel that brings ideas to life, introducing each of us to different, and sometimes challenging, points of view. They help us begin conversations and understanding about different people, different ideas and different ways of thinking altogether. They provide a safe place where no one is judged while thoughts and ideas are exchanged. Songs can move us, words can change us and music notes can stir our soul.

I hope the next four years we can use art to heal, accept different points of view and grow as a country that continues to be a melting pot of immigrants founded with the principle of free speech.

As President Kennedy said, “I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”

Eric Schaeffer

Artistic Director/Co-Founder
Signature Theatre

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Gil Steinlauf

Dear President Trump,

As a Jew, as a rabbi, as a gay man, I have something to say to you: you don’t know me, but I know you. We have met, in fact, many times. We have met in this lifetime, and across countless generations. In my lifetime, I have heard your hateful words and felt your contempt in the expressions of bullies and mean-spirited children who taunted me and beat me and called me “faggot” in the hallways and classrooms of my junior high school. The day after you won the election, your spirit was in the man who approached my partner and me as we walked down the street holding hands, as he pantomimed gunning us down with a semi-automatic weapon.

My Jewish people know you so very well. In fact, we tell the story of you at our Passover seders. In the Haggadah, we read how you rise up in each and every generation — either to destroy us literally, or to destroy everything that we stand for. And what is it that we stand for? “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him…You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan…” (Exodus 22:21-22). The stranger, the widow, the orphan — these represent all the people in society who are vulnerable, who do not have privilege. In our time, that list extends to black people, to LGBTQ people, to Muslims and to immigrants, to Jews, to women, to the disabled.

I know you so well, Mr. Trump, because in every generation, you hate and seek to destroy us for exactly the same reason: deep down, you are afraid of us. We threaten everything that you understand about yourself. For you, life is a nightmare where you cannot feel the nearness of Divine love, no matter how much wealth and acclaim and privilege you hoard, no matter how many of us you attack for the momentary relief of feeling powerful at the expense of the less powerful.

But I also know one more thing about you, Mr. Trump. In every generation, you may rise up to extraordinary power. You may wreak terrible destruction. But you always fall. Always. You see, the power of Divine love lives with us “strangers, orphans and widows.” And that Divine love is the only real power there is. And that love will give us strength to organize, to stand tall and proud, and to resist you.

Sorry to break this news to you, Mr. Trump. Sorry that your power and privilege shuts your eyes and covers your ears to the truth. But we have been around the block with you for thousands of years, and it always ends the same way. Enjoy your power grab and your rampage of hate — yet again. And when Love and Justice vanquishes your regime of intolerance once more, I only ask that you try to remember, once and for all, that it was never us whom you needed to fear. It was your own hardened heart — feeling powerless and closed off to the world — that you projected onto us and called “enemy.”

But whether or not you are capable of learning this lesson, we are here. We are stronger than you can imagine. And we are ready for you.

Sincerely,

Gil Steinlauf

Senior Rabbi
Adas Israel Congregation, Washington, D.C.
@gsteinlauf

Rabbi Steinlauf’s words here represent his views only, and he does not speak on behalf of Adas Israel Congregation.

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Holly Goldmann

Dear President Trump,

I’m a Trans woman from New York City who has lived in D.C. the past 19 years. I never felt you were a serious candidate for POTUS. So, initially, I didn’t pay it much attention. I should have. I never disliked or despised you. But you were always in the center of some tabloid fodder.

Coming of age in the early ’90s, I recall you being critical of President Clinton for not making LGBT rights easy in the workplace. You said you didn’t care what someone was, as long as they did a good job. You defended an outed Canadian Trans contestant in one of your pageants a few years back. And you even commented that the “bathroom bills” were a joke at a press conference with your family.

Pardon my impoliteness, but you have diarrhea of the mouth. And I’m not sure I trust your decisions. Your cabinet appointees are a joke — literally looking like a rogue’s gallery. I truly worry about war and international relations. I worry about my international friends who live in the states, both documented and undocumented, and I worry about the rights of minorities, who as a group are quickly becoming the majority.

I try to see the good in you. But you’ve thrown your ridiculous choice for VP under the bus to cover for your antics. And you have used your wife to do the same. (If your “record” repeats itself, will she still be your wife in four years?)

I’m asking you to think before you talk, and to get the hell off Twitter. You’ve made this country a joke. We’re the laughing stock of the world.

I know you’re a smart man, but you have no filter. And that’s your weakness. Can you keep America great? I don’t think it’s broken. Listen to experienced politicians from all the parties, and change your cabinet. We shouldn’t be working against each other — we need to work together to keep this country great.

Everything is so black and white with you. You can’t treat policies and politics like you treat Rosie O’Donnell. This isn’t a tabloid paper anymore — welcome to the real world. The joke is over, and the jokes will be on you.

Holly Goldmann

Executive Producer
Capital Trans Pride
@holly_goldmann

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Jeff Manabat

Dear President Trump,

As an improbably-formed drag a cappella comedy troupe birthed at the height of the devastating AIDS crisis, The Kinsey Sicks witnessed the right wing’s willingness to ignore and devalue us, rob an entire community of our rights, and use fear as a political weapon.

We see it coming again, and we hope that you can hear us. In fact, in the spirit of the listening that’s been encouraged between the left and the right, we invite you to our next show, Things You Shouldn’t Say, and see how much we do listen, that we actually share your lack of filter, taste, and shame. Unlike you, however, we’ve been using and will continue to use those qualities to transform outrage into our art: ribald humor, wicked satire, and over-the-top drag, all in glorious four-part harmony.

Okay, we admit that you and those who love you will probably not like the show, but we sincerely believe that, as the President of all of us, you should listen to what we and our community have to say. And, if afterwards, you still don’t like it, we encourage you to denounce us on Twitter, as there is no higher honor (and besides, we can use the sales).

Enjoy the show! Just remember: no refunds.

Sincerely,

Jeff Manabat

aka “Trixie”
For The Kinsey Sicks
America’s Favorite Dragapella® Beautyshop Quartet

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John Guggenmos

Dear President Trump,

This letter has been incredibly difficult for me to write. I wanted to write something positive and inspirational, and that somehow we’re all in this together. But I didn’t vote for you and I don’t feel as hopeful with the prospect of change that you’ve conveyed is coming. A great number of injustices will occur because you’ve given license to them. I wish you understood the genuine concerns of millions of Americans are serious and what you’ve shown us is a dangerous tendency to disregard the truth, bend the rules, and encroach on our personal freedoms instead of protecting them. History is a massive steamroller that crushes in agonizing slow motion, and this is happening to everyone — even the winners of this political season, though they don’t yet see it.

I watched in your first press conference how you couldn’t resist making fun of Senator Lindsey Graham one last time. Two days prior, you couldn’t resist taking a swipe at Meryl Streep. Further, saying, “For the 100th time, I never ‘mocked’ a disabled reporter” — all I can say, Mr. Trump, is that all of our eyes didn’t suddenly stop working, and we did see what you desperately wish didn’t happen. As I’ve watched the footage of you mocking the reporter, again and again, I wonder what would have happened if President Obama had openly mocked a disabled reporter during his campaign? What would you have done then?

As I watched that press conference, I thought back to how Tucker Carlson once described George Bush’s public speaking skills, “as painful as watching a drunk old man walk across a very icy road.” It was painful at best, but you could take a note from George Bush, your fellow Republican, and try to be a humble and dignified public servant. I didn’t believe in George Bush’s vision of America, but I respected the office and the man.

Your campaign, possibly aided by the Russians and WikiLeaks was incredibly rough, and the country is deeply polarized and divided as a result. While I acknowledge you were elected President, you lost the popular majority by three million votes and won by less than one percent in a handful of states in the electoral college. So don’t act as if you won. The majority of Americans don’t agree with you.

Nevertheless, Mr. Trump, you will be president of all Americans — not just the minority that voted for you. You will be president to my Muslim spouse and Muslim in-laws, and all the Muslim Americans; and the black lives movement and the entire Community of color; to Colin Kaepernick, who you said looked like a third grader on the playground while he peacefully showed his right to peaceful protest; to the transgendered community who needs protection in every state in the country to have basic bathroom rights and freedom from harassment in employment, fair housing and healthcare; to all the small business owners you screwed and refused to pay for work they did for you; to everyone you ever boldly harassed with a lawsuit; to all the people that you could have helped by actually donating money to charity instead of lying about it including your own foundation; to Khiz and Ghazala Khan, the POWs, to Senator John McCain and all the suffers from PTSD; to the families of disabled and to Serge Kovaleski, and to every women of sexual assault and every woman you called a dog, pig, slob, Miss Piggy or rated as a four and to the other women you openly mocked, from Rosie O’Donnell and Elizabeth Warren to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Hillary Clinton.

You’ll also be the President to President Obama, even though for years you pursued the birther rhetoric. And to all the Mexican Americans you demonized and their children and to all of the immigrants and naturalized citizen’s. You’ll be President to our rich history of immigration, the institution of freedom of the press and to the truth itself.

You’re the fresh outsider and will now hold the same office as Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, Johnson, and Obama. Congratulations. You’re the President.

Now act like it and serve us well.

Sincerely,

John Guggenmos

American, Small Business Owner, George Washington and University of Wyoming alumni, ANC commissioner, Son to Republican parents Lloyd & Carolyn Guggenmos, proud Hillary supporter, not congressionally represented District of Columbia resident, proudly serving the gay nightlife community of Washington, D.C. for 27 years
@johnguggenmos

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Jose Carrasquillo

Dear President Trump,

Kellyanne Conway recently said that those that did not vote for you (the majority of Americans) should try to see what’s in your heart. The irony of her request is, of course, that ever since you declared your candidacy, what’s in your heart has been evidently clear.

I’m assuming all the stuff you stated during the campaign and after your election has come straight from that heart. But soon you will be the POTUS and I wonder about the following: How discriminatory will your administration be against the LGBT community? Will you go along with Right Wing Republicans in Congress and sign into law the First Amendment Defense Act, thus enshrining discrimination into our constitution and adversely affecting the lives of every LGBT person in our country? Will your Justice Department and the judges you appoint try to take away the rights that we have gained?

Those rights, incidentally, are not special rights, as some continue to label them. Deportations, wall building, Muslim ban and draconian registries will affect thousands of our LGBT brothers and sisters. And repealing the Affordable Care Act is an outright act of cruelty against the most vulnerable.

In regards to these issues I’m actually curious to see what’s in your heart.

Jose Carrasquillo

Freelance Theatre Director and Educator

Click through for the rest of our letters to Trump!