A Call for Sisterhood after the Election

By Grace Gilmore

It’s been almost two weeks since Trump won re-election and Republicans secured the trifecta of government. Some are saying, “It’s morning in America.” Others are mourning in America.

The moment Pennsylvania was called for Trump, I knew it was over. I thought, he just made one of the greatest political comebacks in American history, and I felt hopeful. But my optimism soured the next morning. Social media was filled with meltdowns of epic proportions. My friends lamented the “end of their rights” under Trump.

If Trump was truly a Nazi, fascist, and evil dictator as the media portrayed, our politics would look drastically different. President Biden would not have met with Trump at the White House. Vice President Harris would not have conceded. If “modern-day Hitler” was elected, Democratic voters wouldn’t be posting comfortably from coffee shops. They’d be on the next flight out or protesting outside the White House gates.

I’ve heard others sneer about the “34-time convicted felon” now in office. I’d encourage them to watch Harvard graduate, Emmy winner, and former Democrat Kaizen D. Asiedu respond with the facts in his 10-minute breakdown here. But I’d like to focus on something that hits closer to home for me.

Amongst the allegations against Trump is the blatant lie that he is a convicted sexual offender. I am a survivor myself. I underwent almost a decade of treatment to wrestle with the harm I experienced. Not only has Trump never been convicted of sexual assault in criminal court, but he has done more for women, including victims of heinous crimes, than almost any other president. 

He signed several bills and executive orders to combat human trafficking, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, with a focus on improving support systems for survivors, many of whom are women and children.

He launched the Human Trafficking Youth Prevention Education Demonstration Program to support young women and girls vulnerable to trafficking.

He established the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, the first U.S. government initiative specifically focused on women’s economic empowerment globally, aiming to reach 50 million women by 2025 through job training, funding, and support for women entrepreneurs.

He supported several maternal health initiatives, including measures to lower the cost of maternal care.

He signed into law the First Step Act, which included provisions such as banning the shackling of pregnant inmates in federal prisons. This legislation instituted criminal justice reforms to help especially minority women impacted by sentencing disparities.

Finally, women’s unemployment reached historic lows during Trump’s administration, with the overall women’s unemployment rate reaching 3.4% at one point. Trump signed the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act, which supported women in developing countries to pursue entrepreneurship.

Legacy media ignores these achievements. Women who bought into this false narrative have channelled their outrage into “4B”— a movement which includes women swearing off casual sex with men (the horror), shaving their heads, and vowing never to bear children.

Celebrities are lamenting that their daughters will “never know abortion rights.” Democratic mothers have announced on social media that they’re taking their 13-year-olds to get IUDs implanted as soon as possible. To the women and girls who have been fed lies by the media, Trump has merely sent the issue of abortion back to the states in accordance with the Constitution. You are not losing anything. You are not living in The Handmaid’s Tale. You are being used as a pawn by left-wing politicians who believe women are one-dimensional thinkers who only care about abortion.

But they got many women wrong. Abortion didn’t loom nearly as large as the media predicted. This election, Trump gained Gen Z women by 7% and Harris lost them by 7%. But many women were still grossly misinformed.

Media uses euphemisms like “choice” and “autonomy” to instill fear in women, which I deeply regret. But it’s not with passive apology that I approach this subject. I broach it with righteous anger.

I am angry that the Democratic Party has weaponized the justice system to smear Trump and misinform the public. I am angry that Republican women are belittled for their values and told they suffer from “internalized misogyny,” the peak of gaslighting. I am angry that Democrats will throw baseless accusations at Trump, while refusing to hold every celebrity on Epstein’s list and on P. Diddy’s party guest lists, accountable. I am angry that the Left, which pushed Hillary Clinton forward in 2016 knowing her husband’s history, ignored Harris’s marriage to a man accused of abusing women.

The double standard is disgusting. And, to use the Left’s term: our American privilege is showing.

American women, losing your rights means getting repeatedly raped by their husbands and stoned if they ask for help. It looks like young girls forbidden from going to school, who are married off as child brides and told to wear coverings that conceal every ounce of flesh on their body. It looks like their inability to vote, let alone vote for a woman. This is all happening in Afghanistan. No Democratic politician or celebrity I’ve seen has posted an infographic condemning it.

It appalls me that we have anchors on live television weeping because they believe the lie that “bodily autonomy” has been destroyed. It has not been. And if the killing of unborn children is suddenly the ethical standard, then I pray this country has a conversion in its values. I pray it values life from the moment it begins, and that our culture does not tell women that they need abortions and sexual promiscuity to be successful or free.

I am more convinced now than I ever have been that women are so much stronger than the caricatures legacy media makes of us. We are more than a single issue. To the women who consider themselves Democrats, being a Republican woman is not something to be ashamed of. The sweep of all three branches of government in this election shows that. I invite you to ask those who vote differently from you questions about their stances on policy rather than form an opinion based on media bias. 

We want to talk with you; we want to empower one another. We are not here to thwart your dreams or strip you of rights. It is a classic case of pitting women against each other for political or personal gain. Refuse to fall victim to it. Women are too extraordinary. America is at its best when we can debate, disagree, and still come together as one nation, bound by the belief that our freedoms are precious and worth defending. I believe this country can once again be a place where we lift each other up, not tear each other down, and where we cherish life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. 

Grace Gilmore is the Executive Assistant for Policy and Research for the Republican Caucus at the TN House of Representatives. She is a graduate of the University of Florida, and lives in Nashville. Find her on Instagram @gracebgilmore.