I cannot believe it has come to this. Donald Trump was caught on camera espousing his belief that because he’s famous he can casually walk up to any woman he wants and grope their genitals – and that they’ll want him to do it. Donald, that’s absolutely wrong. Surely someone must have told you that by now. What you’re describing is assault. If you do that, you should go to jail. It doesn’t matter if it was a decade ago - it was wrong then and its wrong now.
My fellow Americans, we’ve let this go on far too long. Donald Trump can never hold public office – not President, not even dog catcher. If this man wins, his will be the example we set for our children. Donald claims it was just “locker room banter” but the reality is this talk and behavior is not acceptable in the locker room or anywhere else – and it’s only going to stop when we all decide to do something about it.
Today I read a heartbreaking feed on Twitter in which the author shared the first time she was sexually assaulted and asked others to do the same. “Women: tweet me your first assaults. they aren't just stats. I'll go first: Old man on city bus grabs my "pussy" and smiles at me, I'm 12.” The author claims that she received stories from women for 14 hours straight at a rate of 50 per minute. This is what "locker room banter" leads to – this is why Trump cannot win. Imagine a President who sets this example for not just our kids but our fellow adults? What kind of country will that lead to? We can and must stop this. We have to start by speaking out and saying it's wrong and acknowledging that we have a massive problem with sexual assault in this country.
We can start by stating publicly and unequivocally that we as men will no longer tolerate fellow men who believe and behave as Trump. We all know people who act this way and thinks its ok . For far too long we’ve let it slide and through our silence we’ve been complicit in and have tacitly tolerated this behavior. We can stay silent no more. We must speak up and correct this behavior in the moment, on the spot. We need to teach our fellow men that this is wrong and work to create a safe and equal environment for both men and women.
We also can set an example by voting Trump down absolutely – in a landslide. Show our children and history that when it came time to stand against a clear dictator and scumbag in waiting, we the people held strong and voted for the most qualified candidate in our history – who also just happened to be a woman.