Tarriem Burroughs was unable to make it to the other rallies supporting Hillary Clinton but on Monday night, he left work early to attend her rally at Independence Mall with more than 30,000 attendees. Burroughs said he was supporting Clinton because he does not want the rights he enjoys with his husband taken away.
“I’m really excited to see all of the initiatives that Barack [Obama] started and hopefully Hillary continues on with all of them,” the 35-year-old Philadelphia resident said. “We have some rights but we need more rights. There’s still a lot of discrimination in the LGBT community and hopefully Hillary can take it another step forward to really break down those walls.”
Support for Clinton continued at the polls on Election Day.
Heshie Zinman voted for Clinton because he said she reflects his values and shares his stances on certain issues. Among these issues that Zinman supports are marriage equality and nondiscrimination for LGBT people.
“Supporting a ticket where I know there’s a chance that they do support equal protections for LGBT people is very important for me and my community,” said Zinman, who serves on the LGBT Elder Initiative.
Gregory Walker, vice chair of the Democratic Party in the Fifth Ward, Ninth Division, helped out at the polls at William Way LGBT Community Center and at The Church of St. Luke & the Epiphany. He compared the enthusiasm at the polls to the 2008 presidential election where Obama won the presidency.
“The hype is up. The volume is up. We are excited,” Walker said. “We have a ton of people here who are interested in casting their vote and obviously, this candidate, like the other candidates in the Democratic Party, are an inclusive group — an inclusive party. We’re really pleased to have so many people from this community here today to vote.”
Candice Thompson, the chief operating officer at William Way, also recalled the 2008 election. She remembered taking the trolley home and seeing people with burning sticks of incense and drums to celebrate.
“It was a magical moment,” Thompson said. “People were just celebrating in the street that we had the first African-American president. I don’t know if the vibe is the same for the first woman president but I hope we have another one of those moments.”
Though Donald Trump ultimately won the electoral-college vote, as of presstime Clinton won the popular vote, including 82 percent of Philadelphia. In the Fifth Ward, which includes the Gayborhood, Clinton captured 84.24 percent of the vote.
Thompson had the opportunity to observe that enthusiasm first-hand while walking to a trolley stop in West Philadelphia with her girlfriend.
“We saw a number of friends at their own polling places. They [screamed, ‘Hey’] across the street. One of our [other] friends was driving down 52nd Street and stopped the car and honked and was hanging out the window pointing to their Hillary button. That’s just funny and delightful.”