LQBTQ Americans say they no longer feel welcomed in America following the Election of Trump

(OPINION) Lucian Holness woke up to a daunting reality on Nov. 6. Acute stress led the mix of emotions that struck the transgender marketing manager as they learned President-elect Donald Trump — never a reliable ally to the LGBTQ community and an increasingly hostile figure for transgender Americans — had won a second term in the White House.

“I went into this election fully expecting Trump to win,” said Holness, who lives in New Jersey and began to medically transition during the pandemic, an experience they called “liberating” and “amazing” after a long time spent “feeling like something was wrong.”

Holness told CBS News that Assuming Trump would take the presidency again was a self-preservation tactic, but it did not necessarily soften the blow.

“Maybe I thought it would be a closer race than it was. And just seeing how many states we were losing, the immense way that we lost … that really destroyed me,” Holness said. “And for several days after I had no hope in humanity.”

After the election, commentators and analysts suggested Trump’s decisive victory against Vice President Kamala Harris was broad evidence of a thirst for economic change across the bright red map of the country.

To win, he had punctured the Democratic “blue wall” and flipped all seven battleground states, with CBS News exit polls indicating he had received support from more of the electorate than ever.

LGBTQ voters were among the only demographic groups that did not stray toward Trump when they cast ballots in the presidential contest this year. Black women also overwhelmingly backed Harris at the polls.

“Black voters and queer voters understood the assignment in this election, and our assignment was to defeat the great threat to our safety and freedom that Trump poses, so that we can fight for what all of us need to be safe and free,” said Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, the executive director of GLSEN, an LGBTQ advocacy group focused on supporting and educating young people. Willingham-Jaggers identifies as nonbinary and queer.

The LGBTQ community has historically voted Democrat but unlike most other demographic trends this year, LGBTQ support for the party’s presidential nominee rose substantially from 2020.

CBS News’ national exit polls showed 86% of people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender voted for Harris, while just 13% voted for Trump. Echoing most Harris voters, a majority of LGBTQ people said they feared what could happen during another Trump presidency.

People in the LGBTQ community told CBS News they see the recurrence of Trumpism as a tangible affront to their basic human rights. The implications feel particularly urgent to transgender Americans, whom the president-elect and his affiliates categorically targeted throughout the campaign.