When they got onto the ticket list, they thought they’d be cheering for someone very different
When they married in October, Kimball Allen and his husband Scott Wells were still hopeful Hillary Clinton would become president.
Today, they’re attending the inauguration of President-elect
Donald Trump – to make a point, as they told The Stranger.
‘We’re not here because we’re excited to be here,’ the story of this gay couple begins.
’We’re here because we thought Hillary Clinton would become president. We asked our congressman, Representative Adam Smith, to get us… we got on the ticket list.’
When it turned out Clinton didn’t win, Smith went back to the couple and asked whether they really wanted to be on the list.
‘We talked about hit. His [Scott’s] impulse was “Hell no”,’ Allen said.
‘Like, why would we be there, that’s us supporting… and we talked about it, and we said “No, we need to have a voice in this America, too”.
‘I mean, as we see, we’re surrounded by Trump supporters everywhere, and Trumps signs, and buttons.
‘And it’s really important that, as a gay couple, we’re here.’
Allen also said they were okay with Smith boycotting Trump’s inauguration, although they said he could’ve been a bit stronger about it.
‘We’re not politicians. We don’t have that vote at that level,’ Allen said.
‘I wonder, if we were elected officials, if we would also boycot.’
In the couple’s opinion, Smith should’ve been outright about ‘boycotting the validity of President Trump’ rather than saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.
‘It’s not to give Trump a hih five and a victory lap, it’s actually to have a proud voice in resenting the election, is that true? Challenging it,’ Allen said.
‘We get that it’s reality, though. We’re big fans of president Obama, we heard his speech. His speech was all about “Hey, I need you all to talk and have this dialogue”.’
So that’s what they did. The morning of the interview, the couple – accompanied by a TV team – had a conversation with a Trump supporter.
And it went well, by the sound of it, although the couple say their being white men probably had to do with it.
‘We were part of that conversation at a voice of privilege, for sure,’ Allen said.
‘And we knew that. And we were able to have a respectful conversation.
‘But if we weren’t a part of that demographic and that privilege, it’d be very different.’
Watch the full video below:
