Lena Dunham broke her silence over the 2016 presidential election on Friday, commenting for the first time on the victory of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, who Dunham heavily campaigned for.
“In this new reality, we have all been radicalized,” Dunham wrote in her Lenny Letter. “It’s no longer a word for those living on the fringes. It’s a word for everyone who walks in pain with the results of this election, who feels their identity being crushed under the weight of the half of the country who voted for a man who denounces and denies the basic rights of women, the queer community, immigrants, Muslims, people of color and the differently abled.”
Dunham also detailed her experience inside what was meant to be Clinton’s victory party on Tuesday night in New York, as well as threats she received for working on the Clinton campaign.
“It is painful on a cellular level knowing those men got what they wanted, just as it’s painful to know you are hated for daring to ask for what is yours,” she continued. “It’s painful to know that white women, so unable to see the unity of female identity, so unable to look past their violent privilege, and so inoculated with hate for themselves, showed up to the polls for him, too.”
She then said that while some have counseled that people must give Trump a chance to lead and prove himself, Dunham said it is not the responsibility of minority groups to understand a man “who does not consider them human.”
She concluded by thanking Clinton for her years of public service and for setting an example that women of this nation can look to for years to come.
“So no, the work isn’t done. It is only beginning,” she said. “We will stun ourselves with what we are capable of. We will laugh with surprise like kids who finally threw a punch back at the schoolyard bully.”