By Paul J. Hastings – Nkarta TherapeuticsThere has been much talk about the expectation-defying nature of this election. And it’s true: Not a single pundit in the land predicted the big winner of the 2022 midterms would be diversity.
Nationally, voters elected the first black governor of Maryland, the first Native American senator from Oklahoma in nearly a century, and the first Gen Z member of Congress, who is Afro-Latino. Majorities rejected the politics of insults, fear and division and instead embraced candidates who look like America.
Yet just two weeks after the election, the horrific shooting in a Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ nightclub that left five people dead on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance — an annual memorial of those murdered each year for being themselves — showed the tragic consequences of the toxic dialogue still coursing through the body politic. It has never been more important for all of us to stand up for civility, safety and the right to self-determination.