With the election a mere 3 days away, although I have no voting power in the US, I'd like to offer my endorsement for Joe Biden. (read full thread)

To my fellow leftists: I know how you feel, as it is how I have felt for a long time. The Democratic Party abandons the interests of the working class and protects the establishment. The current two-party system is deeply corrupt. I fully understand these points.

However, what makes me unable to rally behind much of the left's refusal to support Joe Biden, and even in some cases support Donald Trump in anger, is that Donald Trump is a very dangerous man to keep in the Oval Office. Here's why:

We are all already well aware of Trump's corrupt behavior and reactionary rhetoric (hopefully). But what truly drew the line between him and Biden for me was his beyond-pathetic attitude towards COVID-19. His administration's incompetence is going to destroy many lives.

I don't mean it just in the traditional sense of people getting infected and dying. I also mean it in the sense that it is destroying our youth. Destruction to mental health from quarantine aside, it prevents many of us from pursuing proper education, and this can be devastating.

For the past 4 years, living as a closeted trans girl going slowly through male puberty with very conservative parents, my only true reason to live on, through every mental crisis and suicidal thought, was the dream of going to university in 2020.

2020 was going to be my departure from my parents, into an environment where I can finally live as the girl I've always been inside. But thanks to Trump's horrendous COVID-19 response, I now can not go to the US at all, let alone the university I've already gotten into.

I'm stuck at home with my parents for one more year. I can't transition. I potentially have to watch my body grow more monstrous than it already was until August 2021, and should Trump be re-elected, it's unlikely I can go to the US ever again.

The COVID-19 situation in the US prevents universities from opening. My parents don't want me to go the US. In fact, some of my family even likes the idea of sending me to university in China, or even straight to work. I'd rather die than take either option.

I know western leftists have many gripes about how terrible the US is, but they don't know (and often don't care) how much worse it is living in China as a trans woman. It disgusts me at a very personal level, and I am very willing to end friendships over this issue.

And hey, it's not just me facing this problem, either. Countless international LGBTQ+ students, many of whom have bigoted parents like me, now lack an escape path from their households. The same goes for many American LGBTQ+ students, who now must stay home for online learning.

Oh, and it isn't just LGBTQ+ students facing this problem either. Many students around the world, of all various identities, look to university as a beacon of hope, as the path to a bright, independent adulthood, out of their grim adolescence. For many, this beacon is now gone.

With his incompetence and rejection of science, Trump will bring about the end of that beacon for many people, including me. I do not see the same in Joe Biden. For all his faults and failures, he at the very least holds the decency to deal with the pandemic properly.

Biden and his supporters wear masks at rallies, Trump and his supporters do not. It is clear to me which man is more fit to deal with this pandemic, this absolute hell from which me and many other young people around the world have no escape.

My entire lifelihood lies on the containment and resolution of this pandemic. So please, if you are an 18+ American citizen, and give a shit about my life, and those of many, many other distraught young people, do us a favor and vote for Joe Biden.

If you did, thank you so much for reading through this whole thread, and I very, very sincerely hope you all make the conscionable decision. Get Trump out of office.