Election Day open thread: It's here, finally, and let me thank all of you

What are you thinking, seeing and feeling? An open thread for however long the votes are counted and the winner announced.

Welcome to The Signorile Report, where you’ll read hard-hitting political commentary and exposés; find interviews with newsmakers; hear me “engage” with right-wingers who call my radio program; and connect with like-minded, passionate people everywhere committed to fighting against hate and corruption. Subscribe now to get all of this in your email box a few times a week.

The day is finally here, and for a lot of people it’s a feeling of hope mixed with dread. How about you? And what what you seeing out there?

I’ll keep this thread open for discussion through the day and night and into tomorrow and how ever long it takes to determine a winner — a place for you all to jump and discuss the election results.

Joe Biden @JoeBiden

Let's bring this home.

Whatever happens tonight and in coming days, we know we’ve all organized and come together, and worked hard. Thank you to every one of you — those who’ve read my work over these four years, much of which I spent as editor-at-large at HuffPost, before The Signorile Report — and those of you who’ve listened to my SiriusXM program, some for many years. You gave me enormous hope and the knowledge that there were so many people out there who were ready to pick themselves up off the floor and fight.

Like all of you, I will never forget election night 2016, as the dismal numbers kept coming in and I was, earlier in the night, working on the air and seeing which way it was going. I left the studio in midtown Manhattan, completely numb, and it was after I got home, before I got to bed, that Wisconsin was called — and Trump was announced as the president.

That was 2:29 a.m. on November 9th. It was sheer horror, a fear that gripped me from every side. But the activist in me somehow found its way to kick in, and I’d been through worse, growing up gay, dealing with the Reagan era, the criminal negligence of AIDS as a young adult, seeing the hate and having no choice but to fight it. I thought immediately that we could not cave to the fear. I tweeted this out at that moment:

Michelangelo Signorile, subscribe to my newsletter @MSignorile

Sometimes hate wins, often as backlash. Many of us grew up with it. We know it intimately. We know only choice: Fight it fiercely. We will.

The first days back on the show were excruciating. There was no sense that we would come out of this and how, and so many people calling in were fearful and hurt. Many were in much more dire situations than I was, living in places where everyone around them was celebrating or seeing family immersed in what would become a more horrible and powerful cult. Reaching out to many and just being there and helping them in whatever way I could on the show and in my writings actually helped me through. Within a couple of months the Women’s March organized and a real resistance was underway. We were ready and there was no stopping us.

So, whatever happens we know we came together and did the best we could and fought. And we’ll continue to fight — no matter what happens, because even if you “win” the moment, there’s always a fight — and will have each other. So just know that. And thanks again to all of you.

I’ll be coming back here and connecting in the discussion throughout the next how ever many days!