I was talking to a friend of mine who's a teacher in Iowa and, you know, she teaches kids - English is their second language, and they're scared that they're going to get sent home, their family's going to get broken up. Regardless of whether [Donald Trump] does it or not, whether it's true or not, the rhetoric creates a climate of fear and tension, and that's not good for the country.

As somebody who didn't support [Donald] Trump but works in the LGBTQ space, it was unprecedented that Donald Trump stood on that stage and accepted the Republican nomination and then said he would fight for LGBTQ people.

As an optimist, I choose to be glass-half-full about [Donald Trump] while still very cautiously appreciating and understanding the fear that a lot of our fellow citizens have.

I had folks in the RNC spinning me the night of the election because they were sure that their guy [Donald Trump] was going to lose. But they were trying to make the case the RNC had at least done its job.

For sure, certain policies and positions that the party has had for 30 years are going to have to be rethought because [Donald] Trump does have a bit of a mandate when it comes to sort of thinking through trade and rebalancing our trade and how Republicans are going to sort of have a posture towards trade.

I think this [ statement that Donald Trump would fight for LGBTQ people] is not just a story of the media spinning people up, but it's a story of special interests on the left, who also feel like their candidate lost, and stoking the flames on the fire because it helps spin up their supporters and help their donations and help their organizations. And it helps, frankly, polarize the country to their short-term benefit and at the expense, frankly, of progress for LGBTQ Americans.

The real action in Washington now is actually going to be on the - from the center to the center-right to the right. Part that's going to be interesting is going to be how [Donald] Trump and the Republicans, frankly, navigate this new climate.