Kamala Harris has been a District Attorney, an Attorney General, a U.S. Senator, and Vice President of these United States. She is one of the most, if not the most, qualified and prepared candidates to ever run for President. But some say “I don’t know her policies.” She supports human rights, women’s rights, reproductive and medical rights, healthcare, social security, unions, green technology and environmental rights. Some say “I don’t trust her judgement or intelligence.” Let me be clear; these would not be talking points if she was a man.

I was a young boy when I realized how inherently misogynistic our society was and still is. I saw boys use female slurs against their fellow male classmates to describe physical weakness or ineptitude in sports. I have witnessed women and girls regularly demeaned, dismissed, and belittled by their male classmates, coworkers, politicians, boyfriends, husbands, and friends. But the strongest humans I have ever met have been women. The most vital members of our society have always been the stay at home moms, the married and single working mothers, and even those “childless” women in our workplaces and schools who are required, to not only do their jobs, but to serve as surrogate mothers for any workplace they inhabit.

Other countries have had women prime ministers and presidents; why can’t we? Why can’t we celebrate their scientific, industrial, and political achievements in the same way we honor them as wives, mothers, and homemakers.

Many thought Clinton could break through that glass ceiling which has imprisoned women in a level of subservience for generations. But Hillary’s race was plagued with missteps and her tangential associations with the sex scandals of her husband and top aide Huma Abedin were enough to tarnish any campaign.

Vice President Harris’s campaign has none of these distractions; which is especially remarkable considering she has spent the majority of her life in public service. At some point we have to recognize that the refusal of the far right and those retractable independents to recognize Harris’s experience, accomplishments, and policy choices has nothing to do with uncertainty or unfamiliarity; but is simply because of her gender and our society’s refusal to accept any woman as President.

Kamala Harris is a strong, decisive, intelligent, accomplished, qualified, and yes…joyful person. We all, as a society, should embrace her ability to lead us and our country to a safer, prosperous, and more honest and equitable nation.