I’m proud to say it. I am voting for Hillary Rodham Clinton because she’s a woman*.

*I am also voting for her for many other reasons, but you don’t care about those at the moment.

I was told in 2008 I couldn’t vote for Barack Obama because of his skin color. An endless string of white men have run for President, but now that someone who looked like me, shared similar societal experiences as myself and my family, I have to forget that part and focus solely on policy.

Policy that would no doubt have been affected by the experiences of being a black (and mixed race) man.

There was a reason that for the 200+ years that preceded Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that we’ve had white male Presidents. The voting population wanted to vote for who represented them — in addition to the general electorate being racist/sexist/homophobic.

This is not to say that white males are incapable of representing a diverse community or that white male voters should be criticized unnecessarily for not voting for the minority or opposite gender. But, there is a (larger than we all like to admit) segment of the dominating political population that would be hesitant or downright opposed to voting outside of the Don Draper clone that has been in power since the founding of our nation.

But even with all of that being said the entire genesis of this post was based around a simple tweet.

“Voting for someone because of their gender is wrong…”

But, is it?

Let’s ask a few questions.

We vote for candidates for many reasons, all with varying degrees of importance. The core of the debate is whether the gender of a candidate is a legitimate reason for supporting a candidate.

Does the gender of the candidate affect the policies they may or may not support?

Absolutely.

Has the gender of the candidate affected their experience in society and/or political realm?

You betcha.

Will there be people who oppose this candidate solely based on their gender?

Unfortunately, yes.

Are there gender specific issues that are either unrepresented or under-represented in public office?

Way too many.

It seems like gender is not only a valid reason for voting, it’s an important distinction between candidates. Additionally considering that while nearly 50% of Americans but only 20% of congress are female, there is even more of a power imbalance that makes pro-female candidacy even more important.

And while I will never directly promote single-issue candidates, it seems that simply being a woman is an intensely important and relevant single-issue.

While I urge you to look at every candidate for every office and measure them side by side on the issues, remember that race, sex, sexual orientation are all issues — issues that are often under-represented by our local, state and federal government. Be proud to vote for someone because they are black, Chinese, muslim, gay or even a woman.