It’s not shocking news that millennials are less than happy with America’s 2016 election results. With only 37 percent of millennials having voted for the President-Elect Trump— that leaves many of us concerned about the changes to come in the next four years.
Trump has big ideas and issues that he is looking forward to taking on as President, you know like building a wall… But what about the issues millennials care about? Are they going to be ignored as the new Presidential era begins?
1. Planned Parenthood Is In Trouble
It’s almost impossible to not worry about the future of Planned Parenthood. It’s all over the media, especially lately with House Speaker Paul Ryan announcing that Congress is eager to defund Planned Parenthood. This is all based on the false belief that the federal funding PP receives goes straight towards abortions. It is illegal for any federal funding to go towards abortion services — and PP is not breaking this law. The federal funding is used towards services such as birth control, STD testing, Pap tests, breast exams, colposcopy procedures, HIV vaccines, ect. Aside from the fact that only 3 percent of their services last year were abortions, the bottom line is none of the federal funding money is going towards those abortions but instead of going towards necessary health services for a huge amount of Americans.
2. Rape Culture Could Start To Seem Less Serious
Sexual assault is a huge issue in our society today, but especially in college communities. Millennials are working hard to see the number of assaults, reported or unreported, decreased. However, it’s hard to ignore the fact that once we have a President that passes sexually explicit comments as “locker room talk” and brags about forcing himself onto women, the seriousness of these actions drastically decreases. The last thing we want to see is accusations and a victim's story being passed off lightly because this kind of behavior doesn't seem so serious anymore.
3. LGBT Rights Might Go In Reverse
Millennials have really been pushing an acceptance of all lifestyles in the last few years. But there are so many questions revolving around the LGBT rights in "Trump's America." It’s not even that Trump himself is the main concern, but instead mainly Pence and the judges that may be appointed into the US Supreme Court during his term. Between Pence’s previous support of conversion therapy and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” it’s no wonder that the LGBT community is a little worried about the future under Trump.
4. Racial/Religious Unity Could Splinter
Even if you only watched a clip of the election debates, you probably caught some comments that seemed to make racial and religious unity in America practically impossible. Whether it was Trump proposing a “Muslim ban” and talking about future surveillance of mosques or when he claimed Mexican immigrants are “rapists,” things don’t seem to be heading towards a society of diversity acceptance. We even have hate crimes being streamed on Facebook over someone's stance on Trump. This is a drastic step backward when it comes to accepting every human, regardless of race and religion.
5. College Tuition Will Be A Mess
It’s no surprise that millennials care about college tuition issues, that’s a large part of why so many supported Bernie Sanders. Trump has made a few comments on his belief that college tuition prices are far too high and that students start out into the real world with "an anchor around their neck." But what is he actually going to do about this? Because so far it’s definitely not something he’s given much information on.
6. Affordable Health Care Won't Exist
We all heard about Trump’s master plan to repeal Obamacare right away. Plenty of American's and millennials don't believe that Obamacare is perfect, but what are we going to replace it with? We should have been hearing more about the aspects of what would replace this, because how do we know the replacement will be any better? Aside from his promise of a “better health care, much better, for less money,”we don't have many specifics to go on. Will Trump continue to allow young adults to stay on their parent’s plan until they are 26? Will birth control still be covered under insurance?
7. Gun Violence Will Remained Unaddressed
With multiple campus shootings happening over the years, it’s no surprise that gun control is an issue that millennials worry about. Trump received the support of the NRA and is a huge supporter of the Second Amendment. Other than stating once that he sided with Clinton that if someone is on the “no-fly list” they shouldn't be permitted to buy a gun, there haven't been any other instances that he advocated gun control. Trump has stated that he isn't in favor of tighter background checks or an assault weapons ban. We all know that guns don’t kill people, people kill people— but without any tighter gun control laws it’s hard to imagine those situations decreasing.
8. Environmental Conservation Will Be Subverted
During the election, Trump promised to dismantle Obama’s climate regulations, such as new standards for appliances, cars, power plants, and the growth of several clean energy industries. There are a lot of things Trump plans on changing in terms of environment conservation. It’s no secret that coal is one of the most carbon-intensive fuels, and Trump plans on "ending the war on coal” by killing the Clean Power Plan. Trump also plans on opening up public lands to oil and gas drilling and scale back federal support for wind and solar power. None of this is really surprising, though, considering Trump’s top environmental advisor Myron Ebell doesn't believe in climate change or that pesticides are bad for you.
