For the past two weeks, a series of protests have swept across the nation in response to the 2016 presidential election. The vast majority of these have been peaceful, and therefore not illegal in any way. However, across the country the response from those on the right side on the political spectrum has been incredibly negative. Those protesting have been called "whiny," "idiotic," and "absurd" because regardless of how much we protest, Donald Trump is the president of the United States. However, these protests are rarely an attempt to prevent Donald Trump from taking office on January 20. Rather, they are an attempt to convince our president-elect to stand for all Americans. Currently, Donald Trump's transition team consists of Steve Bannon, Chris Christie, and Ken Blackwell, who all have long records of racism, homophobia, and sexism. Rather than protesting the inevitable Donald Trump presidency, we are using our First Amendment rights to tell him we will not stand for the bigotry he perpetuated throughout his campaign.
As a woman, I will not stand for the loss of my bodily autonomy. If Roe v. Wade gets repealed, women will lose their right to be able to get an abortion. Regardless of your personal opinions on abortion, your own opinions should not be able to determine the decisions of those around you. LGBTQ+ people are terrified of losing their rights. Already there has been talk of laws that will allow discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community. On top of that, we have a VP who thinks that electroshock therapy will make people straight. Muslim people are terrified that the racism they already have to face will become more intense, and that they will be forced to "register" with the US government. Latinx people are scared their family members will be deported.
Again, nobody is protesting Donald Trump's presidency. We have accepted that that is an inevitable horror that we will have to deal with .We are trying to tell him we won't stand for hate. We won't stand for our neighbors to be told they are less in a country that is supposed to provide "liberty and justice for all."
