Op-Ed: “What does President Trump mean for you?”

Photo: Gage Skidmore, Flickr, January 26, 2017

Marymount’s diverse community responds

Marvin Mundo Hernandez, Interim President for Marymount DREAMers Club

There is hardly a worse feeling than the feeling of uncertainty: the uncertainty of coming home after school and wondering if your family will still be there; having to call home frequently because of the fear they might have been arrested simply because of the way they look or the way they speak.  This feeling of uncertainty is one that is all too common amongst DREAMers, particularly now that Donald J. Trump has assumed the presidency.

The DREAMers community is formed by the hundreds of thousands of undocumented students seeking higher education and their relatives who proactively seek a better future for their children in this country. Our organization, MU DREAMers, has a mission to create a welcoming environment for these students at Marymount.  We also hope to make the college process a little easier for these particular students for whom it is many times more difficult than it is for the average US citizen.

Our DREAMers community has been targeted during these past elections by multiple candidates from Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to our 45th president, Donald Trump. Furthermore, the comments made by president Trump have expanded to the whole Latino community in the United States.

While immigration reform legislation that would grant the entire DREAMers community a much hoped for “pathway to citizenship” has remained elusive, our community did take a giant step forward with the executive order by president Obama which created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This allowed undocumented students to receive in-state tuition when applying to colleges and it granted access to temporary work permits. There are about 750,000 people currently protected by DACA who are currently in college, contributing to the economy by working, and in many cases doing both.

The election of Donald Trump to the presidency certainly has caused great fear in the DREAMer community, as we worry that this new administration will eliminate the valuable benefits we have achieved through the DACA program.  But his election has also spurred our community to become even more politically engaged, to seek out allies in other aggrieved communities, and to do our part to achieve justice for all in this great country, including its most marginalized peoples.

Abbie Wolf, President of Marymount Respect Life Club

Personally, Donald Trump was not who I wanted to become president. Now that he is our president though, I believe he deserves a chance to prove himself. I hope that he does prove to be a good president because, as a friend of mine pointed out, wanting Trump to fail is like wanting the pilot to crash the plane that we are all on. There are many important political and social justice issues that the Respect Life community cares about, but since the human right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights, that is what I am going to focus on in this article.

The Respect Life community is cautiously optimistic about the promises that Donald Trump has made to advocate for the rights of the unborn. In a letter to pro-life leaders, Trump committed to nominating pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and signing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would end late-term abortions nationwide. He committed to defunding Planned Parenthood, one of the nation’s largest abortion providers, and reallocating their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive healthcare for women. He also said that he will make the Hyde Amendment permanent law, which will protect taxpayers from having to pay for abortions. If these promises do not prove to be empty, this presidency will be a valuable opportunity for the pro-life movement to advocate for human rights at a national level.

The reason why having a president advocate for the rights of the unborn is so important to the Respect Life community comes down to the facts.  It is a fact that human life begins at the moment of fertilization when the sperm and egg unite to create a human being. Human beings go through various developmental stages such as zygotes, embryos, fetuses, toddlers etc., but in every stage the fact remains that a person becomes a person the moment the sperm and egg unite. Therefore, terminating that life at any point is terminating the life of a genetically distinct human being. The right to life is the most basic human right there is, and we believe that every person, despite whatever developmental stage that person is in, deserves that right. Having a president commit to fighting for life on a national level is highly influential, and I truly hope that Trump fulfills his promises.

Jewell Kamara, member of the African Caribbean Student Association

This election has been outrageous from day one. The outcome of this election is a disgrace to America because the president elect is a sexist, misogynistic and racist person. He has mocked the disabled, he has applied skewed stereotypes to any other race besides white people and he has ignorant views about women. If this is what America believes and stands for, then there is no way I, personally, can respect anyone who has voted for him. The outcome of this election has seriously divided this country even more when we were making somewhat of a progress.

This country has been set back to times where minorities are being publicly mistreated and called rude things. The president has inspired certain people to feel bold and act in disgusting and ugly ways and that is another serious thing that’s going on in America. This country is going to fit only one way of thinking and it is not going to work for anyone except the conservatives. The country will only work one way for the next four years and it will cause some serious damage upon this country and the damage will hurt people like me.

I am not happy about the outcome of this election because I am looking ahead and seeing all the possibilities and changes that can come. But I am having a tad bit of hope that Trump will not conform America and its government into only conservative thinking. I’m hoping he will be helping ALL Americans but it is declining the more and more I see who [he] picked for his administration.

Jacki Garry, President of Marymount’s Full Spectrum Club

Public opinion on the LGBT community and rights have changed a lot in the last fifteen years. In that time, the United States has gone from half of popular opinion being against same-sex marriage to supporting it, the actual legalization of same-sex marriage in all 50 states, increased protections for students and employees (though this is not yet the norm), and in some places, transgender individuals now have the right to use the bathroom that conforms to their gender. In the face of such progress, it is easy to miss other issues in the LGBT community, such as youth homelessness or housing discrimination, as well as forget some of the struggles that the older members of our community fought for, such as the AIDS epidemic and lack of spousal rights.

In the wake of the 2016 election, these issues are suddenly again at the forefront of thought for the LGBT community, as well as fear that the incoming administration will seek to reverse what progress we have made. Our new Vice President is known for his extreme anti-LGBT measures as governor of Indiana, such as using taxpayer money to fund conversion therapy, and signed a law that allows business owners to discriminate against LGBT people on the basis of “religious freedom.”

The potential Cabinet nominees—who will more than likely be confirmed, and may already be by the time this piece is published—have similar records and opinions about LGBT rights. The potential Education secretary has previously endorsed conversion therapy, and believes that civil rights protections—which would include LGBT students—should be determined and enforced by the states: one only has to look at Jim Crow segregation laws to see how well states have handled that responsibility in the past. The potential Health and Human Services secretary was in favor of a Constitutional amendment restricting marriage to one man and one woman, and wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which, among other things, will remove sex discrimination protections that let transgender individuals keep their healthcare. They are only a few examples of what the incoming administration may have in store for LGBT Americans.

By most measures, things don’t look great. Many LGBT Americans and allies have valid fears and concerns about policy that will have a very real effect on everyday life. But this shouldn’t mean we sit back and become complacent, which may seem like the easiest course of action in times of difficulty. It may feel like there is nothing you can do in the face of a hostile administration, but this is in fact the time when there is the most to do. All major progress, for any movement, occurs in times of hardship.

For Full Spectrum, the election results do not change our mission. We exist at Marymount to educate the University community about LGBT issues, and to provide a safe space for LGBT students. That mission is now more important than ever, and we will continue to reach out to the student body to best meet their needs. We are proud to have an event planned for this semester that will teach our campus about the AIDS crisis, a critical time in history for the LGBT community that persists to this day, and another that will hopefully start a campus-wide conversation about issues important to the transgender community. Our service project will provide much needed resources for LGBT homeless shelters by putting together care kits with materials like toothbrushes, soap, and other hygiene products. It is my hope that the current political climate will embolden our members and the rest of the Marymount community to turn up to not just our events, but other clubs’ that focus on minority group issues, instead of inspiring complacency.

But campus organizations will not be the end of my personal involvement in the movement over the next four years, and it should not be for anyone in the Marymount community. We have the extreme fortune of studying and living right next to our nation’s capital, and we should take advantage of that by participating in whatever movement we feel passionately about. That means calling and visiting legislators to speak about issues that are important to us, attending rallies and marches that happen in DC, and even doing our required internships at non-profits, grassroots organizations, and other bodies that cater to our interests, and now more than ever, need the help of everyday people to continue serving their communities. It is one thing to be ideologically opposed to rhetoric and actions, and another to actually stick up for what you believe in by volunteering your time and talents. I hope to be the kind of person who follows through on their beliefs. I hope Full Spectrum is, and continues to be, that kind of organization. It is when we stand up for what we believe in, as a united whole, that real change can happen, and that is, I hope, the real lesson we take away from this election season, as well as the next four years.