SIU students and community members on Wednesday protested President-elect Donald Trump’s position on a number of social issues, including immigration, police violence, LGBTQ equality and women’s rights.

The protestors stood on the lawn in front of Morris Library for about two hours, holding colorful signs that read “Love Thy Neighbor,” “Build Bridges, Not Walls,” “Pro-Love, Anti-Trump,” “#NotMyPresident” and more.

Sara Beatty, 22, of Valier, said she planned the protest to provide a way for anyone to voice his or her opinion.

“As a white citizen, I cannot possibly understand what people of color are going through,” Beatty said. “But if I can use my voice to speak out for them, then I’m going to.”

Angie Youroukos, 26, of Mount Vernon, also helped organize the event. She said since neither she nor Beatty are SIU students, they had to obtain permission to host the protest on campus from the SIU Board of Trustees.

“We wanted more people to come out, but we had a limited amount of time to get the word out because it took them three days to give us confirmation,” Beatty said.

The protest was the second organized by Beatty and Youroukos since Trump won the presidency. On Friday, more than 30 people joined in to demonstrate for hours outside of University Mall.

As a bi-sexual, Beatty said she fears for her rights under a Trump presidency.

“This country has become a scary place recently,” she said.

Youroukos said her main goal of organizing the protest was to bring recent issues to light.

“A lot of older people don’t think there are real issues out here and they assume these issues only happen in big cities like Chicago and New York,”Youroukos said. “African Americans, women and LGBTQ people are here, too.”

Isaiah Fultz, a freshman from Rockford studying math education, said he felt compelled to join the demonstrators Wednesday because he’s heard too many hateful things since Trump’s election, noting that the president-elect and some of his supporters have said reprehensible things since the campaign began.

“It’s wrong,” he said. “I mean, where are the morals?”

Brynn Kosmicki, 17, of Carbondale, protested Trump’s mockery of disabled people, women and people of color.

“We want to put our voices out there and we want people to know that Trump doesn’t represent all of America,” Kosmicki said. “We want marginalized people to know we are here to fight for them.”

Beatty and Youroukos said they intend to host future protests and encourage everyone to participate.

“It’s important to know you don’t have to be afraid, and there is strength in numbers,” Beatty said.

Staff writer Shannon Allen can be reached at (618) 536-3326, [email protected] or on Twitter @ShannonAllen_DE.

To stay up to date with all your SIU news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

Advertisement