University LGBTQ+ students express worry about Trump administration’s executive orders

President Donald Trump has signed numerous executive orders targeting the LGBTQ+ community since he took office on Jan. 20. With these actions comes growing concern among university queer students about their future in this country.

The orders target gender-affirming care, prohibit the recognition of transgender and nonbinary individuals on government documents and restrict transgender athletes from participating in sports that match their gender identity.

Shannon Gray, a PhD student studying astrophysics leads the Astronomy and Physics Pride Alliance. They describe their feelings as in “oscillation” between emotional detachment and existential anxiety about their future.

Currently, much of the new administration’s actions target the transgender community, with which Gray identifies. 

“It’s so hard to sit here and think about work when there are so many powerful people in our country that don’t want me to exist,” Gray said.

Zyare Hill, a senior secondary education and English double major, expressed her worries about the future of same-sex marriage and how it may impact her chances of adoption.

“If I were to go through [in vitro fertilization] or adoption in a same-sex marriage, I have to worry about if the state, if the government, identifies this [baby] as my child,” Hill said.

There is also concern among some LGBTQ+ students about how these policies would lead to emboldened homophobia.

“It’s a cousin or a brother,” that may not be accepting of the queer identity, Joi Kenner, a sophomore public health practice major, said. “Not all skin-folk is kinfolk.”

The Trump administration’s executive actions also target diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at educational institutions across the country. 

Schools were given two weeks to dissolve DEI efforts or risk losing federal funding, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education on Feb. 14. 

These actions could put university support systems, such as the LGBTQ+ Equity Center, at risk. 

Kenner is also the co-facilitator of Black Queer Students, a club that she has been building since her freshman year. She says this club has helped her find a community that she couldn’t find in other Black or queer student organizations.

Kenner says losing the support of the Equity Center would be “devastating” to her academic and student life. 

“The Equity Center supports so many small queer initiatives on campus that affect me in so many indirect ways,” she said. 

Kristopher Oliveira, the director of the LGBTQ+ Equity Center, said the center is committed to continuing efforts that support the university’s LGBTQ+ community.

“I know that many are concerned about the impact of politics on inclusion initiatives,” Oliveira wrote in a statement to The Black Explosion. “The LGBTQ+ Equity Center is aligned with the university’s mission to move fearlessly forward in our efforts to promote a campus community where each of us can thrive and be successful.” 

Black student leaders are also paying attention to the impact this administration is having on students at this moment. The Black Student Union hosted a town hall meeting where students could express their feelings about the current political climate on Feb. 18.

“It’s a very unprecedented time for everybody,” Carissa Robinson, vice president of programming position for BSU said. “Just to know that you’re not alone can go a long way for people.”

Julion Harris, BSU’s speaker of the house, added that while students may not be a part of the LGBTQ+ community, they can still stand up in support of their fellow queer students.

Harris, who identifies as a part of the LGBTQ+ community, says that while he has some anxieties about the current administration, he isn’t fearful, but encouraged by the queer community’s resilience.

“We are people that fight, no matter if we’re Black, queer, whatever – we fight,” Harris said.