Written by: Kaitlin Parks
Photo by: Dominic Brown
On Friday, Nov. 11, the Wichita community held a peaceful protest in Old Town to come together in solitude after the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Many people were scared and angry that Donald Trump became president-elect because of his promises to build a wall across the U.S.-Mexican border and working on a shutdown of muslims entering the United States.
“I felt disheartened when Trump was elected because he ran a campaign based on homophobia, misogyny, racism and xenophobia” said Protest Coordinator Evan Shaheen. “It feels like we are plummeting backwards as a country.”
The rally was first started as an event on Facebook by Goddard High school graduates Tristan Orsak and Allison Eaton.
“It was a joint idea between me and Allison,” Orsak said. “We saw other protests going on around the country and wanted to let our voice be heard and be a part of something.”
In only a few days, the Facebook event was shared over 2,400 times, had 432 people attending and 841 people interested in the event. Soon after the Facebook event “Love trumps hate! Stand up to hatred!” was created, Orsak began to receive threats from Trump supporters who had seen the event listed on Facebook.
“We will be there with our confederate flags and our shot guns” one Facebook user responded. Because Orsak felt genuinely scared for the safety of the protest and the people attending, he decided to cancel the event. LGBT Advocate and Community Leader Evan Shaheen and Black Lives Matter Activist Djuan Wash were already members of the event. They decided to continue the protest, feeling it was their responsibility to take over.
“People are feeling lost and confused, and they are angry” Shaheen said. “They need to know they aren’t alone, that people are still willing to stand up for what is right, and that we have a plan going forward.”
Wash informed Wichita police officers about threats made towards the protest and the protest itself. About 10 police officers were in attendance including one ambulance after Wash asked the officers to be at the event for the protesters’ safety and to keep everything under control.
Over 400 people were in attendance at the protest including Butler sophomores Lexine McElfresh, Jason Pleitez, Lauren Waymire and Dom Brown. Butler was also represented by Professor of Math Kamielle Freeman.
“We came because we wanted to share how we felt amongst others who felt the same way,”Butler sophomore Lauren Waymire said. “This protest gave me a small piece of hope for the future when all I had felt earlier this week was fear.”
Halfway through the event, Trump supporters came to the protest shouting and holding their Trump signs in the air. The crowd ignored them for a majority of the protest until speaker Christina Reyes confronted them.
“Now I would like you all to look to your left and applaud the people next to you,” Reyes announced. “They are angry just like us and they have just as much right to be here as we do.”
The crowd applauded them and after the protest ended, the protesters and Trump supporters came together to talk about the future and how everyone felt about the events to come for the United States. The protest ended peacefully and participants went home feeling more hopeful for the future.