With the 2020 election results approaching, stress is high among thousands of citizens in the United States. For the past four years, president Donald Trump has not only made a controversial mark on Twitter, but has also put controversial policies into place that targets marginalized groups of people in our society.

The possibility of Trump being re-elected into office has left many with concerns–the main being the possibility of rights being taken away from several groups of people. These concerns have been raised among various members that go to DGS and live in the Downers Grove community.

Trump is known to have said controversial comments about various groups of people–one of them being women. Senior Rainu George shares her concerns on this topic.

“It’s scary to think our president has numerous sexual assault cases against him and uses vulgar language to describe women. [Also, Trump once said] ‘We’ll get your husband’s back to work,’ which itself is a testament of my fear of entering the workforce and experiencing microaggressions as a woman,” George said.

Another aspect from people who have concerns of Trump being re-elected are members of the LGBTQ+ community. During his first term, the Trump Administration has enacted policies that put the LGBTQ+ community under attack; this includes his ban on transgender people serving in the military and the removal of LQBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections.

Senior Nick Schmidt-Bailey describes the way he feels impacted by this.

“It’s frightening to see people older than me with the possibility of their right to get married be taken away from them. Trump has a hateful agenda for people who don’t fit a certain category. I don’t understand why he’s restricting a lot of things from the LGBTQ+ community. It’s not fair for politics to be able to decide someone’s rights,” Schmidt-Bailey said.

The fear of Trump being re-elected into office has caused not only anxiety, but negative physical effects on people at DGS. Senior Shiann White is somebody who has experienced some.

“As a Black woman in America, the possibility of Trump being re-elected is scary; when he was first elected, racism began to be more widely acceptable in society because he was openly racist. I feel like if he were to win again I’d be more susceptible to hate crimes and not being able to receive justice if needed. I can’t go to sleep because I’m scared of waking up to Trump being president,” White said.

Senior Khadeeja Mirza has also been scared for herself and her family as they identify as Muslim–Trump has previously shown discriminatory behavior towards Muslim people and the religion of Islam.

“With an ongoing lack of representation in the media [of Muslims] to the ideas that are being pushed forward by the Trump campaign has made me worried about my family members who can be visibly identified as Muslim. There has been a shift in the treatment of people I know since Trump has been elected,” Mirza said.

Mirza continues, “When a world leader pushes the idea that a whole group of people are inherently evil, there are certain people that would take it as a fact and take it upon themselves to counteract them. This is harmful because his information is based off of assumptions and misunderstandings. Trump using fear and mongering for his own benefit has taken away the feeling of safety from almost every Muslim person I know,” Mirza said.

DGS alumnus Kelly Jankowski expresses her worries for her friends during this time.

“Though my rights might not be affected by a re-election of Trump, my friend’s rights will be and that makes me sick to my stomach. To know that at the peak of civil injustice in our generation, our political activism may not be enough to get rid of him… that makes me lose hope,” Jankowski said.

This story was originally published on Blueprint on November 4, 2020.