People throughout Salt Lake City are rallying to protest the election of Donald Trump to the presidency.
Outside the Salt Lake City Government Building on Wednesday, a sea of people with signs turned out to voice their fears and frustrations about an impending Trump presidency. Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s election by a margin of 51 electoral votes. A large number of those in the crowd were Hispanic and Latino who say they are worried about Trump’s promises to build a wall at the U.S., Mexico border and deport undocumented immigrants.
“I have students sharing in tears that they are worried that their families are going to be separated,” said Elizabeth Lopez Medina, a teacher in West Valley City. “That their mom is going to go to one country and their dad is going to go to another country. What’s going to happen to them? Where are they going to be left?”
Addison Hunter told the crowd it was her 17th birthday and she’s never felt less in control.
“Will I have uneducated men telling me what to do with my body?” Hunter asked. “Will I have to listen to lessons on female anatomy written by men with only hands on experience? If I am assaulted will my assaulter go to jail or will we elect him next? This is the message America sent a woman.”
An hour earlier, Ecclesiastical leaders gathered outside the Utah State Capitol building to pray for those who are in distress about the election. Rev. Vinnetta Golphin-Wilkerson is pastor of Granger Christian Church in West Valley City. She said the best way to move forward is to focus on solving problems close to home.
“President Elect Trump was not my choice,” Golphin-Wilkerson said. “But I can be angry about that and miss the point that I’ve got a brother or sister who’s going to sleep with a rug or a blanket or something outside. So I could say it’s Trump’s job to fix that or it’s Pastor Vinnetta’s job to fix that.”
Post-election protests in other major cities like Los Angeles and New York have included riot police, burning Donald Trump effigies and blocking freeway traffic.
