On a late Monday afternoon, I was finishing up some homework for my Law and Ethics class when I got a text from my friend Kismet.
“Do you want to go undercover to a Trump rally? I have an extra ticket.”
To which I responded,
“YES.”
Kismet and I knew we would encounter people who see the world very differently. When we arrived, we were in a minority of individuals wearing masks and attempting to social distance. We originally wanted to be at the front of the crowd to get a better view of 45. Once we realized no one in the audience was taking the necessary precautions, we decided to stay in the back and social distance from the other attendees. Ultimately, we decided contracting Covid-19 wasn’t worth it for a closer glimpse of Donald J. Trump.
Our first conversation was with two fellow college students. One of them expressed their support for President Trump by stating the following, “We support Trump because Joe Biden is a radical leftist. He’s a socialist. I’ve lived in countries where that was implemented, and it was not good.”
We have encountered people with this thought process before. Trump has based his campaign on spreading misinformation about Biden and his “radical left” policies, even though Biden has a proven record of appealing to centrists.
Another man we interviewed, who was proudly holding a Gays for Trump sign, said, “Trump has done a whole lot for the gay community. He appointed an openly gay person for a cabinet-level position.”
We both fought the urge to cringe at this. I wanted to respond by naming the numerous policies Trump’s administration has passed that are detrimental to the LGBTQ+ community. For example, allowing homeless shelters and hospitals to turn away gay and trans individuals, preventing U.S embassies from displaying the pride flag or supporting LGBTQ+ Americans, and most recently, attempting to appoint a Supreme court Justice who wants to overturn gay marriage. Not to mention Vice President Mike Pence, who has a long recorded history of supporting conversion therapy and is against the ruling of Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges- the case that gave same-sex couples the right to marry by the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
We were undercover, so we kept that information to ourselves and moved on. Attending a Trump rally undercover was an eye-opening experience. One conversation that sticks with me the most was with a man who asked,
“You girls aren’t part of the demographic. Why do you support him?”
He was specifically referring to me. Not only because I am a woman, but because I am Latina. I find it funny how even a Trump supporter could admit that we were not part of the privileged demographic. He could understand that voting for Trump as a woman, especially a woman of color, would not benefit me. He understood it enough to question our support.
After attending this rally, I could feel how emboldened the attendees were in their superiority complex, carrying it with them to the polls and in all other areas of life. I was saddened and disappointed that to those people, the racism, sexism, islamophobia, homophobia, and more… were not a dealbreaker.