If you’ve had anxiety the past few weeks over the current political climate — you’re not alone. It appears as though every news headline announces another controversial executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
Within his first week in office, the newly inaugurated president signed 37 executive orders, many of which addressed issues related to immigration, LGBTQ+ protections, and climate change. He withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, terminated DEI programs, made a definitive stance against trans and non-binary folks by announcing the federal government would only recognize two genders, and sought to deny U.S. citizenship to children born in America by non-U.S. citizens, to name a few.
If Trump’s vision for the country doesn’t align with yours, here’s what you can do.
- Climate
-
In addition to reversing the United States’ involvement in the Paris Agreement, Trump has granted permission for the country to “Drill, baby, drill” into Alaska’s once-protected land.
According to NPR, “It aims to roll back restrictions on drilling, mining and road-building that were implemented during the Biden administration.” The executive order rescinds regulations to shield Alaska’s land and wildlife from the destruction caused by harvesting the state’s natural resources.
The Washington correspondent for Alaska Public Media, Liz Ruskin, told NPR, “It covers nearly every controversial Alaska land-use issue this century. It includes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, offshore drilling. It calls for a road through a portion of a wildlife refuge, a controversial road, to help the small community of King Cove. And it calls for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska and a lot more than that.”
To help conserve Alaska, you can donate to the Alaska Wilderness League. The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, and The Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense are also great organizations to get involved with if you’re concerned about the climate clock. To learn how to reduce your carbon footprint, check out COTAP.
- LGBTQ+
-
The LGBTQ+ community took a huge hit last week with Trump’s decision to ensure the federal government recognizes just two genders: male and female. According to the executive order, not doing so puts women at risk, stating, “Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers.”
Unfortunately, this mindset heavily hurts anyone who identifies outside of these norms, putting them at greater risk for violent attacks and making their road to obtaining legal identification extremely difficult, if at all possible.
He also signed an executive order eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs in the Federal Government, which had safeguards in place to prohibit the discrimination of people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This was in direct response to Biden’s Executive Order 13985, which sought to provide equity to “people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.”
Ironically, the intent behind Trump’s order doesn’t sound too different. It states, “Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great.” However, the termination of these programs directly impacts people of color along with the queer community as they no longer have grounds to stand on if they feel they have been discriminated against.
Sarah Austin, a staff attorney with GLAD Law, told The Public’s Radio that she strongly encourages anyone directly affected to get their medical records, update their name and gender on federal ID documents as soon as possible, and establish parentage if they haven’t already.
Donate to Equality Florida or PRISM to help Florida’s LGBQT+ community. You can also check out PFLAG, which offers one-click communication with local lawmakers about protecting trans youth and hosts their advocacy workshops, Advocacy at All Levels, nationwide.
- Immigration
-
Under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, anyone “born or naturalized in the United States” is granted citizenship and equal protection under the law. Congress ratified this in 1868 following the Civil War in its quest to incorporate Confederate states back into the Union.
In his first week of taking office, Trump signed an executive order stating that any child born after Feb. 19, 2025, to parents who do not have permanent and lawful citizenship in the United States, would no longer be granted citizenship. This means that if a pregnant woman living in the United States is here unlawfully or lawfully but temporarily — through a work Visa or otherwise — their newborn will not be a United States citizen.
Additionally, Trump signed to seal the southern U.S. border, suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, ordered the attorney general to “pursue federal prosecution and the death penalty for capital crimes committed by anyone without legal status,” and called for mass deportation of illegal immigrants by extending the Department of Homeland Security nationwide and constructing detention facilities.
Needless to say, it’s a scary time for families all over the country, especially for children and parents who fear they’ll be separated.
The National Immigrant Justice Center outlines steps to protect yourself and your loved ones, such as seeking legal consultation, creating a safety plan, collecting all government documents, avoiding immigration fraud, and being alert for digital scams. If you’re not directly affected, the ACLU provides an email outline to Congress urging them to cut funding to the DHS. United We Dream also offers various resources on how to fight against deportation.
It’s all too easy to feel helpless when it appears the United States is turning back decades of progress in the blink of an eye, but Americans must remember that this country was built on protests. Every marginalized group in U.S. history had to fight their way to equality, and there hasn’t been a fight lost yet.
Despite how it may seem, your voice matters — sometimes, you just have to scream.