President Donald Trump’s first few days in office came with a slew of executive orders and policy changes. He notably declared a state of emergency at the southern border the U.S. shares with Mexico, ended CBP One—an app used by undocumented migrants to schedule border appointments—pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement, and pardoned almost all of the 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters.
Emerson College’s main campus in Boston will likely not immediately experience the ramifications of these orders as both rights to abortion access and gender-affirming care were codified in Massachusetts in 2022. Many Emerson students, however, don’t live in Boston year-round.
Based on the most recent demographic data for Emerson’s undergraduates in 2022, approximately 25% of students come from Southern and Midwestern states, which are historically red.
For students in these states with visible minority identities—like non-white students, openly queer and trans students, and students of immigrant parents—they say they felt othered during Trump’s first term.
“When the pandemic happened [in 2020], my mom, who’s Asian, started getting weird looks at the grocery store, and people treated her differently,” said Lauren Underberg, a freshman media arts production student from Houston, Texas. “Leading up to the 2024 election, I feel like those tensions, those weird microaggressions, are just becoming more frequent.”
Underberg attributed those microaggressions to Trump’s rhetoric while in and out of the Oval Office. She pointed to other instances of Trump’s use of harmful rhetoric, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Trump referred to the virus as the “China virus.”
Lauren Whitaker, a freshman theater and performance major from Virginia, spoke of her girlfriend back home: “We feel like we can’t hold hands or show any public affection. Because [Trump] is president again, the amount of hatred is going to increase and be more visible.”
Following Trump’s first term in office, the Southern Poverty Law Center saw a 43% increase in LGBTQ+ hate groups from 2018 to 2019. Early Wednesday, Trump repealed DEI principles in federal hiring, which protected and encouraged the presence of individuals from marginalized communities in federal workplaces.
Jules Tague, a junior communication disorders major from Michigan, said she is less worried about her own state than others. Because of the state’s Democratic governor and codified abortion rights, Tague said she is more concerned with the social ramifications of Trump’s second term.
“Having someone like Trump in the White House shows people [that] you can be outwardly racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic … you can loudly be all of those things and be elected to the highest office in the country,” said Tague.
“It really scares me, especially for swing states where there is a considerably strong red demographic,” she continued. “I think it makes it easier for them to swing to the right. It perpetuates social trends that have been brewing for the last four years.”
Abortion access is one of the many rights Emerson students from red states are worried about losing. Following Roe’s overturn, thirteen states had trigger laws go into effect, fundamentally banning abortion across the state—including Texas, Louisiana, and Kentucky, where many Emersonians call home. Most of these states had a Republican governor, legislature, or both. Residents of these states currently have to travel to the closest state, like Colorado or Florida, where abortion access is not fully restricted. JD Vance has spoken out about blocking people from traveling across state lines to receive abortions.
“The biggest thing on my mind is the fear that rights I have now can be taken away,” Whitaker said. “Especially with abortion access. That is my body, and if I want to make a choice with it, I should be able to.”
Whitaker also shared how she was also worried about Project 2025, referring to the Republican “2025 Presidential Transition Project,” and that a lot of his campaign promises “hit home” for her.
“I just keep thinking, I’m gay, I’m Black in America, and I’m a woman,” Whitaker said. “A lot of those rights that I have can easily be taken away. It is just a sad reality I am facing.”
In its 900-page document, Project 2025 details the removal of abortion access nationwide, a reinstatement of the “Biblical view” of marriage, and claims to dismantle the Department of Education.
Anna Woods, a junior journalism major from Kentucky, has lived without abortion access in her home state since its trigger law came into effect in June 2022, following the Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade.
“Abortion has been banned in Kentucky for a really long time,” Woods said. “So I don’t really feel like my rights could be taken more away there.”
While Trump’s office has yet to speak publicly on abortion access, the government website reproductiverights.gov went offline Monday night. Launched in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the Biden administration, the website promoted abortion access following the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
“Reproductive health care, including access to birth control and safe and legal abortion care, is an essential part of your health and well-being,” the website read, while still live online. “While Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion remains legal in many states, and other reproductive health care services remain protected by law.”
Many students are also worried about Trump’s trans and gender–targeted policies. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order declaring only two recognized genders, male and female, in the United States. A trans sophomore writing, literature, and publishing major from Texas, who wished to remain anonymous to protect their identity for safety reasons, is one of those who could be affected by these policies.
“There’s this obsession with us,” the student shared. “I’m just living my life, and there’s this agenda being pushed that I’m a predator, and I want to hurt children, and I want to hurt women. It’s been hard to situate myself in that environment.”
Texas has already passed anti-trans youth legislation that limits children receiving gender-affirming care. The state already disallows teaching LGBTQ+ sex education in schools and does not offer protection for trans and queer identities seeking employment.
With an increased talk of data security following the TikTok ban, concerns surrounding personal data under the Trump administration are no surprise. Abortion bans may be looming on the horizon in red states, and many students say they are wary of menstrual tracking apps, like Flo, who share their data with third parties.
Both Tague and Woods said they have used Clue, a period-tracking app based in Berlin, Germany, to track their menstrual cycles.
“After the [2024] election, I did a lot of research into the different tracking apps, which ones sell data, which ones don’t,” Tague said. “I was happy to hear Clue encrypts everything and doesn’t sell data.”
While these fears seem to be shared amongst the Emerson student body, they hit closer to home for Emersonians hailing from red states where policy changes are more definite.
“There’s a disparity between how people from blue states versus red states processed the election,” Underberg said. “It feels isolating right now. People are having such a strong reaction to it from all states, which is understandable, but it is just different for people in the South than in blue states.”
