"As a liberal, I am disappointed," journalism senior Lucas Trainor said. "As a transgender person, I’m terrified."

When Trump began his campaign for president, it was clear that for many members of the LGBTQIA+ community, he was a dangerous adversary. His 2024 campaign in particular has targeted the rights of transgender people heavily. 

In Trump’s 20-point platform, titled Agenda47, he laid out the plan that his administration has for the future of transgender healthcare and rights. 

Among them are revoking Biden’s policies regarding gender-affirming care, stopping programs that "promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age" and removing hospitals and healthcare providers from Medicare and Medicaid if they provide gender affirming healthcare procedures or medications.

Trainor said that while overall things won’t change for him, he is worried about his friends, who are using Medicaid to receive Hormone Replacement Therapy, or HRT, medication. 

"I'm worrying about people that I love and care about who are losing this vital piece of health insurance that to them, and also to experts, is lifesaving," he said. 

Trump’s proposed policies also include asking Congress to pass a bill that "prohibits men from participating in women's sports," declaring that "only genders recognized by the U.S. government are male and female — and they are assigned at birth," and protecting parents "from being forced to allow their minor child to assume a new gender identity without the parents' consent."

Prior to the election results coming out, international relations senior Lyra Opalikhin said that worry was mainstay for her as a transgender individual. 

"Realistically, there's only two candidates that can win," Opalikhin said. "Of the two, one of them directly threatens me and many of my friends with the policies that they would pass."

Opalikhin and Trainor were able to participate in the election and casted their votes before Election Day. Opalikhin voted early in East Lansing, while Trainor voted absentee in his home state of New Jersey. 

"It was pretty neat to be able to say I have now participated in a piece of history," Trainor said. "It also felt like something I couldn't afford not to do."

Opalikhin casted her vote for the democratic nominee, but through the election cycle felt as though the rights of transgender people did not receive avid support from the Democratic presidential campaign. 

"I wish that… directly saying, clearly, that they will protect queer people, would happen on a much larger debate stage," she said. "In the debates, there were not really any questions about queer people. And in individual interviews, I sometimes see that question is often avoided."

Opalikhin theorized that this lack of attention placed on queer rights might have been in an attempt to maintain votes from moderate constituents, or those who the Democrats were attempting to sway away from the Republican Party. 

"I know many queer people who are feeling alienated by the Democratic Party due to this and are leaning to vote for third parties," Opalikhin said. "I think it's a fair reaction. Considering all that's happened, I don't really blame them."

Trainor said though he didn’t necessarily feel represented in the Democratic campaign, he did feel a sense of safety. 

"Even though there were some issues that I fundamentally disagreed with (Kamala Harris) on," Trainor said. "Overall, it was a breath of fresh air in U.S. politics, and it was also one of the first times, if ever, I've felt safe… because being trans is kind of a political thing, and it's the first time I ever truly felt respected and viewed as a person, instead of purely just a topic."

In the circles of queer friends and activists that Trainor is in, he observed a large amount of engagement leading up to the election. 

"The nature of being queer is inherently political, so we kind of are automatically thrust into having to defend ourselves before we can even vote half the time,” Trainor said. "So, I know that a lot of people, especially in my circles, were very, very involved. Even if it wasn't like campaigning or anything… they would always make it known who they thought the better candidate was overall."

In the moments leading up to the election results, Opalikhin did her best to remain hopeful and made an effort to take care of herself. After casting her vote, there was not much she could do but wait.

"Eating food that you like, hanging out with the people that you care for, and just being able to take care of yourself during this stressful time is one of the best ways, I think, to stay sane," Opalikhin said.

Watching the election results come in, marketing freshman Moyra Stow became more anxious about what was going to happen. Throughout the campaigns, she was convinced that Harris would be elected president. 

"We were really nervous and anxious," she said. "We kept trying to make excuses for the fact that (Trump) was winning… trying to make ourselves feel better. We were like, 'No, they haven't even counted all the votes yet, surely she's gonna win.'"

When Stow woke up the next morning, the results didn’t feel real to her, and it felt that way for a couple of days, she said.

"My girlfriend and I, we were watching it together, and we cried a little bit because… we knew that (Trump) had won, essentially," Stow said. "We were just crying and holding each other, telling each other that we're gonna be okay."

Many of Stow's fears came from the policies regarding LGBTQIA+ individuals in Project 2025. She is worried about her right to same sex marriage and her reproductive rights. 

Project 2025 is a book that offers a host of policy suggestions that promise to meet the "country’s deepest challenges and put America back on track." Many of these policies target LGBTQIA+ individuals and same-sex couples. Some of the suggestions Project 2025 makes include stripping members of the LGBTQIA+ community of protections under Title IX as well as criticizing families with same-sex parents. 

Project 2025 makes the claim that “the objective outcomes for children raised in homes aside from a heterosexual, intact marriage are clear: All other family forms involve higher levels of instability (the average length of same-sex marriages is half that of heterosexual marriages)."

Trump has made an effort to distance himself from Project 2025, while many others have noted that former members of his administration did contribute to its creation. 

Stow recalls the 2016 election, when Trump won his first presidency, and how much has changed for her since. Now, she feels she has a lot more to worry about. 

"Back when he had won, originally, it didn't affect us at all because we were in fifth grade, middle school," Stow said, "but now we're growing up, and now this is stuff that's actually going to be affecting us and it's just scary."

The election has also altered some of Stow’s relationships. She doesn’t think it will be possible for her to maintain friendships with people who voted for Trump. 

"I would not want to be friends with somebody who voted for him knowing what would happen to me as a lesbian and a woman," she said. 

As a way to cope with these uncertain and stressful times, Trainor is seeking out community and encourages others to do the same. 

"It's important to remember that we're all dealing with this collectively, and I think that it's important that we all are able to recognize that and connect over that, do something to change it," he said. "Even if we can't change things, we would be able to take comfort in the fact that we have each other's backs."

When it comes to taking action and protecting the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, Trainor finds himself also looking at community as a means for change. 

"I think overall, it's going to be a lot more like community work than political work," Trainor said. "I think staying active in the community as well as making your voice known politically is very important, especially because it is now an uphill battle for us."