Children are bearing the brunt of many of President Donald Trump’s actions and will be the ones forced to live with the long-term fallout of his decisions. At a time when elected officials in the Democratic Party seem to be caught flat-footed in deciding how to respond to Trump, kids are leading efforts to push back on his presidency.
On Wednesday, a group of transgender public high school students in New Hampshire asked a state court to add Trump and other figures in his administration as defendants in their lawsuit opposing a ban on their participation in girls’ sports.
They are directly challenging the executive order Trump signed last week attempting to prohibit transgender women and girls from participating in sports aligning with their gender identity.
“The amount of effort he’s going through to stop me from playing sports seems extraordinarily high, for not a very good reason,” Parker Tirrell, a sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School, told The New York Times. Tirrell plays soccer for the girls’ team at her school. Tirrell told the Times that while not everyone was happy about their participation, “[I]t seemed like the people I was playing against weren’t overly concerned.”
Trump has also ordered federal agencies to cut funding for programs supportive of transgender equality. The suit alleges that Trump’s actions violate the law prohibiting sexual discrimination for educational institutions receiving federal funding.
Children are also at the forefront of resistance to Trump’s bigotry, and it is occurring at an unlikely place: Germany.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
More than 50 American students at Patch Middle School in Stuttgart, Germany, staged a walkout on Tuesday coinciding with a visit by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, an infamous bigot. The school is located on a U.S. military installation.
“Today at 1300, about 55 of our students walked out in protest of recent events. Students entered and exited the building in an orderly fashion and gathered outside in the courtyard for 50 minutes before returning to class,” Assistant Principal Alexis Small said in a letter addressed to parents.
The students were protesting Trump’s executive orders attacking civil rights, under the guise of opposition to pro-diversity programs. The military has been directly affected by Trump’s actions, with programs and clubs meant to foster inclusion in the armed forces by women and minorities being canceled.
Republicans have undertaken many of these initiatives—particularly in the area of opposing transgender rights—by claiming that they are protecting children, particularly girls. But in reality, Trump’s actions are making it more deadly to be a child in America.
The children who are under threat are making it clear that they are ready to fight back.
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