“Looking for ways to make lemonade.” That’s how Laurel Herndon, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Center of Boulder County, described her mindset the day after Donald Trump’s election victory.
Leaders of organizations like Herndon’s, who work with communities targeted by Trump’s pledged policies, shared similar resolve: Though concerned about what Trump’s second presidency might bring, they’re determined to find a path forward.
“There’s a web of people across this country who have worked for equality and humanity for a really long time, and all of those people are feeling the way that I feel today,” said Bruce Parker, deputy director of Rocky Mountain Equality, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, on Nov. 6.
“All of those people are going back to work,” he added. “So the only thing that we can do is hold onto the pieces of the web that are ours and help each other not let go.”
Parker is also grateful to be in Colorado.
This week, Colorado voters repealed a provision banning same-sex marriage and enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution — a measure that embodies “themes of bodily autonomy and privacy” important to the LGBTQ community, Parker said. The election also saw the return of many state representatives with a history of supporting LGBTQ rights. Parker wants the LGBTQ community to know that in Colorado, “You’re as safe as you can be.”
Other advocates are also focused on state policy to blunt potential negative impacts of Trump’s presidency.
Herndon said Trump’s policies will likely reduce the number of immigrants receiving federal work permits, making it harder for them to support their families and afford housing. But legal experts believe states may be able to sidestep this barrier by hiring immigrants directly, as the federal government does not have the authority to tell states whom they can hire. The State of Colorado, including its state universities and agencies, is the largest employer in the state, and experts believe a state law could enable it to hire migrants without explicit federal approval.
Opening state jobs to migrants without federal work cards might also help them demonstrate financial self-sufficiency, potentially easing their path to a visa or citizenship — a process made much stricter under Trump’s first administration.
Herndon added that state databases administering health care, driver’s licenses and other immigrant services are not accessible to the federal government. “The state and district attorney’s office in Boulder County has made it clear that ICE is not welcome here.”
Warren Hern, who runs the Boulder Abortion Clinic and founded Colorado’s first free-standing nonprofit abortion clinic in 1973 after Roe v. Wade’s passage, said the constitutional Amendment 79 is “one of the most significant events in our history, not just in Colorado, but in the country.” The amendment protects not just local doctors and patients in Colorado but also the increasing number of women traveling from out of state for abortion care since the Dobbs decision. This includes women with wanted pregnancies who face complications but can’t get medical care elsewhere “because the doctors are afraid of going to prison,” Hern said.
Micah Parkin, executive director of 350 Colorado, a climate action organization focused on curbing oil and gas operations, said climate advocates are also planning to focus on state-level efforts. “Colorado climate advocates will need to double down on our efforts to phase out fracking on state and private lands, since federal lands will be under increasing threat.”
‘We can’t be complacent‘
Despite the optimism advocates see in Colorado’s political landscape, they stress it’s no time to get comfortable. “I’m nervous about leaning too far into the narratives of how good it is, because there’s so much work left to do,” Parker, of Rocky Mountain Equality, said.
Months before Trump’s second term begins, his rhetoric is already having real effects.
“One of our board members is in a lesbian marriage, and she has adopted two young women of color,” Parker said. “One of them said yesterday, ‘Are they going to come take me away from you?’”
Queer youth in the organization’s programs are “terrified,” Parker added. And trans people were in and out of the Rocky Mountain Equality community center all morning after the election, asking if getting their gender-affirming surgeries might make them targets for “hateful people or from anti-trans legislation.”
Hern shared that while demand for care from out-of-state patients has risen, funding has fallen. “We’re operating under tremendous stress,” he said. Many patients are low-income, and the Boulder Abortion Clinic is an intensive-care unit that provides complex and costly care. “They don’t have bus fare,” he said, “and these procedures that we’re doing are very expensive.” The National Abortion Federation’s funding for his clinic’s patients has been cut by 70%, according to Hern.
“Women are dying, right in this country because they can’t get safe abortion care in their own state or anywhere else,” he said. “This is Trump. He has introduced a police state into this country with women’s reproductive health care. We will continue to see the patients until somebody shows up with a gun, puts [it to] my head, and says, ‘Stop doing abortions or die.’”
Finally, Parkin of 350 Colorado, who once ran for Boulder City Council, observed the devastating local impacts of climate change already evident in and around Boulder. “Climate change is already affecting our lives, increasing the threat of worsening wildfires, droughts and floods, destabilizing our economy, and contributing to a massive loss in biodiversity here and around the planet.” Advocates are deeply concerned that Trump and new congressional members who deny climate science will hinder already-slow efforts to curb global warming emissions, especially as the United States remains the world’s largest fossil fuel producer.
“I encourage everyone to take a moment to grieve the losses and take care of ourselves,” Parkin told Boulder Reporting Lab. “Then remember that we must and will not give up. Action is the antidote to despair.”
350 Colorado is hosting a Nonviolent Direct Action Workshop on Nov. 10, and Parkin encourages people to read their newsletter for more ways to get involved.
Parker, meanwhile, is encouraging people to donate to organizations that support LGBTQ+ people and advocate for their neighbors, while Herndon is urging residents to contact their state representatives and push them to advocate for a state work permit for migrants. Hern said anyone wanting to support his patients can donate to the Boulder Abortion Fund, a charitable fund separate from the Boulder Abortion Clinic that helps patients pay for travel and medical care in Boulder. And they all remain resolute.
“I suspect we’re the best area to be in at this particular point in time,” said Herndon.
