University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg sophomore Debany Renovato stood before a small group of protesters Thursday afternoon, recounting her experience moving from Mexico to the United States when she was in fifth grade.
Two dozen students — many from the college’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance club — and handful of staff — including the dean and assistant dean — braved the cold at the Hempfield campus Thursday to rally in support of the LGBTQ and Latino communities. Many hoisted signs and waved gay pride flags.
Renovato recalled breaking off from the rest of her new elementary school classmates to learn English — not only for herself, but to help her family write emails, talk over the phone, read legal documents and write checks.
“These are things that many kids my age weren’t thinking about,” Renovato said, as U.S., Pennsylvania, Pitt and Black History Month flags whipped behind her in the wind.
“I used to cry hearing my classmates talk about ‘making America great again’ by kicking illegal aliens out,” she said, reflecting on President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
“Now is 2025, and that little girl who feared for Donald Trump in 2016, she’s fearing once again nine years later for the same reason.”
Student protest
Huddled on the muddy lawn of the campus, the group protested recent executive orders restricting transgender health care, reversing immigration policies from former President Joe Biden’s presidency and abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Sophomore Beth Kirk did not hold back in her criticism of the Trump Administration.
“This is how a holocaust begins. Hitler did not begin his reign by killing thousands of people,” she said. “He began his reign by promising undereducated citizens a return to his country’s former glory.
“He created a common enemy and he excluded them from society. He removed any and all inclusive laws and he attempted to get rid of birthright citizenship. These patterns we have seen before and we know exactly how it ends.”
Kirk encouraged the crowd to voice their concerns to their local government representatives, participate Friday in a 24-hour economic blackout to boycott companies abolishing DEI programs and vote in favor of politicians who support minority communities.
“We organized to show the people that are trying to silence us that no matter what, we are here, we are loud and we are not going away,” Kirk said, prompting cheers from the crowd.
Protesters encourage students to speak out
Sophomore Zakery Wiles was inspired to speak by the story of Sam Nordquist, a 24-year-old transgender man from Minnesota who was found dead in New York last week after enduring a month of repeated violence and torture.
“His murder was not random. It was the result of a culture that allows transphobia to fester,” Wiles said, “that turns a blind eye to violence against marginalized communities and refuses to enact real protections to ensure their safety.
“(Sam) deserved to live a life without fear. He deserved a government that valued his life. We cannot let his death be forgotten.”
A political science major and member of the Westmoreland County Democratic Party, Wiles aimed Thursday to expand on the LGBTQ and Latino advocacy being done in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
“It’s taken all of us years to come to terms with our lives and our heritage and our sexualities and be confident enough to speak about it in public,” he said. “I just want more people to be able to do that.”