Hundreds of protesters from across the state gathered at the Bell Tower in Capitol Square at noon as part of the nationwide “50 Protests, 50 States, 1 Day” movement, condemning policies enacted by the Trump administration, including mass deportations, anti-trans executive orders and efforts to dismantle federal agencies.

Leading the Virginia effort is 14-year-old Dia Figueroa, who said she organized the protest in just a week. She was motivated by the impact these policies have on her, her friends and her family. “I wanted to give them a space for all those people who wanted to do something and didn’t know how,” Figueroa said.

After coordinating with organizers of the nationwide movement, Figueroa took it on herself to register the protest and find speakers for it. She said she plans to orchestrate more protests in the future.

 Christina Collazo, with the RVA Women’s March group, speaks to a crowd of hundreds of protestors as part of the nationwide “50 Protests, 50 States, 1 Day” event at the Bell Tower in Capitol Square on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
 

Attacks on the LGBTQ+ community hit close to home for Lyn Jones, a 16-year-old activist and blog writer, who grew up with two mothers. “Rights for minorities are being targeted and I want to call attention to that because my family is so affected by it,” Jones said.

Jones volunteered to speak at the event after hearing about it three days prior. “I do not have public speaking experience, but I thought ‘Well, it’s time to start.’ So I wrote a speech and I showed up,” she said.

As Trump’s administration has rapidly introduced new policies, people are turning to protest because they are scared and unsure of what to do, according to Sabrina Burfield, a protestor at the event. However, those opposed to the Trump administration cannot stop their advocacy at protest, she said.

“We need collective action. We need people to actually organize, to talk with each other, to not just stand around fighting for their own cause. Instead we’ll be unified,” she said.

As a trans woman, Burfield could be directly affected by executive orders issued under Trump’s administration. However, she refuses to live in fear. “They can take my identification cards. I don’t care. I’m still going to be Sabrina Evelyn Burfield, and I don’t plan to go down without swinging,” she said.

Charles Gaertner traveled from Charlottesville to voice his concerns about the conservative organizations and individuals

Trump has empowered, such as billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. Although much of the protest centered around Donald Trump, Gaertner believes the focus needs to be on showing Trump’s supporters that they made the wrong choice.

“We’re wasting time demonizing him. He loves it. We’re wasting time wringing our hands. We need to go to our neighbor who voted for Trump and say, ‘Don’t you see where this is going? Don’t you see how absurd and insane this is?’”