Trump quotes CA LGBTQ+ Centers to justify the cuts of “waking up” on campus-calves

From Adam EchelmanCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

More than 2,500 miles from Washington, in a window without windows at the San Diego Community College, the battle of President Donald Trump is played with higher education.

“This presidential thing, we will not allow this to happen here at Mesa College,” says Lucio Lira, a coordinator at the Center for Pride at college, as an audience of over 50 students, teachers and staff applauded strongly.

This “something” is budget reductionS President Trump proposes to reduce more than $ 10 billion from the US Department of Education for the fiscal year 2026. For any national program he wants to shorten, the justification is usually a common, pointing to shrink the role of the Federal Government or to undermine “Dei” (efforts to diversity, justice and inclusion. It only separates one program by name: LGBTQ+ Pride Centers Centers of Community College College College.

In California, more than half of all students attend colleges in the Community, but unlike Ivy League institutions and major research universities, such as UCLA, Community Colleges are largely avoiding Trump and rage cuts so far. But they are encouraged for upcoming changes.

In 2023, each of the four colleges in the San Diego community received over $ 225,000 through a federal grant to support spaces and programs for their LGBTQ+ students. This money supports “initiatives unrelated to students or institutional reforms,” ​​says Trump’s budget proposal.

These federal dollars helped the Lyre meeting room convert the College Messe into a banquet hall with tables, decorations and catering for Lavender Festival. At this event, the college honored its graduates of LGBTQ+, offering each stolen pride-or themed, as Lira says, “wings”-to be worn at start. Technically, any student can participate in the lavender holiday and receive a stolen, as California’s proposal 209, in fact, as voters approved it nearly three decades ago, prohibiting the “preferential treatment” of students based on race or sex.

Following a lira speech, the President of the College, the Chancellor of the District and one of the members of the Board of the District spoke with the entrants, criticizing the Trump administration for the separation of these pride centers in San Diego and his February letter To colleges that threaten to withdraw federal funding from any school that encourages diversity, justice and inclusion. Colleagues across the country have canceled or rebranded the graduation events for LGBTQ+ students who are not concerned that these events may also violate the administration’s order.

The San Diego Community Office of the Community Community Gregory Smith said that pride centers plan to spend the federal money “as quickly as possible so that they do not go back.” Meanwhile, Trump’s budget proposal requires congressional approval, which may take months.

“The Favorite Schedule Victim of Republicans.”

Lira and his staff created the meeting room for the celebration, draping each table in lavender fabric and hanging streams from the ceiling. Along with balloons and catering, including lavender -colored Pan Dulce, the event costs about $ 3,000, he said, all this supported by federal funds.

The grants of San Diego’s pride centers were a report requested by local democratic American representative Sarah Jacobs. Co -chair of the Special Transsexual Equality Group in the House, Jacobs said Trump’s proposed abbreviations for San Diego’s pride centers have little to do with this particular grant.

“He wants to be able to control what they are teaching (colleges), to whom they recognize and hire, what areas of training they can follow. He wants to talk about LGBTQ+ children instead of how he attacks the ideals that are based on higher education as a free speech,” she said. “LGBTQ+ children, and especially trance, are the favorite scapegoat of Republicans.”

The LGBTQ+ San Diego Center is not the only cited reason to reduce approximately $ 200 million federal program from which the scar comes, Post -Postparted Education Improvement FundS Trump’s budget also offers another, broader justification, saying that colleges and countries, not the Federal Government, “must be responsible for financing institutional reforms and innovative programs. These additional resources allow colleges and universities to fund ideologies instead of students, while increasing the cost of training.”

Trump is aimed at another grant in the California Community as a justification for reducing another, approximately $ 100 million federal program, albeit without nameing college. “It is not the responsibility of the federal taxpayers to support the Novo village of Guided paths, to expand current learning communities and to create a new ethnic center for inclusion and pride for historically undervalued students, including LGBTQ+ students,” says the budget proposal. 2021 press release. About $ 2.25 million Federal Graduation for DE ANZA College in Cupertino.

The administration has already reduced funding for research research by teachers who study Lgbtq problems and prevents the recognition of federal programs non-gratual or sexually non-compliant students.

Tuesday, Trump Posted on his truth social A platform that threatens to refuse “large -scale federal funding” from California because of a transsexual athlete.

Breakfast and Support in LGBTQ+ Center

When the Pride Center is not hosting events, it is a place for suspension where students stop to take breakfast, study and talk to a pound, which is an advisor. Outside the center is a trunk of free clothes for students who pass by gender.

“Like everyone else, I come here for most days for food,” said student Daniela Abut with laughter. “I sincerely met most of my friends here.” She said she saw that the center of pride is growing in popularity, as it first opened in February 2023. Now Lira said that over 30 students are coming to the center every day.

Christopher Delgado is also regular. “When I first came here, I would be a homeless man,” he said. Lira recommended that he enroll in a counseling course that is specifically targeted at LGBTQ+ students who changed his life, he said. “I managed to rise from a bad place.” He will end next year, but he came to the lavender holiday to cheer his friends.

Delgado identifies himself as gay, while others around him say they are trance, Queer, pansexual or bisexual. Some are not their families or say that their parents do not support.

After all the speeches, Lyra returned to the podium, where he announced the names of the entrants and placed heavers around his necks. Students who are transferred to four years of universities have announced their plans and everyone poses for a photo with the President of College and the District Chancellor.

Abbott was the first name. Standing on the podium to the pound, she announced that she was heading for Ucla in the fall, though technically not true – at least not. “I got the waiting list,” she told Calmatters with a laugh. “It happens. They still don’t know it.”

Her reserve, UC San Diego, has already acknowledged her and she said she was offering a generous financial aid package for her.

As part of the federal note, Mesa College gave $ 500 dollars to LGBTQ+ low -income students participating in the center of Pride, and Abbott was one of many recipients.

“When I realized I had a scholarship, I was like” Oh, great, I can finally have lunch, “she said. It was a joke, later she clarified, but there is a nucleus of truth: although she lives at home with her parents, Abbot is responsible for most of her life costs, such as gas and food. She received about $ 8,400 federal financial aid over the past school year, as well as $ 4,000 state aid.

Many of about 2 million students in the California Community are low-income-some are even homeless-and abbott, they rely on federal help to cover daily costs. In its budget, Trump offers the termination of long -standing programs that offer academic consultations and cash to low -income students who are the first generation in their families who visit college. The Education Department has already moved Turn off the students No legal status from accessing this program.

Earlier this year the Association for Advocacy of Presidents and Trustees at the California College asked the state to help compensate for the impact of the abbreviations of the federal budgetBut the state has predicted budget deficit and Governor Gavin Newpom’s budget offers do not mention the association’s request.

Funded or not, federal programs at risk

The federal budget is even more complicated. Given Trump’s proposal, the controlled Republican Congress is drawing up a cost bill that the president must ultimately sign. The House of Representatives presented it spending In April, but unlike Trump’s budget, the Chamber’s version did not mention the 2023 print of pride centers in San Diego or the US Education Fund to improve post -school education.

This is probably because the house is focused on high dollar programs, said Iris Palmer, director of Community policy at The Think Tank New America. She said the Fund for improving post -conversion, about $ 200 million a year, was “even a bucket drop”.

Even if the Congress funds higher education programs that Trump wants to reduce, Palmer said the administration could try to avoid their implementation. “They fired everyone,” she said, “it’s very difficult to implement gratuitous programs.”

Nevertheless, the pride centers in San Diego are planning to exhaust their federal funds no later than next summer, and the design scars are a one-off grant. All that said, about half of the budget of the center of Mesa Pride comes from the federal note, Lira said. The rest is from the state and the state legislative body signals that the money will continue, At least next year.

Smith, the San Diego District Chancellor, did not specify exactly how the Pride center would handle the cuts, although he said that some resources “will definitely disappear”.

After the lavender holiday is over, several students and volunteers remain cleaning, including Valerie Seng, a professor of medical care at Mesa College, and Sage Shevkolenko, a student and project assistant at the Pride Center. In a community where some students do not feel comfortable to get home or go out, they are a bright place: Sevkolenko is the mother.

“It means a lot,” Shevkolenko said, citing his mother’s presence at the event, as the two helped take down the streams and began dismantling the branded background, where students took pictures in their caps. “I know many families do not have this privilege.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.