THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN
Monday, November 16, 2020
Vol. 130, No. 26
OPINION
Let’s be better allies to the transgender community
COLLEGIAN.COM
It’s time to get educated on allyship By Cat Blouch @BlouchCat
A rallygoer holds up a Joe Biden-Kamala Harris sign outside the Colorado State Capitol hours after Biden was declared the president-elect, Nov. 7. PHOTO BY LUCY MORANTZ THE COLLEGIAN
CSU professors debrief 2020 election results Members of the political science department discuss ramifications of federal election By Samantha Ye @samxye4
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, political science professors from Colorado State University reviewed the results at the state and federal level during an online debriefing of the historic event. On the national scale, Democratic candidate Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential race by the Associated
Press. The House of Representatives maintained a slimmed-down Democratic majority, and two runoff races in Georgia will determine who controls the Senate. “I tend to think that this election really just revealed the deep divisions in the American electorate, and they are there, and they are going to continue,” said Kyle Saunders, a political science professor at CSU. Negative partisanship, or “an-
ger with the other side,” is strong and getting stronger, Saunders said. It’s both an elite phenomenon as well as a mass phenomenon, and, based on recent trends, it has led to a decline in trust and institutions “that are basically tearing our social fabric apart,” Saunders continued. “I do think it is one of the pressing problems of our time that affects our ability to solve a lot of the other problems that we face,”
Saunders said. Though it was already prevalent in 2016, Donald Trump is a figure who has further generated political polarization over the last four years, Saunders said. The panel of professors expressed their dismay at the sitting president’s baseless efforts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election results. see ELECTION on page 3 >>
Editor’s Note: All opinion section content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board. This week is Transgender Awareness Week. Given that the transgender community has suffered in silence for far too long, living with an increased risk of mental health issues and sexual violence, it is crucial that we question what it means to be a proper ally. Sitting down with members of the transgender community highlighted that part of being an ally is not just about not being transphobic. An ally is anti-transphobic. Former Colorado State University student and social media influencer Alex Boyum mentioned that while he feels better after coming out as transgender, it has not been an all positive experience. He said, “I am also now putting myself in danger just by existing because of how I identify.” Transgender people often live with the daily fear of not only simple microaggressions but the fear that bigotry could escalate into physical violence, as is an unfortunate experience for many within the community. That is why taking this week to educate ourselves and move forward with the proper tools to be an ally is so important — if hate toward the community shows itself in such a violent way, then it is our due diligence to be sure that we are not unknowingly adding to this fear simply due to ignorance. “There’s this phrase that bothers me so much: ‘preferred pronouns,’ because it’s implying that — if I want to use they/them pronouns — they’re not my real pronouns; it’s just what I want to be called,” said Lab Ducote, a thirdyear geology student at Colorado State University. see ALLIES on page 4 >>