Students Protest Against New Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett
Natalie Lahr, Emily Redling, Megan Bawden, Reina Uzunov, Anja Roozen, Emma Bullen, Ian Justus, Brooke Ryan, Linda Brothers, Kylie Evans, Lilly Swenson, Gabe Sodl, Kaitlyn Cook, Elijah Hoch and Mason Morgan stood with signs up.
About 20 students and parents could be seen Friday Oct. 30 holding signs and flags to show their support of the LGBTQ+ community and women’s rights. The protest, organized by Sedro-Woolley high school junior Natalie Lahr, was an outcry against Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to Supreme Court and the threat she poses to LGBTQ+ and women’s rights.
When asked why she organized the protest, Lahr said she “didn’t think twice”.
“After Barrett was appointed, I felt hopeless. I knew many others like myself who did as well,” she said. “I needed to try and do something, anything, to show that we would stand by the communities effected.”
Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to serve on the Supreme Court last week by President Donald Trump, leading to an uproar from many Democratic politicians as well as citizens of marginalized communities. This opposition was not only due to her rushed confirmation and limited experience, but her opinions on the LGBTQ+ community and her previous rulings.
For many students who arrived to protest, her actions cut deep. Sedro-Woolley High School senior Emily Redling felt a responsibility to speak out.
“We have a duty to stand with survivors [of sexual assault] and fight against Amy Coney Barrett,” Redling said.
She discussed Barrett’s previous rulings, including her ruling on a 2019 workplace discrimination case in which she determined the use of the n-word in a workplace had not created a “hostile or abusive work environment”.
“Tell me how a slur that was used to abuse and oppress black people is not hostile,” she said of the case.
In 2015, Barrett signed a letter specifying marriage as an “indissoluble commitment of a man and a woman,” suggesting an opposition to marriage equality. She also received funding from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group that has been designated as a LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Barrett is also a self-proclaimed “Constitutional originalist”, meaning she interprets the Constitution in it’s “original meaning”. This viewpoint is one that leaves out the rights and interests of women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people.
“Not only has Amy Coney Barrett vowed to disband gay marriage, she has referred to LGBTQ identities as ‘sexual preferences’. As if we chose a life of being targeted. As if we choose to be told our love was wrong and dirty and perverse,” she said.
Two speeches were given by SWHS students, the other being given by organizer Lahr.
The protesters gathered around the gazebo chanting “Speech, speech speech!” as Lahr took her place at the top of the stairs, megaphone in hand.
“I want to say thank you all for coming,” she started. “But I also want to say I wish none of you had to be here”.
Lahr addressed the issues currently being attacked by the Trump administration, such as reproductive healthcare, LGBTQ+ rights and the protection of POC as “basic necessities”. These “necessities” are all things Barrett’s presence on the Supreme Court threatens to take away.
“In other words, she will walk through every door that Ruth worked her entire career to open and close it behind her,” Lahr said.
