A crowd of hundreds converged in front of the Lexington courthouse Saturday to protest a wide range of Trump administration policies.
Hands Off Lexington was one of more than 1,000 such protests nationwide that took place on Saturday. Those attending protested against federal workforce layoffs, Social Security cuts and hostile policies towards immigrants and transgender people.
Harry Neack is one of the event’s organizers and works with Bluegrass Activist Alliance. He says the event covered a wide range of policies.
“The sciences are under attack, the CDC, the NIH, those things are being shut down or impeded. Education is being impeded or shut down entirely. Those are very important issues to us all,” Neack said. “I saw somebody with a sign that said, ‘Too many issues, not enough cardboard.’”
Sarah Fightmaster Bayerle is the President of the state’s American Federation of Teachers union, KY 120 United. She says she’s concerned about federal cuts to education.
“There are so many things at risk here, special education services, arts and music classes. You know, the loss of teacher jobs, we're already over capacity in our schools, so to lose positions is going to have a devastating effect on those kids, the kids that I see every day, and the kids who need us the most,” Bayerle said.
Neack says other such events in other Kentucky cities were scheduled for Saturday but were called off because of weather concerns. They plan to hold rescheduled rallies next weekend.
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