UF professor Sean Trainor walked into his classroom Wednesday morning dressed in black.
He tore up his original plans for his American History to 1877 class and decided instead to make a slideshow of Martin Luther King Jr. quotes and photos of influential African-Americans including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.
After about 10 minutes, he told his students they could leave.
When no one stood up, Trainor asked students for their thoughts on the presidential election and the fact that Donald Trump will be the next U.S. president. A tense discussion among Trump supporters and Hillary Clinton supporters ensued.
“I really just don’t know how I feel about it,” Trainor said afterward.
While some students, faculty members and residents woke up excited about the prospect of a President Trump, others — including members of the Muslim and LGBTQ+ communities — felt disappointed or angry.
Debbie Weiss, a mental health counselor at the UF Counseling & Wellness Center, said the center received a handful of calls and some in-person visits on Election Day and the morning after from concerned students.
“I think it’s present for a lot of people,” she said. “It’s even affecting the staff. People are scared.”
Ernesto Escoto, the director of the center, said he spoke with students throughout the day who said they were shocked and grieving, unable to understand how Trump was elected.
“That’s a reflection also of how distant we are from each other,” he said.
Ronnie Sartain woke up Wednesday morning and started wiping the purple swastika off of his garage door.
The symbols, spray-painted on his garage, walkway and Trump-Pence lawn signs, appeared about two weeks ago. Though Sartain said he would leave his garage vandalized until after Trump became president — as a way to show passersby just how polarizing the election became — he didn’t expect Trump would win the election.
Elsewhere, on the 34th Street Wall, motorists could see a mural of Trump painted in the likeness of Adolf Hitler, with an infamous Nazi slogan that translated to “One People, One Nation, One Leader.”
Admitting he is not sure what Trump will actually do as commander in chief, Sartain said he hopes Trump’s presidency brings about change in the country, with congressional term limits and an affordable health care system that doesn’t hurt doctors.
“The question now is, ‘What is Trump going to do?’” he said. “I don’t see a platform. I see an opportunity for change.”
With Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who as Indiana’s Governor once proposed funding homosexual-conversion therapy, members of the LGBTQ+ community have reason to worry, but they must be proactive, said Terry Fleming, the president of the Florida LGBTA Democratic Caucus.
A Gainesville resident, Fleming said Trump’s selection of a “homophobe” is very telling of how he views the nation’s LGBTQ+ population. He said the caucus would continue vying for pro-LGBTQ+ candidates locally and nationally.
“We encourage members of the community to get involved, to make a difference, to make sure our rights continue to be represented,” he said.
For Laura Goodhue, the vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida, the prospect of Trump defunding its system of women’s health clinics — including one in Gainesville — is nothing new.
“Planned Parenthood has been (in the U.S.) for 100 years, and one thing is clear: We will never back down,” she wrote in a statement issued Wednesday.
Maryam Akinyode wore her hijab proudly Wednesday, despite other Muslim women deciding not to wear them after learning of Trump’s victory.
Akinyode, the vice president of external affairs for Islam on Campus, said she was angry and sad that Trump, who once argued for a ban on Muslim immigration, would soon become her president. She said she was speaking on behalf of herself, not the organization.
“As minorities, we work so hard to be accepted by this society,” the 21-year-old UF international studies and political science senior said. “But there’s still such a large amount of hatred toward us.”
Rod Gonzalez, the vice president of the Gainesville Tea Party, said he voted for Trump in part because of his immigration policy.
Gonzalez, who emigrated from Venezuela and has been a U.S. citizen for 20 years, said the U.S. can’t afford the number of immigrants presently coming into the country.
While he said his beliefs don’t entirely align with the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, Gonzalez hopes Trump will support small-business owners by cutting the number of regulations and lowering taxes.
“We saw Mr. Trump as really the only alternative to change,” he said. “Will we regret it down the road? Who knows.”
Chelsea MacKenzie, a 26-year-old Clinton supporter, looks up at the TV in shock as the election results become more evident at First Magnitude Brewing Company on Tuesday evening. About 250 people attended the watch party, hosted by the Hillary Clinton campaign.
