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Hundreds Protest Trump's Election In St. Petersburg

Protestors against President-elect Donald Trump march through downtown St. Petersburg
Quincy Walters
/
WUSF News
Protestors against President-elect Donald Trump march through downtown St. Petersburg

Hundreds of people marched through downtown St. Petersburg Sunday night, continuing a wave of nationwide protests to Tuesday's election of Donald Trump as president.

In St. Petersburg, a diverse crowd--young, old, black, Latino, white, gay and straight in solidarity, chanting "Love trumps hate" and "Donald Trump has got to go". 

There were even a couple of Trump supporters who heckled protestors. T.J. Pimenta of Tampa stuck his middle fingers at protestors and yelled obscene remarks in addition to "I love Trump" before being told to "back up" by a police officer. 

"[Trump] won the electoral college. Get over it," he said. "You gotta get behind the person and make America great again."

He said no one protested when President Barack Obama was elected. 

Lady Byrd, a protestor who is from Clearwater, said she has a theory about that. 

"No one did this when Obama was elected, because it was a legitimate election," she said. 

She feels that the protesting should've been done before the election. 

"It should've started in the beginning of the election when Trump started with all of his misogyny, his racism," she said. "We should've been doing this then." 

Carlos Lovett of St. Petersburg said "the damage has already been done". But said as a gay, black man he couldn't just sit home and do nothing. 

"With (Trump) standing with somebody like (Vice President-elect Mike) Pence, it speaks volumes to the gay community," he said. "It's time for unity for the people standing up for what's right." 

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Quincy Walters
Quincy J. Walters is a junior at USF, majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing. His interest in journalism spurred from the desire to convey compelling narratives. He has written for USF’s student paper, The Oracle and is currently the videographer for Creative Pinellas. If he’s not listening to NPR, he’s probably listening to Randy Newman.