State College locals protested Wednesday against the GOP’s attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Around 15 people held up signs outside the Allen Street Gates.
Webster’s Bookstore Café owner Elaine Meder-Wilgus held a sign shaped like a tombstone. She said she’s seeing a lot of misinformation on the Affordable Care Act.
“Healthcare is how we show what kind of human beings we are," Meder-Wilgus said. "And to have our government officials play with it as if it is some sort of mandate on like, just slapping Obama in the face, I mean that’s what it feels like to me, and there are people’s lives at stake here. I want them to really understand that.”
The GOP is currently debating two other proposals that would only partially repeal the ACA, but offer no replacement bill.
Protesters, including Penn State professor of bioethics Jonathan Brockopp, were also upset about Donald Trump’s tweet saying the government will not accept transgender individuals into the military.
“Of course this is just mean because transgender people have been serving the military forever," Brockopp said. "And so to specifically exclude a whole class of people on the basis of something that is a part of them I think is ignorant of our history and in fact really demeaning and of course discriminatory.”
Trump’s decision would reverse Barack Obama’s policy – still under final review – that would allow openly transgender individuals to serve in the military.
