Nathan Webster, a second-year electrical engineering major at Ohio State, learned about the Democratic Socialists of America through protests in his hometown, Painesville, Ohio, aimed at abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I come from a largely Latino town — some of my friends lost their parents to Border Patrol,” Mr. Webster said.
“Near the end of high school, I realized what politics were and where I fall on the political spectrum,” he added. “Originally I told myself, ‘O.K., I’m a Democrat,’ because I didn’t know any better. I didn’t know that there was something that could be more left.”
For Ricky Vehar, an environmental engineering major, coming out as gay and then coming out as trans moved her closer to the Young Democratic Socialists of America.
“From my background, you wouldn’t really expect me to become super left. I grew up in a middle-class family, in a good suburb,” she said, adding that watching “the discrimination that those communities face not just because they’re gay or trans, but because the system incentivizes discrimination against them, moved me toward the left.”
James Fisher, a second-year student and a co-chair of the O.S.U. chapter, joined the group for similar reasons: they support giving trans teenagers and adults better access to health care through Medicare for All.
“Medicare for All can benefit the trans community in their ability to get good health care, and that’s something that a lot of trans people struggle with,” Mx. Fisher said. “It’s embedded in the language of Medicare for All, that there’s no exclusionary measures to it.”