Sofie Farmer, a recent college graduate from Kentucky who attended a college out of state, has been involved in different forms of student advocacy for a long time. Several years ago, when the state she attended college in passed anti-trans legislation, Farmer got involved in efforts to fight back. Over her senior year, Farmer participated in pro-Palestine activism on her campus, as solidarity encampments popped up on college campuses across the United States in protest of Israel's war on Gaza. 

“A community of people who were willing to show up every single day, 24 hours a day for 30 days,” said Farmer about her experience over the 2024 spring.  “I slept outside with these people. I shared tents with them. I huddled under umbrellas while it rained.” 

Even when the university forced the encampment to disband, making it that long felt like an accomplishment. “For people to keep fighting even when it felt like there wasn't a lot of hope, that felt like a real success,” Farmer said.

 As of July 2024, over 3,100 people had been arrested or detained on college campuses in the U.S., according to The New York Times. In April 2025, the Human Rights Watch detailed a  “wider crackdown on noncitizen students and academics,” including arrests and deportations of students expressing political views.

 Farmer said that at one point, people were arrested, and their fellow students paid to bail them out of jail. “We had built a community where people could come together and could care for each other,” she continued.

A lot of advocacy in general, including student advocacy, is community building, Farmer said. “There are relationships that I have formed with other people on my campus across the city and across the country that I never would have made if I hadn't gotten involved.”

Farmer is just one of many students from Kentucky who are engaging in activism efforts within their communities, both in Kentucky and beyond. Young people have contributed to meaningful impact in society as activists and organizers throughout history, from being on the frontlines of the civil rights movement to protesting against budget cuts and school closings and leading walkouts and marches against gun violence. 

Over the past two years, Kentucky students have hosted voter registration drives ahead of the 2024 election, led a bus tour across the state, contributing to the defeat of school vouchers, organized walkouts, filed a lawsuit against the state to protect their education rights, and much more.

And their efforts haven’t stopped. 

Students from Kentucky spoke with The New Edu about their efforts around what they see as key issues over the past several years, including supporting trans youth, political engagement, fighting censorship, and more. 

Trans KY Storytelling Project and In-School Protests 

In March 2023, the Kentucky Senate and House passed SB 150, an anti-trans piece of legislation, into law. SB 150 was vetoed by Governor Andy Beshear, who wrote that it would “endanger the children of Kentucky.” 

His veto was overridden by the Kentucky legislature, and the bill enacted into law. 

Among its many stipulations, the bill prohibits gender-affirming medical care for trans youth, limits what schools can teach about gender and sexuality, prohibits schools from acknowledging students’ preferred pronouns and restricts students from using restrooms that are aligned with their identities. Before SB 150 passed, hundreds protested outside Kentucky’s state Capitol, according to reporting from The Courier Journal. 

Anna Marasco-Quibrera, a student at Transylvania University, recalls other forms of action, too. “There were walkouts in schools across the state,” Marasco Quibrera recalled. At their own school, “ there were trans students that gave speeches, and it was really, really impactful,” Marasco Quibrera said.

Amid a hectic political climate, Marasco-Quibrera was determined to confront SB 150. “Talking to some friends, we realized that a lot of us that would be hurt by the bill are trans students that are closeted, or trans students that wouldn't be able to speak up when the law went into place and can't now, or weren't able to safely protest,” Marasco-Quibrera said. “We decided it would be best to do something else.”

That’s when Marasco-Quibrera created the Trans KY Storytelling Project, an Instagram page where stories from trans students all across the Commonwealth were showcased. “It started out of a necessity to create a safe place when your identity makes any space unsafe,” Marasco-Quibrera said. They started gathering content through Google Forms that asked community members, trans students, educators, and parents how SB 150 would affect them. 

Later, during a protest in Frankfort, organizers messaged the account, asking to use stories during the protest. “Some were read aloud, which felt pretty huge,” said Marasco-Quibrera, adding that the whole point was getting to these voices that weren’t being heard. “After that, I decided to start sending these testimonies directly to legislators' offices with permission of people that wrote [them],” Marasco-Quibrera said.

Marasco-Quibrera specified that the project doesn’t give a voice to trans people. It amplifies their stories. “The trans community has been speaking for a very long time,” they said. “It's just society refusing to listen. It is giving them a megaphone, kicking down doors, forcing others to hear.”

As of 2025, the TransKY Storytelling Project is no longer active, due to safety concerns amid the current political climate. “The project was created out of an urgent need to protect the most vulnerable in my community, and to continue to do that, I need to make sure that I am also not exposing them to unnecessary risk,” said Marasco-Quibrera. 

Another student, Georgie Farmer, a junior at Danville High School, recalled the moment that students flooded the halls of their school with posters and signs, chanting, “No hate in my state, let's get rid of Senate Bill 150.” While different in scope than Marasco-Quibrera’s project, it sent a message: Students are being affected, Farmer said.

The protest, which happened on February 24, after the bill was passed, was led by two other Danville students. Farmer said the goal was to show trans and queer students “even though this horrible thing has happened, there are still resources in the area. Not everyone wanted this to happen, and there is community for you.”

There were some students who didn’t support the message.

“There's still a problem with homophobia,” Farmer said. “At my school, while it's accepted, it's still sort of a joke to some people.” 

The biggest obstacle is finding the courage or bravery to talk about issues and stand up for it, Farmer said.

Youth in Politics and the Youngest Kentucky County Party Chair

For Nicholas Hazelett, chair of the Johnson County Democratic Party and youngest county party chair in Kentucky, serving since he was 19, politics was the forum to get involved in creating change in his community.

“I am young, but I still bring a lot to the table in experience and in viewpoints,” he said. Sometimes younger people do get resistance because of age, Hazelett said, but he thinks there’s a generational shift where many people, including young people, have more capacity to do the work.

Encouraging youth involvement in politics could lead to more voting participation.. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CICLE), in 2022, almost half of the young people surveyed said they were not contacted by any type of organization, candidate, or party. CIRCLE attributed confusing election policies, lack of information, and neglected civic learning as some of the barriers to voting. 

Within the Kentucky Young Democrats, Hazelett has helped ensure consistent communication and unity in coordination, hosted joint fundraisers, held joint agreements, and organized registration drives. “Realistically, it's just getting out there and making sure people know how to get involved and giving them specific ways that they can,” Hazelett adds. 

Hazelett has continued his work with the Johnson Democratic Party in 2025. Putting a women’s club back together, building community, and establishing advocacy partnerships with local animal shelters and nursing homes are just some of the party’s ongoing initiatives. “[We’re] making sure that we humanize our political messages and the Democratic Party's values,” Hazelett said. 

Apart from community organizing, it’s important for young people to feel represented in politics. A 2023 interview published by the Harvard Kennedy School noted “the deck is stacked against young adults’ presence in politics.” For increased youth participation, “we likely need to make them feel that formal politics is the forum for involvement.” 

“I think every student has a right to be active in student civic organizations. You can get involved at whatever level you see fit,” Hazelett says. “I think both sides should have an equal amount of advantage and opportunity for younger folks,” he continued.  “If you want to be in line running your county party or regional operation, go for it. I've tried to be a blueprint for folks that normally would always write themselves out.” 

Boyle Banned and Youth Activism on Social Media

During the 2023-2024 school year, PEN America tracked over 10,000 book bans. In 2025, the Trump administration stopped investigation into these bans, which “show a clear pattern of targeting authors of color, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community,” according to reporting from The Guardian.

 “I was borrowing a book from our school library about starting a Gay Straight Alliance chapter at our school, and [a teacher] messaged my mom to tell me to keep it because the school had just told her to remove all LGBTQ books and things mentioned to not be said at schools in SB 150,” says Callie Roessler, a senior at Boyle County High School. Boyle took initiative against censorship after the school district banned over 100 books from its schools at the end of last year. 

“It was definitely shocking to know that the school was going to be taking library books away from students. I really wanted to be a student voice who spoke up,” says Roessler. She started Boyle Banned alongside other students, an Instagram page to inform the school community about the ongoing bans. “I wanted other students to be aware of what was going on because many don't know the laws of the school,” she adds. 

Roessler says that social media has allowed everyone to have a voice.. A June 2023 report by the Pew Research Center found that “four-in-ten social media users say these platforms are very or somewhat important to them personally when it comes to finding others who share their views about important issues.” 

Student Advocacy Continues 

In 2025, students have continued to take action to improve their schools and communities. In February 2025, students rallied in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives on Kentucky university campuses. Community members rallied in Louisville in March 2025, in response to the Trump administration’s cuts to the education department. In June, thousands of Kentuckians joined a nationwide protest against current government policies. 

Students emphasize that they should be empowered to take action on important issues. Many of the issues we face now in politics are very personal, whether it’s about healthcare, education, LGBTQ+ issues, or something else, Hazelett said, noting that this is a diverse generation. At some point, there will be an issue that personally affects you, he added. “Regardless of the pushback, get involved,” Hazelett said. “Show them that your voice does matter [...] because it does.”