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NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Volume 160 No. 26 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
UndocuSpartan aids Dreamers Resource center helps undocumented Spartans apply for financial aid and more By Enrique Gutierrez-Sevilla STAFF WRITER
San Jose State welcomes the admission of undocumented students. Undocumented students in California have the opportunity to pursue higher education through Assembly Bill 540, or AB 540, and the California Dream Act. AB 540 was introduced in 2001, and it allows any student who has completed three years of California high school to pay in-state tuition, according to the 2023 California Student Aid Commission’s report “Renewing the Dream.” The California Dream Act, composed of AB 130 and AB 131, was enacted in 2011, and the bills enable undocumented students who meet the AB 540 eligibility requirements to receive financial aid and other institutional aid from a university. Undocumented students are encouraged by administrators and universities to apply for state financial aid through the California Dream Act application. Other undocumented students enter university through the federal government’s Deferred Action DACA | Page 2
INFOGRAPHIC BY CAROLYN BROWN SOURCE: CALIFORNIA STUDENT AID COMMISSION
San Jose community celebrates trans visibility By Alina Ta STAFF WRITER
LGBTQ+ community members and allies united with their trans siblings in fighting for their human rights at San Jose’s City Hall on Trans Day of Visibility. Silicon Valley Pride hosted the community event on Friday to demand queer and trans youth autonomy. Silicon Valley Pride is an organization in the Bay Area which focuses on celebrating and supporting the LGBTQ+ community and its allies, according to its website. Outside of City Hall, members of the community and their allies formed a wall of signs to show their support as they chanted “we will not be erased.” Sera Fernando, Silicon Valley Pride chief diversity officer, said she wanted to uplift voices in the community. “[We wanted to] show that we have our story to tell as well,” she said. Fernando, who identifies as a trans Filipino woman, said the event is a part of a national movement from the Queer Youth Assembly. The Queer Youth Assembly is a nonprofit that serves LGBTQ+ youth under the age of 25 in the U.S., according to its webpage. As she spoke in front of the crowd, Fernando said the goal of this movement is to promote four specific demands. Fernando said the first demand is to have sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression codified or solidified as part of Title IX. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits people from being discriminated against on the “basis of gender,” preventing them from being able to participate in educational or career opportunities, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court made a decision to clarify Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis
ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY
A person holds up a sign in support of trans youth at Silicon Valley Pride’s Trans Day of Visibility in front of San Jose City Hall on Friday.
of sexual orientation and transgender status, according to the same source. Title VII is a federal employment law that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national orientation, according to Cornell Law School’s
website. However, the U.S. Department of Justice states Title VII and Title IX are two distinct statutes or two different laws. Fernando said the issue is that Title IX doesn’t identify sexual orientation or
Drag queens and transgender people are not monsters that they’re painting us to be. We are just regular people. Tori Tia drag queen
gender identity. She said this creates an issue where states can create laws or bills that define LGTBQ+ inclusion or what it means how to define sexual orientation, creating a space to develop bills that discriminate against the trans community. “What we want to do is make sure that, like, if it’s a nationwide legislative effort, then that will not allow states to have these anti-LGBTQ bills,” Fernando said. “That’s a one point of view, federal protection, not just statewide protections.” She said their second demand is to PRIDE | Page 3