Vashon says: ‘No Kings’

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Vashon’s biggest group of demonstrators yet this year amassed at the island’s main four-way stop on Vashon Highway and Bank Road to decry the administration of President Donald Trump.

The huge crowd — which first amassed in Ober Park before marching to the heart of Vashon town — eclipsed previous, similar protests from this year. The throngs of demonstrators stretched down past Thriftway and into the Farmers Market going north, past U.S. Bank and to Café Luna going west, and down the street near Voice of Vashon going south. In total, The Beachcomber estimated that roughly 800 people attended the demonstration.

Colorful signs mocked Donald Trump and Elon Musk, called for the protection of immigrants, women, people of color and queer people and called for an end of the unending bloodshed of Palestinians in the Middle East.

It was just one of many “No Kings” protests held in communities across the country, and the reach of Vashon’s activism spread far beyond the island. Islanders attended off-island rallies, including in Seattle. Demonstrators carried one of the Backbone Campaign’s giant U.S. Constitutions in Seattle, and another in Los Angeles — the latter of which featured in the centerpiece of the front page of the Sunday Los Angeles Times.

Saturday’s protest on the island was organized by Indivisible Vashon, and Vashon’s former state legislator Sharon Nelson addressed the Vashon crowd before they set off.

“As a former state senator, I never thought I would stand before you and ask you to protest against our president, because he is moving this country towards fascism,” she said. “He wants a dictatorship that benefits him, his family and the oligarchs. Our resistance today and in the future is critical.”

Noting that the day of national protests coincided with graduation day on Vashon — and referencing the politically motivated detention of Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk — Nelson said: “Our graduates … deserve a democracy that we are working to preserve. They deserve a future where they do not have to fear if they disagree with their government … where they can write an opinion letter in their college paper, their local newspaper, and not fear retribution.”

“Enough is enough,” she concluded. “No kings. No dictators. Democracy is our future and we demand it.”

Protestors at the four-way stop sung and chanted “Lock him up!” and “Donald Trump has got to go!” A near-constant cacophony of honking cars encouraged them on.

“I feel like it’s hard to know what to expect every coming day, but one thing that’s been reliable is that the administration’s actions just seem to get more and more concerning and scary,” said 19-year-old Richard Barrett-Wood. “While it feels like it’s difficult to persevere and difficult to survive in the current state … there’s clearly a lot of support and a lot of community and people who agree with you, if you are feeling the same as all these protesters. And there’s a lot of resilience and perseverance among our communities.”

She was surprised and impressed by the turnout: “I’m very glad to see all these people out here putting a lot of effort and time and being so enthusiastic.”

Her friend, 20-year-old Eden Lyle, held a sign which read “Trump is not above the law.”

“I’m just really tired of not being heard, and so having this big of a group hearing my people’s voices is really, really, like, encouraging and cool,” Lyle said.

Lyle identified LGBTQ issues as one of his priorities: “I am a member of the community myself, and it does affect me directly,” he said. “And it’s just the fact that he genuinely is so against us, and [against] trans people in general, both being in sports and just existing. He does not believe in us, and I think that’s just harmful. I think the fact that he refuses to see that we exist is harsh.”

Maria Porter Steward held a sign which read “We stand with our immigrant neighbors + friends.”

“I think what I’m seeing is families being torn apart by this administration,” she said. “People’s due process being entirely taken away. … It’s just a really scary time right now. … I think by showing up in Vashon, we are telling our immigrant neighbors that we care.”

Alongside her was nine-year-old David Miles Steward, carrying a sign which read “Human Rights For All!”

“Last time I was at a protest, it definitely wasn’t as big as this,” he said. “I think we’re doing really good on Vashon to do our best to protect our country.”

Sarah Wright, wearing a tall cardboard crown emblazoned with “No Kings” and “No Clowns,” said Trump’s policies are “profoundly racist and sexist,” and said protests like the one on Vashon are encouraging.

“We’re on a dangerous path towards authoritarianism,” Wright said. “I’m really concerned about people’s safety, brown people’s safety, in our country, and Vashon is such a sort of protected place, but I feel like it’s really important that everybody, everywhere, speak up.”

Top of mind for Stephen Bogan, another attendee at the demonstration, is “seeing families and kids picked up at workplaces, at schools, thrown into cars with no identification,” and other incidents like the forced removal of Sen. Alex Padilla from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference last week.

“It’s hard to contain the daily outrage,” he said.

Why take action on Vashon? Islander Yasmin Ravard-Andresen said that in a local setting, it means something to see the people you know getting involved.

“In Seattle, it can feel sometimes more anonymous, but here I see my neighbors,” she said. “I see who revs their engine. I see who joins in. All that that feels really intimate and risky, and vulnerable. People know my face, but I see their face too.”

Ravard-Andresen, like many demonstrators, said it’s not just one moral indignity that makes action important — it’s the shared struggle for a healthy and just world.

“Whether it’s immigration crisis, climate crisis, the U.S. war machine, queer, trans safety, all of it is connected,” she said. “I come from a long lineage of black queer women that have always made these connections. This is not new. … Folks that maybe are marching for the first time are thinking about their social social security. It’s our tax dollars that connect all these issues, too. And so it shouldn’t be hard to see how they’re not separate issues, and they’re coming from the same root of settler colonial violence … It’s not just Trump, it’s not one person.”

And for those who want to stay involved, she said: “Don’t despair.”

“Read more books. Pick something and put your money where your sign is — whether it’s buying an eSIM (a cell phone data card) for someone in Gaza today, or showing up at the federal building for folks lawfully showing up for their court hearings and getting kidnapped. Pick something, and don’t despair. Comfortable people despairing doesn’t help anyone.”