In the closing weeks of the 2024 general election people throughout the country are hearing more and more about Project 2025, a meticulous and extensive product of the Heritage Foundation which, in the months since its publication, has been endorsed by significant players throughout the sphere of Christian Nationalist influencers and activists. This blueprint outlines the Heritage Foundation’s visions and fantasies for a radically different America, where legal and cultural norms that have been gained by and then evolved over generations of labor done by activists of all faiths and none with an array of political views are tossed aside and we are dragged backward as a country to a darker, more dangerous age.
Project 2025 is a careful, rigorous, multifaceted playbook that lays out a plan that, if enacted even imperfectly and incompletely, would greatly harm our democracy. In the waning hours of the election, as millions of Americans go to cast their votes across the country, the American Humanist Association is proud to have launched the Democracy Not Theocracy campaign. One key facet of this campaign is the empowerment of humanist students and recent college graduates in states across the country, particularly key battleground states, as Democracy Defense Fellows. Today, we are excited to introduce three of our Democracy Defense Fellows, Luciano Joshua Gonzalez-Vega, Sydney Wilson, and Carlos Marquez. Let’s get to know them a little bit!
What is your educational background?
Luciano Joshua Gonzalez-Vega
Luciano: I was raised abroad and in the American Bible Belt. Before I was sixteen I had gone to school in three countries and two states. I attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) from 2013-2017, earning a degree in history and a minor in anthropology. In 2018 I went back to UNCG and began the process of earning a master’s degree in peace and conflict studies. I would eventually complete my master’s degree in 2021. I have lived in Greensboro for nine of the past ten years and I am happy to call the place home, which is part of my motivation for speaking out against Project 2025.
Sydney: I’m proud to be the daughter of first-generation college students who met at Alabama A&M University, an HBCU in Alabama known for being the first school to train African Americans to teach in segregated schools. I’m currently a graduating senior at Spelman College, where I study Comparative Women’s Studies, with a focus on activism and social movements, both historical and contemporary. I find my positionality as an HBCU student invaluable to the work we are doing, especially considering how Project 2025 and similar initiatives have and will continue to further disenfranchise HBCUs. Despite the critical role these institutions play within the Black community, their contributions have consistently been under attack since their inception.
Carlos: I am a first-generation college student, currently in my junior year at Arizona State University, studying Applied Business and Technology. I recently transferred from Mesa Community College after completing my Associates Degree in Business. My journey to get a degree has taken longer than expected with interruptions due to health concerns and finances. I feel a great privilege finally being able to attend full-time, but I also understand that for many that was and is not an option due to policy that prevents them from getting ahead, either because of their legal status or the costs associated with higher education. Project 2025 will amplify and empower the forces that kept me and many others from being able to get ahead in life and I’m here to do my part in preventing that from happening.
What motivates you to speak out against Project 2025?
Sydney Wilson
Sydney: What motivates me to speak out against Project 2025 is the profound sacrifices my grandparents and parents made for my brother and me to have opportunities they never had. Their determination to see us go further drives my commitment to ensure that future generations aren’t denied the rights and freedoms we’ve fought so hard to gain. The increasing repeal of human rights today is terrifying, especially when I hear stories from elders who lived through the Jim and Jane Crow eras and the Civil Rights Movement. They remind me how easily history can repeat itself if we aren’t vigilant. Project 2025 represents not just a policy shift, but a direct attack on the progress that generations of activists and everyday people sacrificed for, and I feel a deep responsibility to continue their fight.
Luciano: I am a Hispanic atheist who was raised in Latin America. I have many complex feelings about the places I spent my childhood, including a lot of love. That said, I do not want the United States to go the way some of the countries I was raised in have gone on pivotal issues like LGBTQ+ rights and bodily autonomy. Additionally, even in the parts of the United States I was raised in, Georgia and North Carolina, basic human rights have only rarely or recently been afforded to various different demographics. I don’t think anyone from those demographics, myself included, is eager to go back to a recent, worse age for ourselves. I know what Project 2025 intends to accomplish, and I am ready, and willing to do my part to arm my fellow Americans with the same knowledge I have. I believe that will be enough to motivate people to move against it, and the easiest, simplest method we have to prevent Project 2025 from being able to happen is to vote.
Carlos: Growing up in Phoenix I witnessed first-hand how bad public policy and fear-mongering were used to gate-keep higher education and punish minorities and immigrants without a voice. From laws like SB1070 (where people were racially profiled by police for “looking Illegal”) to Proposition 300 (which forced Dreamers to pay out-of-state tuition even if their families had spent most of their lives contributing to the state) a generation of people were locked up and held back by the same type of rhetoric and policies being proposed in Project 2025. I will use my voice to the best that I can and speak out against it. We cannot let generations of progress end here.
Can you talk a bit about your plans to help arm your community and state with knowledge regarding Project 2025?
Carlos Marquez
Luciano: I am physically disabled, and also chronically ill, which is not a pleasant combination. As a reflection of that I plan to launch a campaign that focuses on accessibility. I am launching a campaign that involves reaching out to groups (particularly both secular and collegiate, and both simultaneously when possible) throughout North Carolina, and beyond, to provide as many groups as possible with as many resources as I can. It is my hope and my mission to empower local groups with the means and resources to spread awareness of Project 2025 with their communities, friends, family members, and neighbors.
Sydney: My plan is to equip my community with essential knowledge about Project 2025 by encouraging everyone to develop a solid voting plan. Through voter education and outreach, I aim to dispel the misinformation often used to scare Black voters, ensuring they feel empowered and informed. By sharing accessible information from the American Humanist Association, I hope to guide people in making thoughtful and informed decisions that reflect their values on Election Day!
Carlos: Amid widespread misinformation, direct canvassing remains one of the most effective ways to cut through the noise and engage with people on critical issues. Although Project 2025 has faded from the spotlight in this late stage of the campaign, it remains a serious threat. I intend to keep reaching out to those who may not be aware of its implications, understand its potential impact, or believe it could be enacted. My goal is to help people stay informed and fully grasp what’s at stake in this election.
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