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Local Doctors form Anti-Trump Group and will Protest during RNC

Dr. Fatima Fadlalla and Dr. Bryan Hambley hold up t-shirts they've worn while protesting Donald Trump. (Darrielle Snipes/ideastream)

Of the 37 groups  approved to  demonstrate  this week during the four days of the Republican National Convention, many oppose Trump's candidacy. 

One of those groups is made up of doctors, nurses and young professionals and they are scheduled to protest tomorrow.  Its founding member Doctor Bryan Hambley didn't expect to be in the spotlight.

 Ideastream's Darrielle Snipes reports it all began on a whim just before Ohio's primary back in March.
 

At a Trump rally inside an airport hangar just outside Cleveland, thousands of eyes turned suddenly on Dr. Bryan Hambley.

The 31 year-old medical resident stood up and chanted, “stop the bigotry.”

 “We were a little nervous this is out of our comfort zone,” said Dr. Hambley. “We have never interrupted a speech before.   Probably never will again. We are not an active protest crew."

 Dr. Hambley was wearing a t-shirt that read "Muslim doctors save lives every day."  He says he wore it to dispute Trump's plan to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. Hambley says he’s a busy doctor and normally doesn’t have time to be politically active…Then Trump won the Indiana primary, where Hambley grew up, and then went on to become the presumptive nominee, to the doctor's disbelief

 “We got scared,” he said.  “I don't know what America looks like the day after Trump wins a presidential election. I don't know what race relations looks like after Trump wins a presidential election, gender policy.”

Out of that fear came Stand Together against Trump or STAT.

“It was a circumstance. If the Republicans had nominated anyone but Trump, our group would not exists at all,” Dr. Hambley said.  “We wouldn’t be protesting any other Republican candidates. We are not protesting conservative ideas.”

Dr. Hambley says the group, made up of Democrats and Republicans, has grown into the hundreds. Through grass-root efforts it now includes other young professionals and organizations such as Pittsburg-based Historians against Trump. They are all planning to protest at the Republican National Convention, many for the first time. Including Dr. Fatima Fadlalla who said “I think that is what is scary is that this is somebody who maybe one of the leaders of the free world.”

She’s an American-born Muslim, whose parents moved from Sudan in the 1980's.

Dr. Fadlalla wears a traditional hijab to cover her head and says Trump’s views on Muslims and other minorities is dividing the country.

“Whether you are African-American whether you are Jewish whatever you ascribe to I think it is very frustrating when anybody puts the burden of a few individuals on the shoulders of an entire group. It gets tiresome to kind of feel that you need to defend an entire people,” she said.

Back at the Trump rally, Dr. Hambley remembers a comment as he and his friend were escorted out.  

“The security guard said his father had had a heart attack and went to a hospital in Cleveland and his heart surgeon had been a Muslim doctor. People, when they have individual human interactions with each other think better of each other than trump talks about them.”

University Hospitals one of the medical facilities where Dr. Hambley practices said in written statement “We respect the right of our employees to express their opinions.”

Stand Together Against Trump is planning a march and rally on the day Trump is expected to accept the nomination.