"What the r/DenverProtests Subreddit does, the need that it serves is that we aggregate all of these different protests from all of these different groups in one easy-to-find place," says the Subreddit's moderator, u/xConstantGardenerx, who requests anonymity. "I don't know of anybody else that is doing that right now."
The Subreddit has details on upcoming protests organized by various groups across Colorado. At the top of the page this week are details of a protest scheduled for Saturday, March 1, at a Tesla dealership in Superior in response to the car brand's CEO, Elon Musk, who's tasked with firing a huge chunk of the federal workforce. A little lower are plans to gather at the Colorado Capitol at noon Tuesday, March 4, to join the national "Fight for Democracy" protest.
Other posts have details on a gathering at the Capitol for International Women's Day on March 8, as well as plans for a rally outside the Denver Marriott Tech Center, 4900 South Syracuse Street, on March 28 to protest Steve Bannon's address to the Colorado GOP.
In addition to protests, the Subreddit has information on organizational meetings hosted by the Denver branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, as well as trainings offered by the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America for groups that want to start unions.
Users also turn to the Subreddit to share their thoughts about immigration, post links to stories about Trump, and call out bills in the Colorado Legislature. The site has phone numbers for everything from the offices of Colorado Congressman Gabe Evans, a Republican pushing for stricter immigration enforcement, to the Colorado Rapid Response Network, a group that tries to track and report ICE raids across the state.
"It's for anyone who is scared of what's going on at the federal level. Anyone who is angry, frustrated, unhappy with what's going on right now," u/xConstantGardenerx says. "It's a safe space for people who are immigrants, trans people, people of color, marginalized groups."
Now that Trump is back in office, Denver has seen grassroots organizations pop up and demonstrations develop without clear leaders. Many of these protests are coming together in solidarity with nationwide movements.
Three young Denver women who had never organized a protest put together Denver's People March on January 18, in coordination with a national movement that replaced the Women's March that had formed after Trump first took office in 2017. In Aurora on January 25, protesters filled Fletcher Plaza to voice their fears about Trump's plans on a range of issues, including immigration, foreign policy and women's rights.
The Fifty State protest on February 5 saw about 5,000 people come out in solidarity as part of a nationwide effort to denounce Project 2025. An anti-ICE protest that attracted about 3,000 people came three days later. A Presidents' Day protest at the Capitol followed on February 17, part of another nationwide push.
"I've been absolutely shocked at the numbers they've had," says u/xConstantGardenerx.
The r/DenverProtests Subreddit has been around since May 2020, when it was created to publicize protests in response to the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. After the election of Joe Biden as president that November, the page became dormant, according to u/xConstantGardenerx.
When Israel's war in Gaza began in October 2023, u/xConstantGardenerx tried to organize pro-Palestine protests on both r/DenverProtests and r/Denver, a Subreddit meant for posts generally relevant to such local subjects as where to get the best pizza.
Protesters continue showing up in large numbers to the Colorado State Capitol to oppose President Donald Trump's presidency, as they did for the President's Day protest on February 17.
Bennito L. Kelty
After requesting to become the moderator of r/DenverProtests, she took over the Subreddit at the end of November 2023. At the time, the page only had about 10,000 subscribers, but nearly 3,000 more have joined in the past thirty days because of outrage over Trump's actions. She had to recruit two more moderators to help, and still spends hours every day managing the Subreddit.
"Before Trump got elected, I was spending maybe a half hour on it a week," she says. "Now I probably spend two to three hours a day moderating."
As the moderator, she's in charge of enforcing Subreddit rules such as "don't be an asshole," "do not promote violence" and "no hate speech." She can remove posts and comments, but she and her co-moderators have to comb through comments every day to find and take out abusive language.
She has no qualms about sharing her political bias, however. She describes herself and her team of moderators as "leftists," while most of the new subscribers "are more traditional, left-leaning Democrats." She has "zero tolerance for right-wing opinions," which means the Subreddit is "not a safe space for Trump supporters. It's just not," she says.
"I don't personally feel like we need to be nice to people who are bigoted, transphobic, things like that. I don't see the value in that," she adds. "They're welcome to start their own protest Subreddit. I would argue they don't have much to protest because their guy won and they have the majority in Congress."
The size of Denver's protests has recently started to die down. A "No Kings" demonstration at the Colorado Capitol on February 24 brought out only about a dozen people. There was a small turnout at the protest of a bill aimed at reversing Colorado's "sanctuary state" laws and allowing more cooperation with ICE on February 25; fortunately for those protesters, Colorado's Democratic legislators killed the bill later that day.
Protesters are crediting the r/DenverProtests Subreddit with keeping them active, however. Gabby Henrey, a protester at the Capitol on February 24 waving a "Trump = Lies" sign at oncoming traffic, says that the importance of r/DenverProtests is "huge" because she wants to keep coming out to denounce Trump.
"It's the only platform I want to go to. I actually don't enjoy Instagram or kind of the more corporate platforms," she says. "I'm looking for more grassroots...sometimes grassroots needs a platform."
After going to the Fifty State action, Elio Rivera wanted to protest more often, and turned to r/DenverProtests and BlueSky, which is similar to the Elon Musk-owned platform X and was flooded with people who left X because of Musk's politics. "I've been looking out on Reddit, BlueSky and being proactive about asking people and being online," Rivera says. "You have to really be proactive about asking around about protests."
Despite being in charge of Denver's busiest online protester hub, u/xConstantGardenerx says she doesn't believe that protesting does much without people taking additional steps. For her, the best part about protesting is the community.
"I don't know that the government gives a shit how many of us are out there yelling at them," she says. "When I go out there, it's reminding myself that I'm not alone. There are thousands of other people who feel the same way that I do."
