Many motivations drive women to DC for inauguration protest
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pro-abortion rights activists celebrate during a rally at the Supreme Court in Washington. The tens of thousands of women flocking to Washington for a march on the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration come packing a multitude of agendas, but are united in their loathing for Trump.
WASHINGTON >> Call them rebels with a cause. Or two. Or three. Or 10.
When throngs of women from around the nation converge on Washington for a march on the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, they will arrive driven by a multitude of motivations.
Gay rights, gun control, immigrant rights, equal pay, reproductive freedom, racial justice, worker rights, climate change, support for vaccinations: They all make the list of progressive causes that are attracting people to the Women’s March on Washington and its sister marches across the country and the world this coming Saturday.
“We are not going to give the next president that much focus,” says Linda Sarsour, a national march organizer and executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. “What we want from him is to see us in focus.”
But while Trump’s name may not literally appear in the march’s “mission and vision” statement, the common denominator uniting the marchers appears to be a loathing for the president-elect and dismay that so much of the country voted for him.
“This march feels like a chance to be part of something that isn’t pity, isn’t powerlessness,” says Leslie Rutkowski, an American living in Norway who plans to fly back for the march. “I hope it is unifying. I hope it flies in the face of Trump’s platform of hate and divisiveness.”
Adds Kelsey Wadman, a new mom in California who’s helping to organize a parallel march in San Diego: “It’s not just about Donald Trump the person. It’s about what he evoked out of the country.”
The march in Washington is set to start with a program near the Capitol and then move toward the White House. It probably will be the largest of a number of inauguration-related protests.
Christopher Geldart, the District of Columbia’s homeland security director, said he expected the march to draw more than the 200,000 people organizers are planning for, based on bus registrations and train bookings.
The focus of the march has been a work in progress since the idea of a Washington mobilization first bubbled up from a number of women’s social media posts in the hours after Trump’s election.
The group’s November application for a march permit summed up its purpose as to “come together in solidarity to express to the new administration & Congress that women’s rights are human rights and our power cannot be ignored.”
That phrasing rankled some who thought it was tied too closely to Hillary Clinton, the defeated Democratic nominee, whose famous Beijing speech as first lady declared that “women’s rights are human rights.” The fact that the initial march organizers were mostly white women also generated grumbling, this time from minorities. Gradually, the march’s leadership and its mission statements have become more all-inclusive.
Recent releases from march organizers state the event “intends to send a bold message to the incoming presidential administration on their first day in office, to leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and to the world, that we stand together in solidarity and expect elected leaders to act to protect the rights of women, their families and their communities.”
America Ferrera, leading the celebrity contingent for the march, rolled out a long list of concerns in a statement announcing her role.
“Immigrant rights, worker rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, racial justice and environmental rights are not special interests, they affect us all and should be every American’s concerns,” she wrote.
Other prominent names involved with the march have put a spotlight on one concern — or another.
Actress Scarlett Johansson, who plans to participate, put her focus on the incoming administration’s intentions of “reducing the availability of women’s health care and attacking her reproductive rights.” Actress Debra Messing, listed as a supporter of the march, wrote of the need to protect Planned Parenthood.
Expect thousands of the marchers to turn up wearing hand-knitted pink “pussyhats” — sending a message of female empowerment and pushing back against Trump’s demeaning comments about women.
Scan #WhyIMarch posts on social media, and you’ll find a wide-ranging list of reasons. A sampling: equal pay for women veterans, fighting chauvinism, empowering daughters, renouncing racism, higher pay for women who are college presidents.
Wadman, the California mom, tweeted a #WhyIMarch photo with her 4-month-old son and this note: “Because when my son asks me about this era of American history I don’t want to tell him that I did nothing.”
Rutkowski, the American living in Norway, emailed that she’s “not completely satisfied” with the mixed messages attached to the march.
“I also don’t like— from what I’ve seen in the news and on Facebook — the proclivity for infighting,” she wrote. “But I believe that a quarter of a million female bodies — hopefully more, hopefully men, as well — will make the incoming administration and new Congress aware that we are watching, we are listening and we will resist.”
Carmen Perez, one of the march’s national organizers, sees beauty in the many messages attached to the march: “Women don’t live single-issue lives and we are thrilled to be joined by women who understand and reflect the intersecting issues for which we stand.”
35 responses to “Many motivations drive women to DC for inauguration protest”
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Freedom of Speech….good.
Freedom of Expression…ok.
Freedom to Disrupt…not good.
Hope they use their reasonable & fair thinking & not go to the 3rd choice.
6 days to #MAGA
I would be there but have to work…
Which choice(s) would you chose?
Allie:
Regarding:
“I would be there but have to work…”
Flip those burgers !!!
My work is honest. I treat everyone with dignity. Trump looks down on the working class.
Irt to Allie. You don’t treat everyone with dignity. It’s either your way or the highway. You don’t treat people including Trump with honor and dignity. You are a joke, a hypocrite and your worse nightmare.
Jee Lespark, a little cranky today aren’t we? Woke up on the wrong side of the bed? How would you know if Allie does or does not treat everyone with dignity? Have you seen her work? Talked to her supervisor? I don’t think so but prove me wrong.
allie, you seem dyslexic. Trump is all for the working middle class and Americans. I think your dyslexia is getting in the way as Clinton and Obama wanted to grant amnesty to illegals to further flood the market with a bigger workforce to thin out the wages of the lower ranking workers. Allie, go see a Dr. your dyslexia is causing you to attack the wrong candidate.
dragoninwater, why are you mixing the reading disorder of dyslexia into your argument? Isn’t that sort of like how a certain presidential candidate mocked a reporter with a disability?
Poor little allie. You can mever beat us or change us. We’re just too strong, and our strength comes from the fact that nothing matters to us except winning. Trump is a winner. He told us he’d win he did.
Trump is such a classy winner that he’ll do anything to win. Lie to us. Cheat us. Sue us. Betray us. Grab the genitals of our sisters and daughters. Let Russian women urinate on him. Whatever it takes.
This just shows what a winner Teump is. It worked, and he won. He won. He won big. Yippee!
Don’t you want a President who is a bold confident winner, not a pathetic loser?
So, come over and join us on the dark side, allie. It’s easy. Just submit to Trump and ignore what he does, obey his tweets and attack his disgusting loser enemies. It’s really easy.
Allie, just drop that pizza cutter and go.
While you’re at it, tell those ladies to use English on their protest posters so Citizens of the USA can understand what they are trying to promote.
And wear a blue dress if you’re seated near the Clintons.
LMAO, allie wouldn’t survive in the stampede as they trample the poor white girl to death as they all yell “Juuuuw no speak Espaniol. We’re takin owa Gringo!!!!!!!”
“hours after Trumps election”, these losers are there for one reason and one reason only. Want some cheese with that whine ladies?
Allie, you should be charged with treason and branded a traitor once Trump is sworn in as
POTUS.
See, allie. You can’t beat Trump. Listen to his supporters. I did, and it changed my life. It will feel empty and dirty at first, but then the numbness kicks in.
Sure, sometimes Keoni and lespark wonder if WWII ended the right way, but at least they know Trump won in a landslide.
6 more days to Greatness. Yippee!
Another reason is to be on the 6PM and 10PM News.
The bottom line.
In 2013 there were 660,000 abortions in the US (CDC)
Of these, it is reported that about 1/5 were for medical reasons
About 1/10 were after 13 weeks, the age at which there is no question that this is a little human being
This leaves us with the deliberate execution of about 50,000 helpless, innocent, healthy little human beings last year
Calling this reproductive health, choice, my-body, or any other misleading coverup does not change what is going on
What kind of civilization thinks this is OK?
I am assuming that last year had similar statistics to 2013
An amoral or immoral one.
Love your link. Oh that is right there is none, Shame you didn’t give the number of abortions in 2001 – 2013. Or the number of abortions in 2015. I think you will find there has been a general decline over the years with probably a steeper decline during the Obama and Clinton presidencies and a less steep decline in republican administrations.
But in answer to your question, a civilization that honors the right of the individual over the power of the state. We know where you stand.
I don’t think the right of the individual over the power of the state Includes the killing of another human being.
Apparently we know where you stand.
Putin agrees with you, Amos.
Given the many protesters and the potential for disruption or perhaps even violence at the inauguration, why would the Chief of the National Guard in Washington D.C. be fired on the day of the election? He is charged with planning for and overseeing the safety of the inauguration on the streets of D.C. but won’t be there.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) blasted the decision to remove Schwartz, especially on Inauguration Day.
“It doesn’t make sense to can the general in the middle of an active deployment,” Mendelson said. He added that Schwartz’s sudden departure would be a long-term loss for the District. “He’s been really very good at working with the community and my impression was that he was good for the Guard.”
with all the women going down in d.c. on inauguration day, trump should invite monica and place her in the seat directly in front of the clintons.
that should take all the focus off the women walking the streets that day.
If Trump wanted to play the ultimate mind game with these imbeciles, he should appoint HitLIARy to be in charge of the right to die” assisted suicide newly formed government bureau. Makes me wonder what these protesters would do. LOL
The march is the next day, oh innumerate one.
Yes. Great idea, std1. Invite Monica. You are brilliant.
And let’s get all three of Trump’s wives to sit together.
And all the women (girls, men?) who Trump has had adulterous affairs with, too.
And get all the women Trump has fondeled. They’d like to come too.
The more the merrier! Yipee!
Oh. Oh. And let’s surprise Trump by flying in the professional women who give him those warm Russian baths he is so fond of.
(Dont judge. Lots of strong classy men enjoy being urinated on by prostitutes.)
Yes. Yes. Yes! O-o-o-o-o yes…
#MAGA? (Make America take Golden showers Again?)
How great if all protesters would utilize their energies toward physically powerful work like helping the hopeless clean up their cluttered living areas. Or lend a helping hand with young parents in need of guidance and parenting! Positive actions that doesn’t give any media attentions or publicity! I did not vote for Trump but I believe in our country’s means of electing our president-elect. I looked forward to what he can do for our country. There is nothing but up for this man that’s has been floored and put down so much lately. Change is good it’s when what is changed our focus should be zero in – will it be good for America or not? We won’t know until Trump been in office and his work seen by us all! Let’s give this guy the benefits of our doubts!
If all these women are out marching for social justice causes and LGBTQWXYZ who is home raising the children, cleaning the house and getting hubby’s dinner ready? No wonder relations between men and women are so screwed up. Make no mistake these are a bunch of angry and mentally unbalanced Marxist inspired feminists who will never be satisfied. They live in the most free and equal nation the planet has ever known yet they are out doing the angry mob routine. And still they remain silent on the injustices inherent in Islam. Go figure.
“who is home raising the children, cleaning the house and getting hubby’s dinner ready?”
The illegal nanny, the illegal maid and the illegal hooker her hubby is seeing on the side! LOL
I knew there was a rational answer.
Yeah, because try to find native-born Americans who’re still willing to do jobs that they find “menial”, “beneath them” and “below a living wage”.
As for your third example — isn’t it time for your “shower”?
Warren got where she is by lying about being Native American and using that to get preferential treatment in her academic and professional careers. Her fraud was exposed by the Massachusetts Republican Party during her campaign for the Senate, but that did matter to the far-left loons in the Bay State as long as she claimed to be a Democrat. When challenged to produce evidence of her Native American ancestry, Warren said she was told by a great uncle that her great grandmother was Cherokee and that a photograph of her great grandmother showed she had high cheek bones, a Native American characteristic. She is a loud mouth blowhard who has no shame.
Posted here in error.