Women’s March Expected To Be One Of America’s Biggest Protests Ever
Hundreds Of thousands of attendees are expected to come together to repudiate Trump in a historic protest – The Women’s March on Washington.
Briefly known as “The Million Women March,” the idea was conceived on Facebook by Teresa Shook, a retired lawyer in Hawaii, on the 9th of November.
As The Guardian reports, “The message ended up on Pantsuit Nation, one of the invitation-only Facebook support groups lauded by Hillary Clinton in her concession speech.”
The Women’s March now has almost 200 progressive groups, large and small, signing on as supporting partners. The issues they represent are as varied as the environment, legal abortion, prisoners’ rights, voting rights, a free press, affordable healthcare, gun safety, racial and gender equality and a higher minimum wage. Men are invited. More than 300 simultaneous local protests will also occur, across all 50 states, and support marches are planned in 30 other countries, organizer Linda Sarsour said.
“We have no choice. We need to stand up against an administration that threatens everything we believe in, in what we hope will become one of the largest grassroots, progressive movements ever seen,” Sarsour stated.
According to The Guardian, “Larry Sabato, director of the center for politics at the University of Virginia, cited anti-Vietnam war demonstrations and civil rights-era protests that attracted crowds up to half a million as among the most prominent in US history – so far.”
“It’s never happened that so many people have gathered in opposition to the new administration on day one,” Sarsour stated, adding: “Will it be the largest US mass mobilization ever? I’ll be able to tell you on January 22.”
Mindy Fischer, Writer, wrote last week that “there are nine times as many busloads of protesters scheduled to march on Washington as there are Trump supporters who will be at the Inauguration. And we’re just getting warmed up….”
Washington D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen told NBC Washington late last week that “The city has received about 1,800 permits [for bus parking] for the following day, Jan. 21, when thousands are expected to attend the Women’s March on Washington in protest of President-elect Donald Trump.”
BuzzFeed reported yesterday that “As of Thursday, when Allen held a hearing to review inauguration preparations, 393 charter bus permits had been requested for the inauguration on Jan. 20.” To put this in perspective, “a week before President Obama’s inauguration in 2012, about 900 bus permits had been requested.”
According to the event’s Facebook page, as of Sunday, 193,000 people have said they are attending the Women’s March and an additional 255,000 individuals are saying they are interested in attending.
As CNN reported Sunday, there is a growing number of Democrats who say they will not be attending Trump’s inauguration on Friday, and Women’s Rights News reported Sunday that Illinois congressman Luis V Gutierrez told the House of Representatives that he and his wife, Soraida, will attend the Women’s March.
Numerous Celebrities To Attend Women’s March
News and entertainment website Heavy reports that several celebrities are expected to attend the event as well, to include Katy Perry, Cher, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Schumer, Evan Rachel Wood, and others.
According to Heavy the following celebrities say they will be attending:
- Chelsea Handler
- Constance Wu
- Danielle Brooks
- Debra Messing
- Frances McDormand
- Hari Nef
- Jessica Chastain
- Julianne Moore
- Olivia Wilde
- Patricia Arquette
- Uzo Aduba
College Students and Professors Plan Trips To Attend Anti-Trump Women’s March
Additionally, The College Fix reports that liberal and progressive students and their professors from universities around the country are planning trips to the Women’s March on Washington.
Denison University, a private college in Ohio. Its Laura C. Harris Symposium, a campus series promoting women’s education, is formally sponsoring bus trips to the march in cooperation with its women and gender studies program as part of its 2016-17 theme “Making Just Democracies.”
Dr. Gill Wright Miller, director of the Women & Gender Studies program, told The College Fix “We don’t want participation in these experiences to be available only to those who are sufficiently privileged that they can find a way to make the 400-mile trip to our nation’s capital and back.”
The College Fix adds that “at the University of Southern Maine, a GoFundMe effort is underway to help students attend the march in D.C.”
“There is a lot at stake right now during the Trump administration, and this is a historical event that we do not want to miss out on,” organizers state. “The funds that are being raised will be going to bus transportation for about fifty USM students and faculty that are looking to travel to D.C.”
The College Fix also reports that:
At Rider University in New Jersey, the Gender and Sexuality Studies Department and Lawrenceville Student Government Association are helping sponsor transportation to the march as well for a limited number of students, calling the opportunity a chance to promote “the equality of women in the United States and around the world.”
Meanwhile, the University of St. Thomas’ Luann Dummer Center for Women, in collaboration with student affairs, is offering a half-dozen bus tickets to the march.
For more information and to register for the march, you can go to the Women’s March on Washington website.
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