The Women’s March on Washington and its sister marches are already being called the biggest one-day protests in US history — according to The Women’s March website, nearly million people made it out this weekend to nearly 700 marches held in all seven continents and over 60 countries. On Friday, we experienced a collective nightmare in which the worst man in the entire United States, Donald J. Trump, was sworn in as our next president. So on Saturday, we marched. Not everybody marched, of course. A lot of people didn’t want to, others had to work or had health issues preventing them from partaking. But holy shit did a lot of us get out there and march.
In Washington DC at least 1.3 million people gathered for The Women’s March, an event with an explicitly intersectional platform and a diverse list of speakers and performers who raised awareness about issues often ignored by mainstream white middle-class feminism. In Chicago so many turned out for the rally that they had to cancel the march for public safety concerns. In Boston, an anticipated 25,000 marchers turned out to be at least 175,000. Over 500,000 protesters flooded Midtown Manhattan, marching from the United Nations to Trump Towers. Los Angeles expected 25,000 and got 750,000, its most popular protest in over a decade. St. Paul, Minnesota police are estimating between 90,000 and 100,000 marchers. Austin, Texas broke the record for the largest gathering in Texas history.
In New Mexico, Utah, Alaska and Idaho, they marched in the snow. They marched in small towns you’ve probably never heard of: in Lander, Wyoming, in Lake Erie, Ohio; Yakima, Washington; and in Zebulon, Georgia. They marched all over the world, in cities including but certainly not limited to Oslo, London, Auckland, Nairobi, Guam, Toronto, Amsterdam, Cape Town, Melbourne, Sydney, Mexico City, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, Montreal, Geneva and New Delhi.
They even marched in Paradise Bay, Antarctica.
https://twitter.com/lindazunas/status/822755350818549761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
And, of course, as is our way, the queers and lesbians and bisexual women were out in droves. The flagship event in Washington DC, as viewed via YouTube livestream, had the soothing quality of somehow always managing to keep queer musician and A-Camp fave Be Steadwell in the frame, or else lesbian folk/blues artist Toshi Reagon, seated nearby with her guitar. Speakers included trans activist Janet Mock, lesbian activist and author Angela Davis, the Astrea Lesbian Foundation For Justice’s J. Bob Alotta, and writer and Transgender Law Center associate Raquel Willis. Performers included Janelle Monáe, Samantha Ronson, The Indigo Girls and Climbing PoeTree. Among the DC marchers: Ellen Page, Abby Wambach, Hari Nef, JD Samson, Amandla Stenberg, Jill Soloway, Evan Rachel Wood, Cameron Esposito, St. Vincent, Lea DeLaria, Ani DiFranco, Lily Tomlin, Carrie Brownstein, Danielle Brooks, Lauren Jauregui, Monica Raymund, Rhea Butcher and Sally Kohn. Also, Scarlett Johansson has acquired a lesbian haircut. Just saying.
In Los Angeles, GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis spoke at the rally that also featured transgender activist and actress Laverne Cox. On social media, posts from the Los Angeles march popped up from queer celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Alexandra Billings, Rowan Blanchard, Hannah Hart, Jenny Owen Youngs, Kesha and Kate Moennig.
I was in Ann Arbor, a college town with a long history of liberal activism that attracted around 11,000 marchers for an afternoon rally, including lots of students but also a lot of parents with small children.
This is, hopefully, the beginning of a genuine protest movement that will only grow as Trump continues, against all odds and common sense, to remain president of this country day after day. Seasoned activists saw a lot of young people come out and march for the first time this weekend, but undoubtedly many of these protesters, even the young ones, have come out before. We’ve marched for Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, or we marched against Prop 8 or other LGBTQ causes. This is important to talk about because extended and crucial conversations that came out of those movements have already helped shape this new one. Specifically, The Women’s March has benefited from past conversations around racism within the social justice community and specifically the tendency of white feminists to push their issues into center stage, failing to consider the existence of, let alone promote or give a platform to, the causes that matter most to people of color. Initially, the March seemed like more of the same White Feminism as before — its initial co-founders were two cis straight white women, retired attorney Teresa Shook of Hawai’i and Bob Bland, the founder of Manafacture New York. When Okayafrica’s Vanessa Wruble saw the event gathering steam on social media, she reached out to Bland and Shook to strongly suggest they get some women of color onto their team, and thus they immediately did so. Bob Bland now shares the national co-chair position with three women of color: Linda Sarsour (executive director of the Arab American Association of New York), Tamika D. Mallory (African-American civil rights activist and gun control advocate) and Carmen Perez (executive director of Harry Belafonte’s Gathering for Justice). From that point forward, most of the march’s initiatives were explicitly inclusive and intersectional, a tradition that must continue for future protests to be successful. The movement isn’t perfect by any means — for example, it seems to have some major blind spots w/r/t trans issues — but it does seem to be on the right track and is open to feedback and criticism. And now we have the internet, which’ll enable information to be disseminated and actions to be planned with far more ease than women’s movements past. Going forward, the onus will be on the most privileged marchers to continue showing up for issues that don’t impact them directly. The March’s website already has begun posting information on actions we can continue to take every day, starting this week with writing our senators.
So we didn’t get our first woman president — but for one day after Trump’s swearing-in, women ruled the world just the same. Look at these pictures of protests all over the world. Look at the Women’s March on the front pages of every newspaper.
And now, below, look at the LGBTQ people and LGBTQ Allies I found all over Instagram, standing up for themselves or standing up on our behalf. There are literally hundreds of marches I didn’t include here, including many of the largest ones, due to time constraints, but I did my best!
This is DAY ONE. We have so much work left to do.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjPLYdlODJ/
Asheville, North Carolina
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjWaa5jHoJ/
Atlanta, Georgia
Austin, Texas
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiv2HtADpz/
https://twitter.com/laurie2474/status/822979275708104704
Berlin, Germany
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiEmNRA1cb/
Boston, Massachusetts
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi26mTAzIc/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi2VsJBdtT/
Brownsville, Texas
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi1qrMjsdw/?taken-by=ezterr
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Chicago, Illinois
Dallas, Texas
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPicFWnA3sp/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiiufPAz1O/
Denver, Colorado
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjsomSg-jH/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjifx2D2BE/
Detroit, Michigan
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPieenqgrpI/
Houston, Texas
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjIMTygY-j/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjGbBnj7lP/
Indianapolis, Indiana
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiXw0PDyC5/?taken-by=carooates
Jackson, Mississippi
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjfnIqh9NE/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiz7KdhABI/
Juneau, Alaska
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPihe7DF_cx/?tagged=womensmarchalaska
Key West, Florida
Kodiak, Alaska
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjI3lsj4y4/?tagged=womensmarchalaska
Lansing, Michigan
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiloxOjBJE/?taken-at=391871919
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi0dQvgG9l/?taken-by=khaleesi_wiley
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPisZs2AsSx/
London, England
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiyMLjjSf7/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPj2wwoAHY2/
Los Angeles, California
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjvYdvjzc4/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjFeQcB8ml/?taken-by=giahoaphamm
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi-zsflt6l/?taken-by=robinshoots
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjDc-CgnKv/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPigXgxDW6I/?taken-by=bellathorne
http://www.instagram.com/p/BPilQbuD65x/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPgj-EJAtbV/?taken-by=undocumedia
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPikdDtjBjL/?taken-by=bishilarious
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPikXMeAwmD/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiuM6uDMpE/?taken-by=amberrose
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiyOx9g9ka/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPj4kytlSTt/?taken-by=jessesulli
Memphis, Tennessee
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiz3fQAFGG/
Mexico City, Mexico
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjAH6WAD_8/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPkvI6FDm34/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjbneuB7CR/
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiYOk-ApGk/
Nashville, Tennessee
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi7wi-glLU/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPicfaBgK2v/
New Orleans, Louisiana
New York, New York
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi-DbxB8-Z/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi1efAAqHP/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiuJYiDJ16/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi8nCBAkeU/
O’ahu, Hawai’i
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi-89BD63n/
Oakland, California
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPizoHRjIAn/?taken-by=dearjonesey
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjDVa_BZMB/?taken-by=it_has_teeth
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi9aVVAzH7/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPixsf_AIpX/
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjAA02DjsM/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi_zoqgIIF/?taken-at=194185
Orlando, Florida
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjRh3zgExU/
Paris, France
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPilLS7APcF/?taken-by=sincerelysyreeta
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPix2mGgn3M/
Phoenix, Arizona
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjMcEFhM8E/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjakCGgEyS/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjqoc6AEUv/
Portland, Oregon
https://twitter.com/fIawlesssivan/status/822967788918583296
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPim-SclP69/
San Diego, California
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjHO4lF6d6/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPkrTqPFUpq/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPk5MhBDCP2/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPko1HHjtZA/
San Francisco, California
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjNON4gsI_/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi-8zQD2Mu/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi-2RMDmbb/
Seattle, Washington
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjzHX9lZgB/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjAv2PARPo/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiqB24FHCm/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPimfeqBs85/
Spokane, Washington
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPixLO2AEiI/
St.Louis, Missouri
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiUqdQg1qB/
St.Paul, Minnesota
Sydney, Australia
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPgxRoDArUX/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPgnqr1l0_Q/
Topeka, Kansas
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi031BgAY3/
Trenton, New Jersey
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjF8dTglUV/
Vancouver, BC Canada
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPinqZEhARb/?taken-by=kewebster
Washington DC
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi5JhABvMj/?taken-at=236471522
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjArYWD1wj/?taken-by=daniebb3
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjIcXuAmB3/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPj-61WBzyq/?taken-by=amandlastenberg
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi_HwbgbG1/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPjEzn7jZjI/
