Women’s march hoping to keep momentum going

A year after more than one million people rallied at women’s marches worldwide with a message of female empowerment and protest against U.S. President Donald Trump, activists will return to the streets this weekend in hopes of converting anger and enthusiasm into political force.

The 2017 rally in Washington, D.C., and hundreds of similar marches created solidarity for those denouncing Trump’s views on abortion, immigration, LGBTQ rights and more. Since then, a wave of women decided to run for elected office and the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct became a cultural phenomenon.

“We made a lot of noise,” said Elaine Wynn, an organizer.

“But now how do we translate that noise into something concrete or fulfilling?”

Along with hundreds of gatherings planned Saturday and Sunday across the U.S. and in places such as Beijing, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Nairobi, Kenya, a rally Sunday in Las Vegas will launch an effort to register one million voters and target swing states in the midterm elections.

Linda Sarsour, one of the four organizers of last year’s Washington march, said Las Vegas was targeted for a major rally because it’s a strategic swing state that gave Hillary Clin- ton a narrow win in the presidential election and will have one of the most competitive Senate races in 2018. Democrats believe they have a good chance of winning the seat held by embattled Republican Sen. Dean Heller, which would weaken the GOP’s hold on the chamber.

Democratic office-holders pledging to elect more progressive candidates in swing states will be among the speakers in Las Vegas. Last year’s march in Washington sparked debate over inclusion, with some transgender minority women complaining that the event seemed designed for white women born female.

The organizers for the Sunday rally are striving for greater inclusion this year, with Latina and transgender female speakers, said Carmen Perez, another co-chair of the 2017 Washington march. Women in the U.S. illegally, sex workers and those formerly incarcerated are welcome, she said.

Eman Hassaballa Aly, a 38-year-old digital communications manager and activist, said after last year’s gathering in the Chicago area, she saw women become more politically active, including two Muslim women she knows who are running for office — one for state Senate and one for Congress.

“It was incredible that all these people came together,” said Aly, who addressed the 2017 Chicago event. “We realized how powerful this thing could be.”