SHE THE PEOPLE
3 million march worldwide for women’s rights
Hundreds of thousands of women painted the nation’s capital pink Saturday, joining millions more at similar rallies across the globe in an unprecedented show of resistance on the first full day of President Trump’s term in office.
From DC’s National Mall to Nairobi, from Atlanta to Antarctica, an estimated 3 million demonstrators worldwide pushed for a slew of left-wing causes, but unified around their distaste for the new leader of the free world.
“I’m here because I can’t believe Trump has been elected for all the vile things he said,” said Tina Chrismore, an Upper West Sider who was among the throngs traveling from across the country for the Women’s March on Washington. “I am dumbstruck this is actually happening.”
Fellow marchers were similarly wary of Trump, who got a view of the scene from his limousine when his motorcade passed protesters on its way back from a morning prayer service.
“We have to stand up to this,” said Rebecca Brown, 39, of Brooklyn Heights. “We want awareness that you can’t stomp on women’s rights.”
“I’m here because I find Trump so incredibly offensive in every sense,” said Ghislaine Darden, 58, an administrator at Rutgers University. “We went from someone who spoke so elegantly to a Twitter maniac.”
Organizers initially sought a permit for a crowd of 200,000 but later estimated that more than half a million came out for the daylong event.
“It was clear from Week 1 this was going to be a global movement,” march co-founder Evvie Harmon told ABC News. “It’s like the women of the world were sitting on a powder keg — and Donald Trump lit the match.”
DC Metro trains were packed with protesters wearing pink “pussy hats” — a reference to then-citizen Trump’s claim in a 2005 video that he grabbed women by the privates. The transit agency said that by 11 a.m., it clocked 275,000 transit rides. At the same time Friday, Inauguration Day, 193,000 trips had been taken. It wasn’t just hats that were pink. Rosy-haired Shannon Buckley, 21, of Stony Brook, LI, said her tresses would further the cause.
“I’ve gotten a lot of comments since I got here,” she said. “It was awesome.”
The DC turnout could rank the Women’s March among the largest-ever protests in the nation’s capital, along with the 1969 antiVietnam War demonstrations, the 2013 March for Life, the 1995 Million Man March and the anti-gun Million Mom March in 2000 — all of which drew 500,000 or more. At the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech to 250,000 participants.
“Everyone from the future can look back on this day and see this is how we won,” said Elizabeth Kipps, 26, of Harlem. “Everyone is here, not just the vaginas, the penises, too!”
Marchers’ homemade signs hailed a hodgepodge of causes: “White silence is violence,” “We beat Nazis once and we can do it again,” “People over profit.”
“I’m marching for my rights as a woman and also Muslim rights,” said Bard College student Olivia Jankoski, 20.
“We stand together,” Jankoski said. “And it’s awesome.”
Spotted at the DC march was Joshua Kushner, whose big brother Jared is a Trump senior adviser — and married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
Joshua told other marchers he was at the march “observing,” the Washingtonian reported. His supermodel girlfriend, Karlie Kloss, was not in sight.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer refused to comment on any of the marches.
But as he held the new administration’s first press briefing, Spicer testily touted Trump’s inauguration attendance numbers, saying his boss drew the “largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe.”
Then-President Barack Obama drew a Mall crowd three times as large in 2008.
Conservatives derided the demonstrators on social media.
“Women’s March protests democratic transfer of power & the rights of 65 mill[ion] Americans,” tweeted Ann Coulter. “Remember Brown shirts? This is the Brown Blouses March.
Mike Huckabee, the Arkansas ex-governor and former presidential candidate, tweeted: “Why do people holding ‘Love Trumps Hate’ signs look so mean? No love or joy on faces. Are they angry and unhappy or just constipated?”
Trump supporters still in DC the day after the inauguration could be seen in the blocks surrounding the protest, some wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats.
“When is this whole march thing ending?” one man asked. “Do you actually think change will happen tomorrow?”
There were close to 700 “sister” rallies across the globe, and DC’s numbers were matched, and possibly surpassed, in Los Angeles, where organizers estimated 750,000 demonstrators.
“We are doing our best to facilitate because they are squeezing into every street right now,” LAPD Capt. Andrew Nieman said, noting side streets beyond the planned perimeter were shut down to accommodate a crowd “spilling over into adjacent streets.”
In Chicago, 300,000 demonstrators clogged downtown blocks, forcing officials to cancel the march and settle on only a rally.
In Atlanta, Rep. John Lewis — who a week earlier launched a war of words by declaring Trump “not a legitimate president” — spoke to a crowd estimated at 60,000.
Neighbors to the north who wanted to attend US marches were turned around at a Canadian border checkpoint, according to The Guardian.
“We said we were going to the
Women’s March on Saturday, and they said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to pull over,’ ” said Sasha Dyck of Montreal.
In Britain, tens of thousands rallied from London to Edinburgh, and like their friends across the pond, pushed a medley of causes, including “Free Melania.”
Several hundred showed up for the rally in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
“I’m here because I’m against world leaders being pussy grabbers,” said Muthoni Ngige, 28.
Protesters even assembled on an expedition ship in Para-adise Bay inin Antarctica.
“I set it up be-because I wantedted to participate in the Women’s March,” Linda Zunas told The In-Independent. “I spent a month after the electiontion mourning the im-impending damagemage to the Earth that will be done.””