WASHINGTON — When homebuilder Kerry Tate booked a plane ticket, she thought about her grandmother. College student Charlie Bonner will attend with his sister in mind. And Iraq war veteran Elizabeth Beck dusted off her combat boots so she could march for her daughters.Although the three Texans have never met, they’re all going to the capital this weekend to participate in the Women’s March on Washington — as are thousands of others.“I’ve never done a march before,” Tate, 61, said. “But I didn’t know how to say no.”On Saturday, thousands of women, and more than a few men, from all 50 states will gather on the National Mall to rally in support of a massive variety of causes. They’ll be there in large part to protest the goals and agenda presented by President-elect Donald Trump, less than 24 hours after he takes the oath of office. Satellite events are planned across the country, including in Dallas and Denton.A slate of performers, including Janelle Monae and the Indigo Girls, are set to appear. More than 1,200 buses have applied for parking permits — several hundreds more than applied for the inauguration Friday. Local transit officials are putting two dozen extra trains on the tracks, and more than 600 simultaneous marches in 61 countries have been announced.“It’s just overwhelming,” said Marissa Bennett, Texas’ state organizer for the march. “For two months, it’s all I’ve been able to think about.”The march’s goalsAlthough the event is called the Women’s March, organizers say the aim is to broaden the definition of “women’s issues” to acknowledge that they inherently overlap with issues of immigration, racial justice, and religious freedom, among other causes. The official “unity principles” of the event are explicitly progressive, including abortion access, voting rights, and LGBT rights.The idea for the march began with a Hawaiian grandmother, Teresa Shook, who created a Facebook event before going to bed on election night. By the time she woke up in the morning, more than 10,000 people had expressed interest. Soon, after criticisms arose on the event page that the march was being planned exclusively by white women, Shook turned the planning over to a group of experienced organizers from a variety of racial and religious backgrounds.The women coming are propelled by wide-ranging values and ideals. Abbie Meyering, a Dallas psychologist, said she is concerned that a Republican-controlled Congress might roll back protections for survivors of domestic violence. Meyering, 66, also worries about how patients will access mental health services if Congress repeals Obamacare.“Insurance coverage dovetails with issues of addiction and homelessness,” she said. “I worry that we won’t just lose ground — we’ll lose our voice completely. And those are some of the reasons I decided to do this.”Tate, the home-builder, is concerned about what she called “injections of theistic morality” into the debate about abortion access in Texas.“I want governments to stay out of morality and stick to their knitting,” she said.And not all of the marchers were avid fans of Hillary Clinton.“I was a very, very reluctant voter for Hillary,” said Mia Carter, an English professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “I’m a Bernie Sanders woman.”Carter, who will be attending with members of her rowing team, said she feels especially passionate about immigrant rights and reproductive health.“I feel deeply that we are seeing the potential beginnings of a new civil rights movement, one which has the potential to be diverse, complex, and intersectional,” Carter said. “Of course, it will be extremely fragile, as coalitions always are — but right now, it’s exciting to watch it all come together.”First-time marchersCarter, who is black, is an experienced second-generation protester. Her mother, a civil-rights activist, attended marches while pushing Carter’s sister in a stroller. But for many others, the march will be their first-ever demonstration.“I have never been particularly active in politics, beyond voting,” said Annie Hartnett, a 51-year-old writer who will be attending as a member of the Collective of Lady Arm Wrestlers. “But I feel like we’re at a pivotal moment for democracy, so I felt called to get involved.”Some women have even crowd-sourced tips from more veteran demonstrators: 70-year-old Barbara Miller plans to write her name and an emergency contact’s phone number on her arm in Sharpie, just in case there’s trouble.“I don’t quite know what to expect,” she said.Marching for familyMiller, who helped found a home for battered women in Austin in 1974, has been collecting names of inspiring women from her friends and family members. She plans to read them aloud as she marches on Saturday.“I thought, ‘What if my friends could give me the names of women who were significant in their lives, grandmas and aunts and partners and mentors and children?’ ” Miller said. “In three days, I had 419 names.”While Miller hopes to honor all the women on her list, others are choosing to march on behalf of just a handful of individuals.Tate was inspired by her grandmother, Eva Bishop Norris. Norris, born in 1879, didn’t get the right to vote until she was 41.“We’re not that far away, generationally speaking, from women having to fight to vote,” Tate said. “I honor her when I fight for voting rights for everybody.”As Bonner, a college junior, takes to the street, he plans to think about his mother, his sisters, and his twin nieces, who are just 15 months old.“I wish they didn’t have to protest for what was rightfully theirs,” Bonner said. “But if that’s what they have to do, I’m going to be there, too.”And Beck, the veteran, was similarly motivated by her daughters.“To take to the streets, you have to have some sort of passion,” she said. “For me, that passion comes from my daughters — when I think about their future as Americans, and what a Trump presidency means for that.”“That’s the only reason I would make this trip,” Beck added. “I’m fighting for them.”Not an end, but a beginningOverwhelmingly, the women attending the march say they plan to stay engaged in politics well after the event itself ends.“I want to come out with something tangible and implementable — with hope, instead of fear,” said Pam Gerber, a Dallas consultant.Bennett, the state chair, has been working long hours to organize charter buses and hotel reservations for hundreds of Texas women. She’s looking forward to napping when she finally gets back to San Antonio — but then, she said, she’ll get back to work.“This is really just the beginning,” Bennett said. “This is just our stake in the ground. We’ve made our connections, we’ve made our network. Now the real work begins.” Continue reading...
Texas Women Say They'll March to Protest Trump — and Honor Their Own
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