WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 21, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — A crowd of about 500,000 people descended on Washington., D.C., on Saturday to deliver a personal message to Pres. Donald J. Trump on his first full day in office.
“We are here,” said Crystal Young-Otterstrom, chair of LDS Democrats Utah. “We are watching. We will stand up for what is right. We will support what is good. We are lifting up our voices. We won’t be silent.
“It feels powerful,” Young-Otterstrom told a crew from Gephardt Daily. “This is like estrogen times the Nth degree, right? I mean, there’s nothing as powerful as what women can do when they come together.”
Jann Haworth, a Utah artist and creative director of The Leonardo Museum, also attended The Women’s March on Washington with a Utah delegation.
“We’ve been told there’s half a million people here,” Haworth told Gephardt Daily reporter Daisy Blake, her daughter.
“That means six times that many people were Hillary’s (popular vote) lead. And it’s pretty amazing to see this many people here. It’s a fantastic turnout, a fantastic spirit. There’s not a single negative thing going on here. A lot of support.”
Iconic feminists and social activists including Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis called for respectful, fair, non-violent treatment of women, children, people of color, members of all religions, LGBT citizens and the disabled.
During his election run, Trump was accused of mocking a disabled reporter, a charge he denies, and of sexually assaulting numerous women in the past. A leaked, 11-year-old video clip from Access Hollywood featured Trump’s voice saying his celebrity status allowed him to kiss women without their consent, and even to grab their crotches. Trump later dismissed the video as “locker room talk.”
Among the women to come forward with accusations was former Miss Utah Temple Taggart McDowell, who said Trump kissed her and made unwelcome advances in 1997 when she competed in the Miss USA contest, which Trump owned at the time.
Trump has threatened to sue all the women who spoke out against him, some of whom made claims of more intimate violation. Their numbers stand at more than a dozen.
Davis, who emerged as a counter-culutre activist in the 1960s, called for an end to Islamophobia, misogyny, capitalist exploitation, institutional violence against police suspects and prisoners, attacks on transsexual women, and domestic abuse, among other things.
“This is ground zero for the struggle of social justice,” Davis said.
“We dedicate ourselves to resistance,” she said, pledging to fight for “… women’s rights and human rights all over the planet.”
