The @latimes has one massive lead photo, taken by female staff photog @francineorr. pic.twitter.com/S4Z9kESmvl
— Women Photograph (@womenphotograph) January 22, 2017
I did not march on Saturday due to claustrophobia exacerbated by crowds but I did let some friends stay over for The March. I made them water and snack bags too, in case that gets me any brownie points. I also spent the day writing letters to our representatives and of course beamed with pride for my state like most of you did for yours.
In total, California hosted 49 Sister Marches to Washington DC’s Women’s March. (This is where I would usually insert a nerdy history fact about the symbolic nature of ’49’ being our number, as it was the year we became a state and why early Californians are called 49ers.) All the Marches deserve shout outs so please tell us about yours in the comments, but I am going to cover the two biggest.
First of all we have the city in which I live and have come to love, Los Angeles. 750,000 thousand people (including one blessed Canadian man who walked in heels) came together and practice peaceful civil disobedience without one arrest or injury. If you know anything about LA, you know that is an extraordinary fact in and of itself. Another fact known about LA is that it is woefully inadequate in public transportation. It was very difficult for people to get to Pershing Square, the epicenter of the March. Our slowly improving metro system could not handle the volume, nor could Lyft or Uber, some resorted to good old fashioned hitchhiking to get downtown:
The LA metro wasn't built to handle the number of people protesting Trump #womensmarch pic.twitter.com/K4yQHc6bVk
— Sven (@notmsn) January 21, 2017
These ladies hitchhiked downtown after they couldn't get on Red Line or Uber. #womensmarch pic.twitter.com/tIyqnawhGx
— Cindy Chang (@cindychangLA) January 21, 2017
Social media was full of people updating and suggesting alternate routes and areas people could travel and park, and how they could get to Pershing from there. Honestly, it was the most organized I have ever seen this city. From my friends and family that went, I heard locals went out of their way to assist out-of-towners, including people breaking from the route to rescue those overcome by the crowd. Being LA, tons of celebrities spoke, performed and marched with the crowd:
Miley Cyrus shimmies her way through downtown L.A. women's march https://t.co/q8ZoWvjejK pic.twitter.com/aGEIKMSKuA
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) January 21, 2017
Standing for human rights! Thank you @jamieleecurtis #hearourvoice 750,000 Marchers strong! pic.twitter.com/Qgu2ZxosSJ
— Women's March LA (@wmnsmarchla) January 21, 2017
Next is my first love, the city where I was raised, San Francisco:
In the @sfchronicle, two images — the lead from a male wire photographer, the second from female staffer @LeahMillis. pic.twitter.com/2EeZLap3mY
— Women Photograph (@womenphotograph) January 22, 2017
SF had the distinction of being the latest protest. Earlier in the day, an annual anti-abortion march, Walk for Life, took place so the Women’s March waited until 5 pm. I must note that both organizations adjusted their timing to avoid conflict with each others’ march and that is admirable. The beauty of SF’s being held later was two-fold. First it allowed the City Hall to bathe itself in pink lights in solidarity:
San Francisco City Hall lights up in honor of the Women's March. Photo courtesy of Sonali Perera. pic.twitter.com/2yVpHioFTF
— SFGate (@SFGate) January 22, 2017
Couple more pics of San Francisco City Hall. It really did look magical. It rained during the whole march but turnout and spirits were high pic.twitter.com/kuag6eZNxz
— 🐋 (@jaytay777) January 22, 2017
It also allowed former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and his wife Jen Siebel Newsom to bookend the day. Newsom is now our Lieutenant Governor, a huge advocate for women and a real rabble rouser in politics. Jen marched in DC with our newly-elected Senator Kamala Harris and he marched with The Representation Project in SF:
We are more powerful together. Proud to stand with so many male allies using their voices for change! #WomensMarch – @JenSiebelNewsom pic.twitter.com/ZooeG9slDg
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 21, 2017
This doesn't end today-we must continue this march forward and demand equality and progress from our nation. This movement doesn't end here! pic.twitter.com/LBXROcRN97
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 22, 2017
San Francisco’s March came close to 50,000 attendees. Again, no arrests or injury. Unlike LA, it rained but the bulk of the storm didn’t hit until later.
For both those who marched and those who didn’t, the Women’s March website has added a page for ways to keep fighting. It’s a great staring point. Keep making donations to the endangered organizations if you can. Most importantly, keep your voices heard.
Photo Credit: Twitter and WENN Photos
Keegan-Michael Key! As if I didn’t already adore him.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/174f0WBSVNSdcQ5_S6rWPGB3pNCsruyyM_ZRQ6QUhGmo/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true#
http://thesixtyfive.org/home
Did you guys make your calls for the day yet? The scripts are there!^^ I spoke to Marco Rubio’s Office in Washington ( and let them know we are doing this weekly!) as well as Alcee Hastings ( my rep)There they gave me a local office number for Bill Nelson ( whose Line in DC was swamped for a while and finally didn’t allow for a message) and I spoke to a very nice staffer that told me these calls are indeed tallied and that is what we can do, I then forwarded all the numbers I called to my 20 relatives in a group chat… it took me longer to write this post with cuntily long nails than the time it tok me to make calls
Thanks for the link. Calling now.
Rubio’s phone is busy and voicemail full. He just announced he sold his soul to Putin.
YES Lightpurple! but the DC phone answered me after a second try I Also would try the Miami Office which I got answer on Last week
Thanks for the link! I will call too.
California marcher right here! North County San Diego. For it being so close to the downtown San Diego march, our estimated 10,000 was awesome!
Representing LA here 👋
What an inspiring day it was. So proud to have marched with my fellow Angelenos. We were lucky because we jumped on the metro early enough but it was filled to capacity. I’ve never seen anything like that before, it was amazing to experience. Lots of good people and good energy 🌟☮
I was in LA as well. SUCH an amazing experience!!!!!
LA here! represent!!! It was so much larger than anyone predicted. what we do from here is what will define us-this is just the start. keep calling, keep marching, stay aware- #riseup
OC had 6 sister marches too, california showed up!
I marched in the downtown San Diego one. They said we had around 40,000 marchers. It was a great experience and very inclusive.
My bff and I marched in Sacramento with 20,000 other beautiful souls. It was a great way to kick off our resistance. I am so energized, this march was merely the opening act to our motherfucking RESISTANCE.
The Trenton, NJ march was wonderful. Six thousand people participated with no arrests or incidents of any kind. So inspiring.
Loooove those pics and it’s weird but I have admired each and every one of those celebs in big and small ways, seeing them marching just confirms it.
I witnessed and have heard amazingly resorative stories about all the marches and people uniting. We need this to continue and slowly, too slowly our faith will be rewarded.
Yay CA! I marched in the OC! First time our county went BLUE in years! I love that my state very pointedly rejected tRUMP. I doubt he will ever set a foot here because no bigly crowds for the man baby!!
I’m so happy to hear Orange County went blue!
Every march was reported to be peaceful, hopeful, and filled with people being kind to one another (love the LA folks helping out of towners!). We so needed this, and we are making a difference with every phone call, email, donation, etc.
My 3 1/2 year old daughter & I went to the March in Phoenix. When people chanted impeach Trump, she yelled: yeah! No peaches for Trump. It was amazing.
I wanted to go to the March in Phx, but I had something I couldn’t get out of.
No peaches for Dump! 😉
that is super cute!
I was also at the march in Phoenix. It was a really great, diverse crowd. Totally positive.
I marched in San Diego! As so many have said, so INSPIRING!
LA woman, Bay Area native, marched in DC. My mother, mother-in-law, step-mother-in-law, aunts and various cousins all marched in DC as well. Words cannot describe what it was like to be there in the moment – hopeful, joyous, connected, empowered.
I know that accurate head counts are nearly impossible to get in DC, but I would say there were easily a million people there. Filling the mall, spilling into every surrounding street. It was peaceful and the crowd was so kind – helping those overwhelmed or exhausted, sharing food if anyone needed a little blood sugar boost. Every woman I know who flew there was on a plane that was 75-90% women. United had to change to a bigger plane for my flight to DC on Friday.
It was a day I will NEVER forget.
Marched in NYC it was phenomenal! Also phenomenal was the group text with my friends across the country (we’ve known eachother for 20 years or so) who were protesting in Portland, NOLA and upstate NY felt so honored.
I went to a sister march (not CA) and it was incredibly positive and gratifying!
To be fair, the lack of arrests may be in part because having a protest with significant numbers of white women is not thought to be as threatening as one where the majority are not white (for example, a black lives matter march). But again, it was a great experience yesterday.
No to nit pick but I figure you’d like to know that the term 49er came from the gold seekers that flocked to California after gold was found at Sutter’s Miller in 1849. I believe Alaska was the 49th state and Hawaii was 50.
Actually gold was discovered in ’48, but people didn’t come rushing in until ’49.
Pretty sure Hecate meant that we became a state in ’49, not that we’re the 49th state (we’re the 31st). We sought statehood in ’49, but didn’t enter the union until ’50.
Kalmala Harrie spoke in DC and shared a great anecdote about when a male colleague said he wanted to talk about womens’ issue and she replied, “I am so glad you want to talk about the economy.”
I was among the 60,000 who marched in Atlanta. We had horrific storms leading up to the march, forecasted to last all day, so many stayed home. But the skies cleared about 30 minutes before it began. God loves him a good liberal fight!
Marcher from Boston checking in! It was great. I love seeing all these photos from all over the US — and the WORLD! Thanks for not forsaking us, international community.
Did Boston as well. Fantastic.
This is awesome! Thanks, California! Thanks to all the Marches!
Ps: shout out to the Canadian man marching in heels! ❤
SF city hall did good, saw lots of pretty pictures of it, just wow
I couldn’t go to the Chicago one here but it was much bigger than they expected, maybe 250,000. Something I loved: we had had a straight week of dreary, cloudy, rainy days. Then on Saturday it was sunny, beautiful, high of 60! In Chicago, in January! I took it as Mother Nature giving her approval. Since then it has gone back to cloudy and dreary.
Marcher in the other Washington. Olympia, WA. They were hoping for maybe 2,500, estimates for the day are now over 10,000. Tons of my friends went all the way to Seattle, where they originally estimated they would get about 50,000. They are estimating now between 120,000-175,000. Everything was completely peaceful and amazing. I was crying seeing everyone pouring in.
I marched in Sacramento too!
Very proud of my state of California! We are the national and global leaders of LGBT rights, immigration rights, health care for all, sanctuary cities, environmental and climate change laws, and respect for human rights.
We have the globe’s sixth largest economy, contribute 1/13th of the GDP of the United States, and make 1/4 of the nation’s food (say what?).
Listen to Governor Brown’s State of the State address tomorrow to be enlightened by a person who cares about civility, human decency, and a resistance program that will send Emperor Zero into a twitter rage. Genghis Con will blow a blood vessel and the “alternative facts” committee will be beside themselves with anger.
Go Kamala in DC!
Don’t mess with California!
Kamala Harris is a senator, not a representative. I said it before, but I hope she’ll position herself for top Democratic leadership.
Took the train down from Santa Barbara at 6:45am and breezed into downtown LA. I got there faster than my friends coming from west LA! It was an amazing day filled with young, old, gay, straight, families with strollers and of course multi cultural like LA is already. There’s an amazing clip on Jamie Lee Curtis Instagram of Helen Reddy spontaneously singing I am Women. It’s fabulous.
Yay! Way to go California. Proud to be a Californian. Fun fact, whenever I go abroad and people ask where I’m from (cause I’m ethnically ambiguous), I always say California and not America or USA. The march in LA was the largest in the city’s history! Proud to call myself a native Angeleno! Also proud of my adopted city, NYC!
And I am completely in awe of all the marches that happened WORLDWIDE! Mad love and respect for everyone who marched or supported the cause. This weekend was probably my most favorite day to be on social media, just as long as I didn’t read the comments.
Btw, I’m pretty sure California became a state in 1850. And the term ’49ners came from the influx of people who came to California during the gold rush. Gold, which was discovered in ’48, but the rush of people didn’t get here until ’49. Still it’s a pretty significant number in California and I’m glad there were 49 marches in Ca on Saturday.
We had 5,000+ marching Santa Rosa, just north of SF. Reps. Lynn Woolsey and Jared Huffman and several others spoke. No arrests or injuries, just love and pure uncut rage!
I marched in Canada and it was a cold day in Edmonton, but I’m glad I went. I need to send a shout out to the many awesome women who saw me struggling with my son and stoped to help me with my cranky toddler. It was an incredible event with some great aboriginal women hosting.