Fourth annual Sarasota Women's March draws hundreds to 'dump Trump'

Jan. 18--90-year-old Patricia Ross wasn't always an activist. But you get smarter as you get older, she said.

Ross was at the 4th annual Women's March in Sarasota, and though she can't walk, she was there to support the cause along with hundreds of other women and allies. Among issues like reproductive rights, pay equity and LGBTQ+ rights, opposition to Trump was the most ubiquitous theme.

"We want to remind Trump that we're still here," said Susie Sherwood as she stood on the John Ringling Causeway. "We've been doing this since 2016 and we're not giving up."

Mimi Fielder has marched in Sarasota every year since the worldwide protest January 21, 2017, the day after Trump's inauguration. She held a sign that read "Impeach Putin's puppet."

"We feel like the current administration is not just anti-women," said Lynda Ross. "I have a gay son, black and Latino great grandchildren and a handicapped great grandson, and I feel like everybody in my family is affected by the policies of the current administration and the hate."

Many Sarasota protesters said they marched because they've watched women's rights regress over the past four years.

"When I was a kid, we worked so hard to get so many of these rights. It's just all disappeared," said Geanne Northup, 67. "It's all being stripped away -- everything I worked so hard on when I was a young person. Now we have to start all over again."

Like in Washington D.C., the protest in Sarasota was smaller this year than in previous years.

While thousands showed up in Bayfront Park in downtown Sarasota in 2018, hundreds showed up on Saturday. The first Women's March in 2017 was the largest single-day protest in United States history, according to political scientists from the Universities of Connecticut and Denver.

At marches around the country, numbers have dwindled this year. But the protesters aren't giving up, they said.

Caroline Vroom, who was donning the iconic pink pussyhat, said she's as fervent as ever.

"We have to fight for our injustices, we have to show up, we have to do these demonstrations," Vroom said. "It's important for us and for future generations."

Janelle Rebel, who has marched in Sarasota all four years, wore a "nasty woman" shirt, and dressed up her cocker spaniel, too, in a cape that read "puppies for the resistance." And she'll be marching in Sarasota next year, too.

In addition to women's rights issues, many protesters talked about climate change and held "There is no planet B" signs.

"Climate change is just as important," said Christie Holliday. "We need to work towards making a healthier planet and a healthier SRQ."

Barbara Young (left) Janelle Rebel (right) pic.twitter.com/a41XPYw6R0

-- Anna Bryson (@annamariabryson) January 18, 2020

Beth Gorbet pic.twitter.com/zIB4151Ge1

-- Anna Bryson (@annamariabryson) January 18, 2020

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