Hampton Roads well represented at Women’s March

Jan. 22--Among hundreds of thousands of people in D.C. to protest on Saturday was a woman with a Chicago flag ribbon in her hair, a man wearing a University of Michigan sweatshirt, three women with pink Statue of Liberty foam crowns and a man who joked that he was one of five total liberals from Texas.

And huddled in the thick of the Women's March on Washington rally, just off 9th Street and Independence Avenue, were six women from Hampton Roads, some with circular pins that read "Gloucester-Middlesex-Mathews" across the top.

"This was initiated by women's rights, and it has evolved into human rights," said Lori Faison, of Gloucester, as intermittent cheers pierced the air between speeches. "So many people are waking up to their civil rights being threatened."

Saturday's historically large, post-inauguration rally was organized shortly after President Donald Trump was elected in November. The event's website advocated for equality for women, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, those with disabilities and sexual assault victims.

Signs within a 50-foot radius of Faison's group touched on climate change, women's reproductive rights, the Flint, Mich., water crisis, biased policing and gay rights. One sign just read, "Nope."

Katie Shaw, of York County, cheered when one of the rally's many female speakers yelled, "I stand here today to tell you we are human." She thrust up her sign of a female symbol in the shape of a fist with the words "Grab this," alluding to a video that surfaced during the campaign in which Trump told an interviewer that he had grabbed women by the genitals.

Shaw's cheers joined what sounded like thousands of others that echoed from mid-morning until late afternoon around the National Mall, only interrupted by the occasional sound of drums and singing from celebrities like Alicia Keys and Madonna.

Shaw and her group had arrived at 8:30 a.m. She had been on the fence about even coming Saturday because she was mildly concerned for her safety. But she decided that it was more important to show up to rally for equality for everyone, an idea that felt threatened after the election, she said.

She said it was difficult being liberal in an area that can be pretty conservative.

"One of the most hurtful things is looking at someone you care about and not knowing if you can trust them," Shaw said.

The march was supposed to start around 1:15 p.m., but a half-hour after that, the mass of people around Faison's group had only moved about a block. The women were jammed in a multimile stretch near the National Mall that was so tightly packed, it was often impossible to move beyond arm's length. Women and men asked each other where they were from and some followed the guidance of strangers to get through the crowds.

The smell of cigarettes, fruity perfume and marijuana floated around. One woman joked, "I feel like I'm going to get high," giving Julie Henderson, a Newport News native who now lives in Richmond, a good laugh.

People were using their signs to wave down group members they had lost. Others had climbed to the tops of trees, on museum steps and on top of rafters to watch or start chants like, "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!"

Even getting to the rally via public transit was a challenge for Shaw's group of about 100 who had bused in from Gloucester, and potentially thousands of others, she said. People had to wait for two or three trains to pass before they could squeeze onto one.

"It was a zoo," Shaw said. "We lost our group almost entirely going through the Metro."

Cori Johnson, of Williamsburg, said via text message that their Metro station had significant delays in the morning. She and her friends, who had driven up the night before, held up signs and yelled slogans while they waited.

As Faison marched slowly, she told the story of how she and her husband wondered if they were "alone in a sea of red" after moving to Gloucester a decade ago. But then she met Darcy O'Neil, also at the rally, and found out her husband had voted for former President Barack Obama. They've been friends ever since.

She laughed lightly and said their bond over liberal ideas was "an underground thing" in a place like Gloucester.

This rally was the first real political statement for Henderson, who is the director of food and environmental services at the Virginia Department of Health. She didn't know how it would be perceived for a state employee to make a statement. She had been happy under the previous administration.

But she said she can't ignore potential plans that Trump may have to cut back on access to birth control or his claims that climate change is a hoax. The environment and access to health care for women are not political issues, she said -- they're necessities.

"Now it's time to speak up," she said, "so this is the start of it."

Amin can be reached by phone at 757-247-4890.

___

(c)2017 the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)

Visit the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) at www.dailypress.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.