Women plan march on Washington for variety of reasons (With Video)

Jan. 19--Kellen Leef, 51, a Fairlea restaurant owner, mother and grandmother, is going to march in Washington as a show of her relationship with Christ and to protect the rights of women and other Americans.

The daughter of a Christian minister, Leef said her father modeled a respect for humanity that inspired her to care about others.

"I'm a Christian," she said. "I believe in Christianity, not religion.

"I was raised to believe you help your fellow man as much as you can.

"I'm just horrified by the fact that an individual can stand up and say awful things about women and make fun of handicapped individuals, and people just let it happen.

"I'm horrified by that fact," she added. "I have grandchildren who are going to grow up into this.

"How is this not a women's issue, looking at my family?"

Concern for health insurance, stewardship of the earth and a desire to protect gay family members and friends are also motivators, she added.

Leef said she's endured criticism from some for her decision.

"I've had people tell me that my father would've been ashamed of me," she reported. "My response is, 'You must not have known my father.'"

----Kelly Drey, 39, of Fayetteville, is the resource coordinator for the Community and Economic Development for Fayette County.

Attending the Women's March is Drey's message to lawmakers: Women won't stand silently by as government is used to limit their rights.

"We can't stand by and let this kind of misogyny go unaccounted for," she said.

Drey was stunned by the "misogynistic rhetoric" aimed against women during the presidential campaign.

"It really shifted the way I think about gender equality in America and the way that women are treated," she explained. "My eyes have really been opened to how much further we have to go.

"It's been a kind of rude awakening for me.

"I felt ... unaware about how a lot of people feel about women and the ways that women are mistreated and that people just seem to accept that," she added. "I feel scared and angry and called to action."

The march is a chance to surround herself with those who share her sense of urgency.

"I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to stand in solidarity with women who are more marginalized than I am," she said. "I'm looking forward to going to Washington.

"This is an important part of the way democracy works in America, that we have the right to gather and demand that somebody listen."

----For Debbie Graff, a 50-year-old mother of four adult children, it's important to be a positive example for the next generation and to take a stand for personal rights and the rights of others. She believes the presence of more than 100,000 people in the nation's capital is an encouragement to lawmakers to consider the basic human rights of women -- and everyone else.

"I'm not going to move backward," said Graff, of Flat Top. "I have four young adults, and I want them to know, if they feel like something is wrong ... they have to stand up ... You've got to have a voice."

Graff plans to use her voice to protest cultural and governmental acceptance of sexual attacks against women (and men).

Donald Trump's 2005 remarks that targeted women for "grabbing," raised red flags among those who advocate against sexual violence.

"To hear a man with that kind of power speak about a woman in that kind of manner normalizes (sexual assault)," she said. "I don't want that to be normal. It's not normal. It's wrong."

A Christian, Graff said she's also motivated to march for the rights of everyone to worship according to their own consciences.

"Encouraging fear of particular religions is nauseating," she said. "... I've not experienced that in my life, and I don't want to."

Graff also is concerned about proposed governmental control over women's reproductive health decisions and about the environment.

"I feel like it's a gift from God, and we can't just trash it," she said.

----Dr. Celia McLay,56, is an osteopath physician and professor at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg.

She firmly believes privilege isn't a virtue, and that's a message the Women's March will send to the new administration.

Since the election she said she has "had grave concerns about the rights of women and the rights of all minorities. It feels to me as though privilege is being held out as the most wondrous thing.

"Privilege is something that people are born with. And it's not the most important thing to respect."

Being born white, male and wealthy grants privilege, said McLay, along with being born into a family that can offer greater access to education.

"Those are not things that are unique to us as individuals," she said. "Those that are born without privilege are likely to have the same level of intelligence, the same aspirations and goals in life ... It's very important we honor everyone and work about being a country and society that creates access for everyone.

"That's one of the cornerstones of what the United States is about, and I want very much to see that to continue to be what our great country is about."

The physician said "there's a mind, body, spirit connection" that can be impacted when a leader makes derogatory statements about the worth and rights of citizens.

"I'm greatly concerned for the health of women, LBGTQ people, black people, Mexicans, all minorities, Jewish, Asian, everyone," she said. "I'm gravely concerned that our new administration have respect for the rights of all people, that we not erode someone's sense of personal safety and not erode their emotional health."

Descended from a socially active family, McLay's grandmother and great-grandmother marched in Washington as suffragettes in 1914. Over 100 years later, McLay is participating in a local grassroots effort that she said won't end with the Women's March on Washington.

"I'm going to Washington because ... I want to physically, with my body, stand up and be present. But the work is not stopping on Jan. 21.

"It's just going to be starting."

----When Susan Sniadowski, 61, was growing up, her age group "was just under the Vietnam war."

"I was too young for all the protests," she reported.

The Woman's March will be the first time the church secretary and mother of three has been in a political march.

On Nov. 9, she said she heard liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore discussing the event. After checking it out, she decided she'd go.

"I just feel like doing this for my daughters, because I feel there's a lot we could lose with those in the new administration.

"We don't want it to go back the way it was 40 years ago. We've gained so much. Not just for women, but for others, as well."

Sniadowski remembers when women's personal freedoms were limited by government and society, and she's concerned about Supreme Court appointments.

"I won't say I'm pro-abortion," she said. "I am pro-choice, and it really shouldn't be the government's say as to what a woman can do."

Affordable health care is another reason that she's marching.

"I feel like what we're saying is, 'Don't forget us. Don't put us back to the '50s," she said. "My daughters don't understand what was done back in the '60s and '70s, they don't understand the progress women have made.

"They think this (current civil rights protection) is normal."

----Robin Feldhake, 52, is a teacher and a mom. The Women's March will be her first political march.

"The main reason I'm marching is because I can," she said. "I have the choice to march. I have the freedom. I have friends to do it with.

"No one is telling me I can't do it," she added. "That itself is powerful. It's just a freedom."

For Feldhake, economic rights are a motivator for the march.

"I don't want our nation to reverse all the gains we've made," she explained. "I want to march for the future of my daughter ... for women's rights and freedom to take on any occupation they want, freedom to be whatever 'job-person' they want to be."

She said the march is an opportunity to lift people up and to support others.

When asked how she expects the march to feel, Feldhake replied, "I envision a lot of humanity in a limited environment ... with positive energy, excitement, united in sisterhood.

"It's exciting," she added. "This is an opportunity to be part of history."

----When Jessie Hudspeth first heard about the Women's March on Washington, she knew she didn't want to miss it.

Hudspeth, of Hico, is a junior at Midland Trail High School in Fayette County. Her father first told her about the event and asked her to go with a family friend, Maura Kistler, a Fayetteville business owner. Hudspeth said she considers Kistler like a second mom.

The two will leave early Jan. 21 on the sold-out Lewisburg bus, arriving in D.C. around 9 a.m. to march with thousands of other women from all across the country.

"I figured that I knew a bunch of other people who wanted to go but wouldn't be able to go. I had the opportunity and thought that maybe I should go for them," she said. "I thought it was really cool because people had banded together in D.C. and other places around the country. I thought it was cool that these organizations are putting so much effort into it and I knew there was no way I wanted to miss out on it."

She said she has told a few of her friends, who she said have been very supportive of her decision to march. She said she knows she will be criticized by others but she still wants to stand up for her beliefs.

"I know that it it won't be a very accepted thing for me to do because a lot of people I go to school with often make jokes about me being a feminist," she said. "They tell me I need to go back to the kitchen. They joke around and don't take it very seriously. Obviously, it's a serious issue and it's so serious that thousands of people will rally together on one day to stand up. I want to prove them wrong, show them that it really does matter.

"I think that even if it isn't popular or widely accepted, definitely you should stand up for yourself," she later said. "Whether you're disabled, black or Hispanic, your opinion matters. It doesn't matter what everyone else thinks about it."

She said this is one of the biggest reasons she wants to participate in the march.

"I want to stand up against misogyny in general and I just want to stand up and be a feminist," she said. "The president-elect has made a bunch of derogatory misogynistic comments about women, either objectifying them or accusing them of being on their period and such but I feel like it's my duty to try to stand up for myself and others, if I can, and try to inspire other people to do the same."

----Maura Kistler said if there is one message she wants to send by participating in the Women's March in Washington, D.C., it's that she is paying attention.

Kistler, who owns Water Stone Outdoors in Fayetteville, said there has been a lot of interest from her town. She is going with a group of six people to catch the sold-out bus in Lewisburg early Saturday morning. The Women's March takes place at 10 a.m. Jan. 21.

"I'm excited about the camaraderie with fellow West Virginians," she said. "It's exciting that there are other wild and wonderful West Virginia women who are out there paying attention."

Kistler said she grew up in a politically active family, remembering her mother and six brothers and sisters participating in the civil rights marches in Chicago when she was a kid.

"That was a powerful memory for me," she said.

"Women's rights have come a long way and I do perceive threats to some of those rights, possible threats to some of the advances that women have made over the last 50 years. I do feel like I'm going up there to stand up and be counted as someone who is paying attention. I am paying attention."

She looks at the march as a way to be an active participant in democracy.

"I want the incoming administration, who will come in the day prior, that a lot of people are willing to be active and who do care about these things," she said. "It's just a way to indicate that and what is exciting to me about this time in history it is causing more people to be engaged in the governance of this country -- to be willing to stand up and be heard. That's always good for government and society, I believe."

One of the issues she is concerned about is Planned Parenthood.

"It's a fabulous organization with all manner of important things that they have done in a very professional and admirable way," she said.

"I absolutely respect people who find abortion -- who can't wrap their brain around it," she later said. "I have nothing but respect for those people. The choice is the issue. It's a personal choice. You should not throw Planned Parenthood out. They have done too much good."

She also wants to stand up and be counted.

"I'm ready to push back when I see that progress made societally on women's issues, LGBTQ issues -- these are issues near and dear to my heart," she said. "I want to be counted as someone paying attention, an engaged citizen. It's good for all of us to be engaged, wherever we lay are on the political spectrum. It makes us stronger as a country."

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