#WhyIMarch: Culturess Writers Share Their Women’s March Thoughts

2017 Women’s March, Washington, DC (Image via Kalistrya)

Speaking up in the Southeast

I marched to prove to these elected officials that we will not be silenced, and that we won’t stand by and allow them to trample on our basic human rights. I marched for ALL women – women of color, trans women, gay women, disabled women – who have been fighting for the rights we don’t have as well as the rights we do have and intend to keep.

I marched for anyone who is in danger from the social diseases of hatred and bigotry, for women, for immigrants, for Muslims and Jews, for the poor, for the disabled, for the LGBT community. I marched as a mother of two daughters (including my 14 year old who marched too) who deserve to have access to birth control, to make reproductive choices, and to be free from sexual harassment and assault. I also marched as the mother of a son with Type 1 diabetes who will literally die without access to affordable healthcare coverage. I marched as the daughter of veterans who served our country and are now facing broken promises from our greedy government.

I even marched for the women who have called me names for marching, said I was “a sore loser” who was just “throwing a tantrum.” I marched for those women who said we don’t represent them because they have all the rights they need, thank you very much. I marched for them because when they lose their healthcare after being diagnosed with breast cancer, when their daughter is sexually assaulted on a college campus and can’t get the “morning after” pill, or when they’re facing sexual harassment by their new boss, they’ll wished they had marched too.

– April, who marched in Atlanta with 63,000 other women, children, and men