Women’s march in Boston area will mark anniversary of Trump’s inauguration
In the Boston area, across the country, and around the world on Saturday, women, men, and children prepared to march — some wearing symbolic pink knit hats — to support women’s rights on the first anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration.
More than 5,000 people said they planned to participate in the Cambridge/Boston Women’s March 2018 at 1 p.m. near Harvard Square, expressing their interest on a Facebook page for the event.
Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern, state Attorney General Maura Healey, state Representative Marjorie Decker, Cambridge City Councilor Sumbul Siddiqui, and other elected officials were scheduled to attend, according to organizers.
Last year, a women’s march in Boston the day after the inauguration drew about 175,000 protesters, according to city officials’ estimates.
This year’s march comes just hours after the US Senate, amid unresolved negotiations between Democratic leaders and the president, failed to pass a funding bill before money to run the federal government ran out at midnight, forcing a shutdown on the anniversary of the inauguration.
More than 200 marches were scheduled across the United States for Saturday and Sunday, including cities such as Washington, D.C., and New York, where organizers said they expected tens of thousands of participants. A rally set for Sunday in Las Vegas will launch an effort to register 1 million voters and target swing states in the midterm elections.
Marches are also taking place internationally, in places as far-flung as Beijing; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Nairobi, Kenya.
A rally in Rome on Saturday included a speech by Italian actress and director Asia Argento, who made headlines after alleging in October that she had been sexually assaulted by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in the 1990s.
Across New England, marches were set for cities including Montpelier, Vt.; Providence, R.I.; and Bangor, Augusta, and Bar Harbor, Maine. In Massachusetts, marches were planned for communities including Andover and Topsfield, according to Facebook pages for those rallies.
This year’s Cambridge march is co-sponsored by a coalition of organizations that includes Boston Persists, the Indivisible Somerville Discussion Group, Massachusetts Peace Action, and the New England Independence Campaign, among others. Many other groups have endorsed the march.
The marchers will gather “to voice our opposition to an administration that is systematically eroding the rights of women and other marginalized people, dismantling and destroying our democracy, and putting the entire world at risk,’’ according to a statement from the organizers.
They advocate “liberty, dignity, and equal protection under the law’’ for all people “regardless of gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, race, age, religion, nationality, immigration status, disability, economic status, geographical residence, health status, culture, and political affiliation, not just in the United States but across the planet,’’ according to the statement.
