Since the first Women’s March on Washington, a movement organized to raise awareness for women’s and monitories’ rights, safety, and health, roughly 673 sister marches have taken place around the world with an estimated five million participants.
One of the most notable being the Women’s March on New York City that took place on January 21, 2017 and brought together over 750,000 protesters. Following its widely-recognized success, the Women’s March Alliance is already gearing up for round two.
The second annual march is set to take place on January 20, 2018 and demonstrators are invited to March from Columbus Circle to Midtown Manhattan. The event will conclude with an activism fair, reports Gothamist.
According to Katherine Siemionko, founder and President of Women’s March Alliance, there has been high demand for another march over the past few months: “With each successive degradation of basic human rights, the outpouring of support for this form of social activism grows exponentially. ” Although the NYC movement is the only one planned as of now, she believes it is a form of stepping up and meeting the challenge.
There was an outpouring of support in response to the first round of marches, but there was also criticism from various groups, includingtransgenders who felt excluded. The cause behind the upcoming march “is to defend and maintain the basic rights of women, immigrants, LGBTQ+, the religious and nonreligious, people of color, and the environment,” Siemionko said ina statement. So, while we will no doubt see streets lined with pink Pussyhats, we also expect the organization to step up their efforts to include voices other than just cisgender women.
Consider our calendars marked. Who’s in?