Protestors participate in marches following Trump inauguration

Protestors congregated at a womens march last Saturday to vouch for womens rights. Many marched to vouch for numerous causes the day after the Trump inauguration.

Courtesy of Levi Truong

Protestors congregated at a women’s march last Saturday to vouch for women’s rights. Many marched to vouch for numerous causes the day after the Trump inauguration.

by Eric Fang, Reporter

More than 2 million protesters took to the streets around the world last Saturday to voice their support for women’s rights and gender equality. These protests come just one day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump thus many were also there to protest their new administration.

Here in the Bay Area, hundreds of thousands of people marched and peacefully protested collectively in cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Walnut Creek. A predominant theme during the marches were to wear pink hats with cat ears, often called “pussy hats.” These special hats were inspired by Donald Trump’s leaked audio tape where he boasted to radio and television host Billy Bush about non consensually grabbing multiple women’s genitals.

Diane Main, director of learning innovation and design at the Harker Upper School marched in San Jose this past weekend. She thinks the marches helped to unite certain people discontent with the new presidency.

“The march was tattered as a women’s march kind of about equality for women and also guaranteeing women’s health care, but I think it was also an opportunity of people to get together and see how many other people are concerned about the policy changes on the horizon of the new administration,” Maine said.

Alongside women’s rights, the marches expanded to include LGBT rights, gun control, climate change and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Alicia Xu (9) flew to Washington D.C. this weekend with her mother and friends to join the half million protesters then planning to march.

“There is a lot of causes that Trump supports that me and my friends really don’t agree with,” Alicia said. “So a few of my friends and I decided to go to Washington D.C. to make a really big statement and to show what we stood for.”

The march was supported by political figures such as former Republican candidate for governor and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Meg Whitman, San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo, Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez and California Representative Eric Swalwell.

Apoorva Rangan (‘15) marched in Boston with, according to The Boston Globe, more than an estimated 175,000 other protesters, far more than the original 80,000 organizers had expected.

“I think the march was held to show solidarity with other people who are being ignored or put down by recent rhetoric in the white house and in the nation at large,” Rangan said. “That could be women, religious groups, immigrant and refugee communities, and environmental groups.”