Yesterday.

Because I was speaking I had to get there early to register but I had to swing around to pick up a friend who wanted to go to the rally and another friend followed me up to the Capitol. When we got there people were just arriving so there was plenty of parking and we parked on a side street next to the Supreme Court.

Once I signed in I noticed that they were letting people park in the Capitol parking lot so I asked a capitol police officer if I could park in at the EV charging station, he said yes. So I had the best parking space of the rally, the spot right next to the rally.

So then it was wait… wait… wait. I had two hours before my speech.

The crowd was a lot smaller this year, last year they had around 10,000 people and this year I would say the crowd was around a thousand or two. Was it the weather? Was it because people are losing interest in the movement?  Was it the false allegations that the organizers were anti-Semitism?

The Hartford Courant had this to say about the rally,

Thousands rally for rights at Connecticut Women’s March
By Edmund H. Mahony

The Connecticut Women’s March drew nearly 3,000 people to the state Capitol on Saturday, rallying to expand the rights of women while vowing continued resistance to the Trump administration, which marchers condemned as an obstacle.

The spirited rally of mostly women marked the third year of a movement born in an almost spontaneous reaction to the election of President Donald J. Trump. After the election, 10,000 people flooded the Capitol grounds for a first rally. Capitol Police estimated that 2,500 to 3,000 arrived Saturday to listen to hours of speeches in bitter cold and under a threat of stormy weather.

The article also mentioned the controversy…

There was no discussion of the allegations of anti-Semitism that divided the national Women’s March group after one of its leaders refused to vigorously disavow remarks offensive to Jews by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

But Fliegel, in her remarks, described early support for women’s right by Jewish women and called for an end to anti-Semitic hatred. And earlier in the week, Women’s March Connecticut, in a statement, “unequivocally [denounced] all forms of bigotry from any source” and specifically criticized Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who has ties to several of the national Women’s March leaders.

"We absolutely condemn the words of Minister Louis Farrakhan and acknowledge that he is perpetuating hate speech against Jewish people and the LGBTQIA+ community,'' the Connecticut group said. "There is no way we can support hate speech and maintain our values. We will continue to support women of all religions, ethnicities and creeds and a part of that means admonishing those who use hateful language.''

From what I have seen in their organizing they are very inclusive, if you look are the organizers and the speakers they are very diverse. I can’t help to wonder if they are being attacked because they brought about change and the right is running scared. Is this a campaign to discredit the women’s movement?

While I was waiting another friend showed up followed by another so the four of took in the sights and sound of the rally. A few other acquaintances stopped by and I went over to talk to some other friends.

Then it was my turn to speak (you can read my speech here)… here is a photo that I took while I was waiting on stage.

A couple of times I had to wait for the applause to die down, two of the things that brought applause was when I mentioned the 19 women elected judges down in Texas and one of the other times was I mentioned Massachusetts’s Question 3 winning by 67%.

After I was finished we all headed out to eat since we haven’t eaten since the morning so we stopped at a Mexican restaurant that I like… the Margaritas went down so easy.

Photos courtesy of Jaime

Photos courtesy of Jaime

So yesterday I met my goal of staying up until 9 PM

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Update 9:15 AM:
Out in California there was another trans speaker…

Laverne Cox at 2019 Women’s March: “It Is Subversive to Choose Love”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave a shout-out to trans women in her speech.
NewNowNext
By Brandon Voss
January 20, 2019


Laverne Cox, trailblazing trans actress and LGBTQ activist, delivered a powerful speech Saturday at the third annual Women’s March in L.A., one of numerous Women’s Marches held around the country.

“The achieving of basic human rights, dignity, justice or equity for one group of people does not mean that something is being taken from another group,” Cox said. “That’s scarcity thinking and scarcity thinking will always drive us further from each other.”

“Divide and conquer is one of the primary tools of the oppressor to control marginalized people. And when I say oppressor let me be clear, each and everyone of us has the capacity to be an oppressor, no matter who we are, where we are located on social hierarchies or how we identify. And each of us has the capacity to be liberators for ourselves and each other.”

“We have seen the tool of divide and conquer be used to attack this very march,” Cox continued. “Mary Pipher in her book Reviving Ophelia so beautifully writes, ’Social change is a million individual acts of kindness. Cultural change is a million subversive acts of resistance.’
[…]
Many politicians, celebrities, and previous sponsors have distanced themselves from this year’s Women’s March in response to accusations of anti-Semitism and homophobia leveled at its organizers, who publicly addressed the controversy at the Women’s March in Washington D.C, CNN reports.

“Over the last year, my sisters in Women’s March and I have faced accusations that have hurt my soul,” Carmen Perez-Jordan told the crowd. “Charges of anti-Semitism and neglecting our LGBTQIA family. And I want to be unequivocal in affirming that Women’s March and I and my sisters condemn anti-Semitism and homophobia and transphobia in all forms.”

Divide and conquer this is right out of Saul D. Alinsky playbook, find a weakness and exploit it and that is what the conservatives are doing because they are afraid of us.

They found one person out of the thousands of organizers who backs an anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ+ and they labeled the whole movement as being anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ+ if you look at the speakers at the event yesterday, and the attendees you will see it is very diverse.

Don’t let the “ol’ boys club” divide us!