Reno took part in the nationwide Women’s March this past Saturday with numbers similar to the record setting 2017 march of about 10,000 attendees. Some estimates indicate there were as many as 12,000 attending this year.
Reno added a twist to the march, that I have been unable to find at any other march across the nation, by having Native American women lead the march. This created very powerful imagery as the women marched down South Virginia Street in the haze of burning sage and to the sounds of beating drums.
Behind them were thousands of other marchers carrying protest signs and chanting. Like last year, the crowd was so massive as to stretch from the federal courthouse to the downtown BELIEVE plaza.
The march in Reno focused on two main subjects: one being that women are powerful members of our society and must be respected; the second being statements of disapproval of President Donald Trump’s behavior.
One sign depicted Trump as a T-Rex emerging from a toilet with the tag line “Shit-hole-asaurus,” which was then crossed out and rewritten to “shut-down-asaurus,” referring to the current government shutdown.
The only conflict, that I witnessed was very minor and involved a group of self-described communists/anarchists. One of the members carried a sign reading “Burn your Transphobic pussy hats.” Some of the marchers, often wearing the symbolic pussy hats, clearly did not agree with this idea, but they choose to walk away rather than confront.
One of the speakers seemed to address the sign indirectly by explaining that women’s march was umbrella term that at its heart includes all gender identities.
