ITHACA, N.Y. — Inspired by the Women’s March on Washington, hundreds of local residents are planning to “March on Ithaca” the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. The march is meant to be a stand for women’s rights and all rights, organizer and Ithaca resident Amanda Champion said.
“We want to focus on what we’re standing for — for women’s rights and human rights and gay rights and that all people are equal and deserve the same rights,” Champion said.
The event is not a protest march against Trump, and it is also not meant for just women but for anyone who supports women’s rights.
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 900 people have said they are going to Women’s March on Ithaca, according to the Facebook page.
People marching in Ithaca will join hundreds of thousands across the country and globe planning to march the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. According to the Women’s March on Washington’s website, there are more than 280 “sister marches” like Ithaca’s planned.
The Women’s March on Washington is meant to send a “bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights,” according to their mission statement.
Read more about Ithacans heading to the Women’s March on Washington here.
Champion said she initially planned to go to Washington, D.C., for the march but said she thought it made more sense to have one in Ithaca for people who can’t go to D.C. She said a handful of people have worked hard to put Ithaca’s march and rally together and organize speakers.
Some speakers include Leslie Danks Burke, the Democratic candidate who challenged Tom O’Mara for Senate, as well as former Tompkins County poet laureate Michelle Courtney Berry, county historian Carol Kammen, director of Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes Angela Riddell and student member of Ithaca College’s Center for LGBTQ Education, Outreach and Services Alexa Salvato.
Kammen will read the county’s recent proclamation declaring 2017 the “Year of the Woman in Tompkins County.”
There will also be a musical performance by Answer the Muse.
Marchers will convene at 10 a.m. at Ithaca City Hall, located at 108 E. Green St., Ithaca, and walk a one-mile route from City Hall to DeWitt Park, down Buffalo Street several blocks, then back to Martin Luther King Jr. Street/State Street. Marchers will then return to the Ithaca Commons for the rally. Marchers are asked to remain on sidewalks and be alert to traffic along the route.
The rally will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the Bernie Milton Pavilion.
With the march, Champion said she hopes people will feel not alone. She said the march is for people who are worried about what the future holds for women or people of color or people with disabilities.
“We’re not alone,” Champion said. “There’s so many people supporting us. Whatever the government does, we’re still here and we’re still going to fight for what’s right and what’s good.”
Learn more about the Women’s March on Ithaca on their Facebook page.