This Is Why Millions Will Be Marching On The First Day of Trump’s Presidency

As Donald Trump prepares for his inauguration, the House and Senate are underway in their efforts to strip America of President Obama’s legacy. As I write this, the House is voting on procedures to repeal Obamacare. The effort to repeal and replace Obamacare has reached such a fever pitch that the “replace” portion of this law is getting left behind. The result: 24 million Americans will lose health insurance. This is really happening.

In a Trump presidency, House Speaker Paul Ryan has promised to defund Planned Parenthood, which would have a significant impact on providing health care services, particularly to low income people. Planned Parenthood supporters showed up at his office with almost 90,000 signed petitions opposing his announcement to defund Planned Parenthood, but they were met by Capitol police and Paul Ryan’s locked office door.

Whether you are a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, there will be negative social and fiscal impacts in store for all of us in the next four years. Trump is now working on a plan to ask the Congress for money, lots of money, to build a wall to keep Mexicans out of the United States. He has offended women across the world with a plethora of misogynistic commentary that would be embarrassing to hear come out of the mouth of our least favorite neighbor, let alone the president of the United States.

While Trump is busy tweeting negative rhetoric to his “enemies” in this new year, Americans are left wondering what life in the future will look like for those of us who are not rich, white, and male.

This is how the women’s marches, scheduled for the day after inauguration, were born. On January 21, up to 200,000 people are expected to be in attendance at the Women’s March on Washington to send a clear message to the incoming administration: We stand together in solidarity and expect elected leaders to act to protect the rights of women, their families, and their communities.

The formation of the Women’s March on Washington has inspired nearly 300 other sister marches to take place around the world on the same day, spanning all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and 55 cities across six continents including Tokyo, Sydney, Kenya, Paris, and Bogotá. There are expected to be more than a million marchers combined. The stated mission of the women’s marches across the United States is to “seek to reaffirm the core American values of freedom and democracy for all at a time when many fear that their voices will be lost, specifically related to women’s rights, immigrant rights, worker rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, environmental rights, rights for all races, and religious freedom.”

I will be bringing my entire family of six, along with extended family and family friends to the Women’s March Sacramento. There are expected to be more than 10,000 people from diverse backgrounds around Northern California who will peacefully unite and march at California’s state capitol. I am bringing my children to march because I want them to know that it is our right as Americans to peacefully protest the morals, actions, and intentions of our incoming president. I want our presence at the march to urge the next administration to allow American citizens to retain the same rights we worked so hard to achieve over the last 50 years.

In the Great State of California, there are marches scheduled in 31 different cities, the most amount of marches organized in a single State. California has always lead the way in diversity. Since 2000, California is the second state in U.S. history to have a non-white majority, and the first state in U.S. history to have a Latino majority. California embraces diversity by having more sanctuary cities than any other state in the Union. It is important to Californians that we march on January 21 to retain the rights of people of all genders and ethnicities.

The Women’s March Sacramento has received many messages of support over the last few months. There are women who haven’t marched since the 1960s, or never at all, who will be marching in Sacramento on January 21.

“The Women’s March on Sacramento will be an historic event that will show the incoming administration and world that Woman’s rights are human rights and that Sacramento and California will stand in solidarity to promote social justice and healthier communities,” said Annie Adams, who is part of the core organizing group for the Women’s March Sacramento.

For more information about the Women’s March, and to find a march near you, visit womensmarch.com.