Women's March participants brave deep freeze in Montpelier

MONTPELIER - The Women's March Vermont rally on Saturday morning had fewer numbers than year one, but attendees showed enthusiastic support for the diverse speakers representing marginalized groups within Vermont and across the nation.

"It's balmy," said rally organizer Jo Sabel Courtney from within layers of winter-proof clothing just before the start of the rally. The temperature was 6 degrees. "All our work, all we did and why we did it is about to come together.” 

Montpelier police estimated 700 to 1,000 women and allies showed up just hours before a two-day winter storm was due Saturday evening.

Those who gathered said they were there for reproductive rights or environmental or minority rights, but the overarching theme of the event was anti-oppression and unity to gather political power before the 2020 election.

Kiah Morris

Former Bennington state Rep. Kiah Morris, who spoke midway through the rally, generated the most cheers of the day, with gatherers shouting their thanks and many reaching out to shake hands with or hug the former Vermont politician as she descended the Statehouse steps.

Morris, then the sole African American female member of the Vermont Legislature, left state politics last year due in part to the impact of racially-based harassment against herself and her family. 

More:4 things to know about Kiah Morris resignation

"The label of the second-whitest state in the union has become a crutch to keep people from doing the real work of peaceful revolution," Morris said to cheers and drumming.

"We need to extricate ourselves from narrow identitarian thinking if we want to encourage progressive people to embrace these struggles as their own," Morris said, asking white allies to step up against far-right and nationalist political beliefs that target racial minorities.

Political unity and women's rights

Freweyni Adugnia, a Windsor County environmental activist, called for political action on behalf of disenfranchised minorities and the economically challenged who are more affected by changes to the environment than those with wealth and power. 

Youth organizer and host for the rally, MacKenzie Murdoch, read a poem she wrote after receiving investigation findings following a Northern Vermont University campus investigation into her allegation of rape. 

More:Women's March: Vermont teens fight to prevent sexual assault on campus in #metoo era

"Being raped can't be our normal," Murdoch said of the statistics showing one in three women experience sexual violence. "This is 2019 and I'm here to say #metoo."

Rally members shouted "me too" back to Murdoch, who was overcome with emotion and the cold.

Controversy

Vermont leadership issued a statement this week denouncing the controversial minister Louis Farrakhan and "all forms of hate" in response to questions about whether the state group was affiliated with the Washington, D.C.-based Women's March. The central group has been wracked with controversy this month following accusations of antisemitism.

Vermont leadership said, "[...] the National leaders do not own this movement. It belongs to all of us." 

At least two current leaders of the national group were accused of associating with outspoken anti-Jewish, Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan. The national group's statement said Farrakhan's ideas were not "aligned with the Women’s March Unity principles."

The Vermont group dedicated a web page to explain their principles.

Abenaki speaker Melody Walker Brook asked the community to condemn anti-semitism, racism and all hateful thinking and embrace positive action.

Nudity and subversion

While speakers addressed oppression and political action, there were subversive movements afoot on the Statehouse lawn.

Members of the #GrabThemByTheBallot campaign posed on the steps in the nude, draped with flags and holding signs over their privates which read "Ballot 2020."

Nudity is legal in Vermont if a person doesn't disrobe in public. The group stayed within the law, according to Dawn Robertson, who not only organized the campaign, but also posed with a half dozen other women of all ages and abilities.

"It was surreal and powerful," Robertson said.

An emissary from Nutty Steph's, owned by Middlesex chocolatier Jaquelyn Reike, stood at the entrance to the lawn holding up a large cloth vulva. Others asked people if they wanted to be reborn through the vaginal lips as they entered the rally. 

Those that did were gifted a chocolate vulva which are being sold to benefit Planned Parenthood.

Calls to action

Planned Parenthood volunteers worked the crowd urging attendees to come to a Jan. 22 action at the Statehouse to secure abortion rights in Vermont, according to Paige Feeser of Winooski.

Champlain Valley Union High School students had a table to explain how to affect current and future policy related to sexual violence and harassment on public college and K-12 campuses.

More:Federal changes to college sexual assault reporting rules; what you need to know

Members of Migrant Justice, the Lakota Sioux, Black Lives Matte, University of Vermont Socialists and a host of women who said they had been protesting since before Vietnam stood side by side calling for dignity — and warmth. 

Contributing, Nick Garber. Follow him at Twitter @Nick__Garber.

Nicole Higgins DeSmet, ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet.