BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Hundreds of Hoosiers are already off to the inauguration and hundreds more are headed to Washington D.C. for the growing Women’s March.
The second wave of local marchers from the Indiana chapter leaves Friday from Bloomington. The march they’re joining began as a spontaneous social media event.
Now it’s set to be one of America’s biggest protests ever, and hundreds of Hoosiers plan to join in.
“I think it’s really empowering to do something,” said local marcher Laura Zimmerman.
She’s one of 150 women leaving from central Indiana, just from the local Women’s March chapter.
“I’m so proud to be marching from Indiana,” said Zimmerman.
The Indiana chapter primarily organized on social media, where the rallying cry for a march spontaneously began. They’re now meeting over the next couple days before their two dozen buses of Hoosier marchers get there.
While tensions have grown nationally over whether pro-life organizations and activists are being pushed out of the feminist effort, many local women say the march is about much more than abortion.
“Childcare, leave for women and men when they have babies and universal health care,” said Zimmerman as she listed off the issues most important to her.
They want to make sure the focus is on the many different causes, not the in-group fighting, when hundreds of thousands women and men fill the streets.
“They should know their vote does matter and every vote does matter,” said local organizer Denise Valkyrie. “Everybody’s opinion matters and everybody needs to be heard and we can work together to continue to make our country be a great country.”
According to the women’s march website, more than 600 simultaneous local protests will also occur, across all 50 states and even in 30 other countries.
Seven are scheduled for Indiana, including one in Indianapolis. That march starts at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Statehouse.
