10 People Told Us Why They Made Their Voices Heard at the London Women’s March
LONDON — An estimated 100,000 showed up at the Women's March in London on Saturday, completely busting crowd expectations — in fact, Britain’s capital city was so swamped that crowds found themselves filling roads that hadn’t even been blocked off for the event, accidentally stopping traffic.
The march — which wove from London’s U.S. Embassy to Trafalgar Square — was held in conjunction with the Women's March on Washington, and solidarity events around the world. It's aim was more to stand up for equal rights rather than to protest against Trump, but speaking to people marching, it was clear there was a strong desire to show solidarity with American people who feel threatened by the new president. The mood was angry but hopeful: crowds sang the Spice Girls, chanted "We don’t want your tiny hands anywhere near our underpants," and held signs with anti-Trump and feminist messages. When we asked people why they were taking part, the message was clear: Americans, we’ve got your back.
1/10Alex, 18, London
I can’t imagine how American women must be feeling. It’s important to show them that the entire world cares about them. And, whilst we’re here for the Women’s March, we’re also standing in solidarity with everyone whose rights are going to be impacted by Trump’s presidency. Whether that’s people of color, the LGBT community, or disabled people. I have a lot of friends on Twitter in the gay community in America. They already receive homophobia. If Trump normalizes it, what’s going to stop other people doing it to them? They’re in danger. We cannot stay silent. - Alex
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2/10Anna, 33, (left) who attended the march with her mother, Theresa, 72 (middle)
One of the reasons I’m here is that I work with a lot of young girls. A lot of the work I do is about empowering young people to have a voice and understand what it is to be a woman in this world — what you need to do to be noticed, to be heard and to be respected. I hope that when American women get up and see this march happening, they can feel the support of us behind them and be inspired. - Anna
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3/10Chris, 21, Norwich, who attended the march with his friend Amelie, 22, also from Norwich
This is my first ever protest. My New Year's resolution was to stop shouting through social media and to start actually acting. It’s so important for us here to stand in solidarity with American women right now. So many of their voices are being overpowered by Trump’s voice. It’s especially important that men stand up for American women too because — as it says on the signs everywhere here — "women’s rights are human rights." And, if one of us doesn’t have human rights then we all don’t. - Chris
4/10Chris, 50, of London, who attended with his children Genevieve, 14, and Lucas
I’m marching because Trump has said some despicable, outrageous and unacceptable things about women. I think we have to say that it’s wrong. As someone who’s got a daughter, I feel like we’ve been making progress on women’s rights and this is kind of like saying, "no, enough progress, let’s go backwards." She’s going to be inheriting this world and I’m worried about that. - Chris
5/10Eddie, 15, London
I’m a feminist. My mum’s always emphasized to me that everyone’s equal, and she brought me up to respect that. Trump has said so many thing about so many people throughout his whole campaign: he’s just been putting people down. And, that "grab them by the p*ssy" video showed that the way he talks about women isn’t a new thing that he used to win the election: that is him. This is about uniting against that. We need to show that he can’t get away with all the things he says. - Eddie
6/10Isabella, 19, and Zipporah,18, of London
I’m marching against the misogyny and racism that Trump represents in his government. A person who’s endorsed by the far right movement needs to be checked by everyone in the world. I want to just say to all the minorities in America to stay strong and work together through this term of presidency. It’s not over yet, as long as we hold Trump accountable for things. If the whole world holds him accountable then he won’t have the space to do as much crazy stuff as he wants to do. -Zipporah
7/10Jennifer, 24, London, who attended the march with her friend Natalie
We’re here because we’re sick of the supremacy of these white elitists who think that they can control our lives and they don’t think about the aftershock of what they do. We want to tell American women that they’re not alone and that we’re always going to be there to support them. Even if take us being at a rally every weekend; we’ll do what it takes. - Jennifer
8/10Aliya, 29, of London, who attended with her friend Safeena, 29
We came down today because it’s healthy outlet for our frustration. We’re both Canadian, and I have family in New York, Washington, California, and Texas. You hear lots of tales where they don’t feel super safe to go out. In Texas, there’s quite a big divide. We’re both Muslim, so it’s hard to hear when people are getting beaten up in the street or you see kids being made fun of in school. It feels personal. It’s good to have a way to be around like-minded people: to get energized rather than feeling despondent. It’s heartwarming in a time of sh*ttiness that there are people who want to protect the rights of others. -* Aliya*
9/10Vera, 19 (left), Thaslima, 20 (middle), and Eliza, 19 (right) of London
It’s protesting the fact that our society has allowed a misogynist and climate change-denier to become one of the most powerful men in the world. It’s everything that’s wrong with our society summed up in one person. -Eliza
We’re marching for equal rights for women, and also against Trump. He’s creating a lot of division. Even with his inauguration speech. You’d think that now he’s President he’d try to give off some sense of unity, but there was nothing of that in his speech. -Thaslima
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