The Cheyenne chapter of One Billion Rising will host its V-Day event at 10 a.m. on Feb. 14 at the Depot Plaza in Cheyenne.
“It’s an international event that brings awareness to violence against women,” One Billion Rising Cheyenne coordinator Shelly Montgomery said.
One Billion Rising is an organization that defines itself as a “global strike” to bring an end to violence against women.
“It focuses on all kinds of violence; not just physical abuse and sexual assault,” Montgomery said.
The V-Day event started last Thursday with a three-night showing of “The Vagina Monologues” at Laramie County Community College and raised $1,200 for Safehouse in Cheyenne. The production brought together women of all ages, ranging from 11 to 60.
“It’s great to see so many women from all walks of life coming together for this event. The amount of people participating is mind boggling,” Montgomery said.
The event will continue this Thursday with a flash mob at the Depot Plaza and a march to the Capitol building. The flash mob will then be repeated at 11 a.m. with a rally to follow.
Safehouse, as well as other women’s health and advocacy groups will be present at the event.
While sexual and physical violence are a huge part of what One Billion Rising focuses on, Montgomery says it focuses on other types of violence and discrimination as well. One issue that One Billion Rising focuses on, particularly the Cheyenne chapter, is the wage gap between genders.
“We’re number 50 in the United States for wage equality. We pay our women worse than any other state in the country,” Montgomery said. “In Wyoming, a woman makes 37 percent of what a man makes for doing the same job.”
Montgomery says that many groups around the state and country have focused on these issues before, but this will be an opportunity to bring them all together.
“There are a lot of groups doing a lot of great work, but there’s nothing really connecting them together and this really brings them together under one banner,” she said. “This will be an opportunity to form alliances locally and internationally.”
This will mark the 15th anniversary of the V-Day event for One Billion Rising and Montgomery is hoping it will be the beginning of a movement in both Wyoming and globally.
“We don’t want this to be just a singular event. We want this to be the beginning of a movement,” she said. “We plan to meet sometime after to set goals for the future. We don’t want this be just a one day event.”
