On Saturday, Jan. 20, protestors took to the street in Cheyenne to show their support for women’s issues, LGBT rights and calls for increased diversity in all parts of American society.
The march started at the Cheyenne Depot Museum and proceeded to the Supreme Court of Wyoming and back.
“We are here for a multitude of reasons, but they all unite around the concept that women’s voices have been devalued, we feel like we have something important to say,” Sara Burlingame, the media contact for the Wyoming Women’s March on Equality, said.
Burlingame said that it is time for women to be heard.
“In Wyoming we believe in fairness, we believe in equality and if we are not seeing that leadership in Washington D.C., then the women of Wyoming will raise our voices,” Burlingame said.
Burlingame said that while the demonstration was part anger, there was also joy.
“You will see a lot of people are really mad, a lot of people are angry at not being represented, not having our values represented, but you are also going to see a lot of joy,” Burlingame said. “A lot of people are really, really overjoyed to find so many people to stand by them.”
This march marks the second year in a row where demonstrators have taken part in protests known as Women’s March. Started by the Women’s March on Washington, a protests rally against the newly elected president, Donald Trump.
“Last time when we organized this we thought there would be 30 of us, of just our friends standing on the street corner with just our signs,” Shayna Lonoaea-Alexander, one member of the team that organized the march, said. “We were completely taken by surprise by the turnout and how many folks felt the same way we did.”
The results of the march over the past year have helped to inform and motivate people about their representation in office.
“I think it’s definitely activated a lot of folks who were idle,” Lonoaea-Alexander said. “I think folks are now more well-informed on who their legislature are and who represents them in the house and senate.”
Kenneth Ingram, Pastor of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, said he did not feel like things have changed over the past year.
“Things have declined a lot from a social perspective in this country and what this country had done around the world,” Ingram said.
