CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Heavy rain is in the forecast for Saturday in Charleston for what will be the 3rd Annual Women’s March West Virginia at the State Capitol, an event coinciding with similar rallies and marches across the U.S. including in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve got as much in place as we can to protect people from the weather,” said Barbara Garnett, a Cabell County resident and co-president of Women’s March West Virginia.
“It is what it is. We’ll deal with it.”
On Saturday, the Charleston Women’s March rally was planned for 12 p.m. on the State Capitol’s South Plaza followed by a march around the State Capitol Complex at 2 p.m.
It was designed to be a march with a message, said Garnett.
“We need to keep moving forward,” she told MetroNews.
“We’ve had a lot of success over the past two years, nationally and locally. We want to continue that success and keep with our message which is that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.”
Sponsors for the Charleston event included West Virginia FREE, the ACLU of West Virginia, Planned Parenthood Votes South Atlantic, Moms Demand Action and West Virginia Citizens for Clean Elections.
Elsewhere in West Virginia, information from Women’s March showed another event for 10 a.m. Saturday at the old Romney Courthouse in Hampshire County.
Additionally, there were marches scheduled in Pittsburgh, Pa., Frederick, Md., Athens, Oh. and Winchester, Va.
In Washington, D.C., what was billed as a “Women’s Wave” was scheduled to get started at Freedom Plaza, 1455 Pennsylvania Ave NW, with the march at 11 a.m. followed by a rally at 1 p.m.
Friday was the 28th day of the partial U.S. government shutdown that started in December.
“Shutdown or no shutdown, we are marching,” Women’s March organizers said.
The first Women’s March was held in 2017 after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
The mission has been “to harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change.”
“We have a government right now, an administration I should say, that wants to take rights away from people and that’s not the right direction. We’re not going in the right direction,” Garnett said.
“We cannot give up, so I hope everyone feels that same fire that I feel.”