By Marissa J. Lang / The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Thousands of women are expected in the nation’s capital Saturday for the third annual Women’s March on Washington.
Organizers wrote in a permit application weeks ago that they expected hundreds of thousands to attend — a number similar to the 2017 march the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration — but a National Park Service permit issued Thursday indicated that about 10,000 are expected.
The 2019 march is taking place amid controversies that have dogged the national Women’s March organization, including allegations of anti-Semitism and secretive financial dealings and disputes over who gets to own and define the Women’s March. Some organizers have called for its national co-chairs to resign.
Several high-profile supporters and progressive organizations declined to participate in the rally this year. Women who previously went out of their way to attend are opting to stay home and support independent groups. Jewish women remain torn about attending at all.
The controversy stems from an incident last winter when an African-American co-president of the march attended a Nation of Islam event at which black nationalist Louis Farrakhan made incendiary remarks about Jews.
Since then, the march’s national leadership has doubled down to quell the outrage — reaching out to the Jewish community, denouncing anti-Semitism, meeting with rabbis and unveiling a new steering committee that includes three Jewish women.
Women’s March leaders this week said they’re taking the fallout in stride. National co-chair Bob Bland said it’s part of the growing pains of building an intersectional movement.
“We unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and we don’t want anyone to be confused about that,” she said. “We’ve been fighting against the exact type of hate that we have been accused of, and we understand that there is a lot more work to be done before the march, during the march and after the march.”
The event begins at 10 a.m. at Freedom Plaza with speakers and performers, followed by a half-mile march past the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The rally, originally planned for the Mall, is scheduled to end at 4 p.m.
D.C. police are preparing for as many as 20,000 attendees. As of Friday, about 15,000 people on Facebook indicated they would attend or expressed interest in doing so.
Women’s March leaders on Friday unveiled a 10-prong political platform that the group says will outline “realistically achievable” priorities, such as raising the federal minimum wage, addressing reproductive rights and violence against women, and passing the long-dormant Equal Rights Amendment.
Sister marches are planned across the country and the world. Cities such as New York, Philadelphia and Washington also were home to competing marches with groups wanting to deliver a rebuke to the national organization.
The March for All Women in the District’s Pershing Park was announced this week as an alternative to the Women’s March. Another march, which organizers are calling the Inclusive Women 4 Equality for All Rally, begins at 12:45 p.m.
The Women’s March follows Friday’s annual March for Life rally and the debut of the Indigenous Peoples Movement protest.
The Washington Post’s Samantha Schmidt and Luz Lazo contributed to this report.
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