Women’s March goes on across the Pacific Northwest

Associated Press

SEATTLE — Cities big and small across the Pacific Northwest saw versions of the Women’s March over the weekend.

Several thousand people gathered Saturday for “Seattle Womxn Marching Forward” in downtown Seattle.

It was largely peaceful but organizers expressed disappointment that another group of women’s rights activists was hosting a similar event Sunday.

Sunday’s event organizers told The Seattle Times that they wanted their event, “Be The Change Network Women’s March 3.0” to be more inclusive and especially considerate of Jewish women who may observe Shabbat on Saturdays.

Affiliates of the national movement said they tried to work with the “March 3.0” group.

“There is no division at the local level because that (Be The Change Network) march is not associated with the Womxn’s March at all,” said Liz Hunter-Keller, communications chair of Seattle Womxn Marching Forward. “They may call themselves the Women’s March 3.0, but they are not organizing members of the Womxn’s March of Seattle nor are they members at the national level.”

This split in Seattle comes two years after a historic march, in the city and the national event held in Washington after President Donald Trump was inaugurated.

The march drew hundreds of thousands of people to the nation’s capital for what is believed to be the largest Washington protest since the Vietnam era.

In Seattle, more than 100,000 people gathered for the largest protest in the city’s history.

Turnout for this year was expected to be lower amid an intense ideological debate among the movement’s leaders. In November, Teresa Shook, one of the movement’s founders, accused the four main leaders of the national march organization of anti-Semitism.

In Portland this year, an unaffiliated event was billed as “#MeToo Speak Out” to support women who have been victimized by sexual misconduct.

The official sister-group to the national Women’s March movement, however, planned its gathering for the month of March.

The day was also being celebrated in Twin Falls, Idaho, with organizers saying it would focus on the wave of women elected to office in the 2018 elections.