Striding for equality: Women’s March set for third consecutive year in Kona

KAILUA-KONA — Their boots are made for walking.

And that’s just what they’ll do Saturday, Jan. 19, at the third annual Kona Women’s March. Set for 2 p.m. at the Lanihau Shopping Center, the march will flow up Henry Street, circle down Palani Road, hang a left at Kuakini Highway and finish with a climb back up Henry Street and into the center’s parking lot.

The entirety of the route is equipped with sidewalks and was chosen in the name of both being safe and being seen, explained Yvette Kay, an organizer of the event. This year’s theme is “Women’s Wave,” a celebration of female successes on a national scale, particularly in politics as more than 100 women will serve in either the U.S. House or Senate in the coming year.

Women’s March was realized as an organization a short time after the election of President Donald Trump. Protesters of some of the president’s stated positions and policy intentions took to the streets in scores of municipalities across the country. The Washington Post projected that between 3.3 million and 5.2 million people participated in the first demonstration in January of 2017, the day after the president’s inauguration.

Kay said two years later, the demonstration in Kona remains in many ways about the same thing.

“This march is to reinvigorate this movement,” she said. “It’s been a really long (two years) so far, so we are really tired and we need to get more energy and inspire more people to keep the movement going.”

Goals of the march involve promoting and garnering attention for causes including civil rights and reproductive freedoms, LGBTQIA rights, the rights of workers and indigenous groups, immigrant and disability rights, ending violence and pushing for environmental justice.

The event is also a celebration, Kay said, of both the gains in political ground women made in the last election cycle and the strength she sees behind the Women’s March movement.

But not everyone will celebrate and not everyone will agree with the demonstration or the positions espoused by what Kay is hoping will be between 1,000-2,000 participants.

As a part of Matriarchy Rising, another women’s group, Kay has participated in numerous sign wavings. She said public responses range from support to indifference all the way to vehement disagreement and sometimes hate-filled gestures or rants.

She’s seen thumbs down and middle fingers. She’s heard derogatory shouts bursting with slurs. Some people have even pulled over to yell in her face and the faces of those protesting alongside her.

“Here and there it would be a little bit scary,” Kay said.

“I receive it as people who completely support Trump and see us as a threat,” she continued. “They hate us. There’s so much opposition right now politically, so everybody is against everybody. So yeah, they’re angry at us and they think we’re ridiculous.”

But in the name of “the resistance,” an umbrella term Kay employed to refer jointly to several social justice organizations born in the wake of Trump’s election, advocates for equality will march and carry signs despite any swell of vitriol they may encounter.

Women’s March has reserved the parking lot at the Lanihau Shopping Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Jan. 19 and participants plan to set up sign-making booths there. Kay said they have blank signs and leftover campaign signs to repurpose for use in the march. There will also be some tailgating happening before the event, she said.

Any who wish to find out more about the march can visit its Facebook page at womensmarchhawaiiisland or send an email to matriarchyrising@gmail.com.