Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, thousands march to defend abortion access, immigrant rights, and more

Thousands from all across the country marched and rallied across D.C. on Jan. 18, just days before former—and incoming—President Donald Trump is set to take his oath of office. The People’s March, organized by the Women’s March, has been held every year since 2017. This year, the march took place in D.C. and 86 other cities across the country.

Photos by Sydney Carroll and Izzy Wagener

The protest rallied together a variety of social movements opposing Trump’s policy platform. This year’s rally, titled ‘The People’s March’ rather than ‘The Women’s March,’ had a noticeably more progressive tenor than the 2017 march, which drew criticism for a lack of inclusion of women of color and queer communities, as well as accusations of antisemitism in its former board.

The day kicked off at 10 a.m. with rallies at three separate locations along K Street before demonstrators all marched to the Lincoln Memorial. Tamika Middleton, managing director of the Women’s March, explained that the separate kickoff locations were intentionally set up to focus on different issues and groups that rally goers may care about.

“What we were hoping to do as a coalition was to really broaden the scope and to ensure that we had a mobilization that represented the breadth of the things that are important to our communities,” Middleton told the Voice. “We wanted for that to be represented throughout, not just in the sort of unity statements, but actually in the way that this thing was organized.”

The Franklin Park kickoff focused on “bodily autonomy, gender justice and LGBTQIA issues,” according to organizers, and included speakers from Women’s March, the Gender Liberation Movement, Reproductive Freedom for All, and Feminist.

Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity (URGE), spoke at the Franklin Park rally.

“I’m here today because young people are sick and tired of politics as usual,” McGuire said. “I’m also here because I am a queer Boricua single mother, and my daughter deserves to have more rights than her mother and grandmother, not fewer.”

Claudia Nachega, deputy executive director of the Young Feminist Party, a group that advocates for gender justice and the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), also spoke at the event.

“The Equal Rights Amendment is the most comprehensive and permanent tool to defend against the onslaught of attacks on our reproductive freedom, gender affirming healthcare, LGBTQ+ rights, and beyond,” Nachega said.

The ERA is a proposed constitutional amendment prohibits laws from discriminating based on sex.While President Biden declared the ERA as the “law of the land” on Jan. 17, the National Archivist, who certifies new amendments, has said she will not publish the amendment because it missed the ratification deadline of March 1979 set in the original legislation. The ERA passed in Congress in 1972, but it was not ratified by the required 38 states until Virginia approved it in 2020, more than four decades after the deadline.

Georgetown students were among the crowd, supporting myriad causes across several different student groups. Members of Georgetown’s chapter of Students Demand Action (SDA), which advocates for gun violence prevention, attended the march together. The group’s co-founder, Emma Vonder Haar (CAS ’26), wanted to attend the march to advocate for gun safety ahead of Trump’s inauguration.

“Donald Trump obviously and the Republican Party has a lot of backing from the NRA [National Rifle Association] and other gun law extremists,” Vonder Haar said. “We wanted to join the People’s March to both stand in solidarity with other issues and social movements regarding the inauguration on Monday, and also to ensure that gun violence prevention remains a vital part of the progressive platform in future cycles.”

A few blocks away, hundreds more protestors gathered at Farragut Square, where they carried signs advocating for women’s rights, abortion access, climate action, immigrant rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and more. A variety of flags dotted the square—American, Ukrainian, Palestinian.

The People’s March organizers intended for Farragut Square protests to focus on democracy, anti militarism, climate, and immigration. The Sierra Club and Rising Majority were among the groups that led the protest.

One demonstrator, Nicole Mejia, traveled from Wilmington, Delaware to show support for immigrant rights at the Farragut Square protest. Mejia’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico. She opposes President Trump’s immigration policy plan as well as his rhetoric surrounding it.

“It’s sad that people justify his comments,” Mejia said. “I think they need to connect with immigrants more and actually see their story, see their struggles, and see that some of our struggles are similar, some hopes and dreams are similar.”

Once she arrived at the protest, Mejia felt inspired by the number of people carrying similar signs, as well as the mix of movements that brought people to march.

“Seeing this crowd that’s so diverse gives me hope that there are people that truly do care, and I hope that together we can use our privileges and our voice and our collective power to make a difference,” Mejia said.

Many of the demonstrators mentioned their concern about how the Trump administration could affect students. Phuong Hoang is a public school teacher in Fairfax, Virginia, who believes that President Trump’s second term could restrict budgets for special education and schools serving low-income communities.

Hoang’s sister, Chi Hoang, marched alongside her. Chi Hoang works at a national park and feels a special connection to climate activism. She said that she has struggled to reconcile her role as a federal worker with an upcoming presidency that she does not support.

“I am very disappointed,” Chi Hoang said. “I almost didn’t come out today, but I don’t want to give up.”

The third location, McPherson Sq., was dedicated to issues facing D.C. such as the battle for statehood and defending home rule, and featured D.C.-based groups like Harriet’s Wildest Dreams (HWD), Free D.C., and Palestinian Youth Movement D.C..

HWD is a Black-led abolitionist organization that advocates and provides legal defense for Black communities across the DMV. At the later rally at the Lincoln Memorial, HWD founder Nee Nee Taylor spoke about the need for D.C. to have national congressional representation, as D.C. is not a state.

“Despite living in the heart of this so-called democracy, 700,000 constituents are denied representation,” Taylor said. “We’re denied autonomy, and we’re denied justice. The same federal lawmakers who make decisions about our lives, our budgets, and our laws are people we did not elect.”

Demonstrators at each of the kickoff locations began marching to Lincoln Memorial at 11 a.m., with the thousands of protesters making their way down K Street and 17th Street before arriving at the National Mall.

Olivia Grace Burns (CAS ’27), Caroline Sippel (SFS ’27), and Alexia Espinoza Vlad (SFS ’27) attended the march with their friends. Their group felt it was important to march to show solidarity with marginalized communities already being affected by the Trump administration’s proposed policies.

“There was a general sentiment after the election, all of campus was silent and mourning. And I think as we get closer and closer to inauguration, it becomes more and more real,” Espinosa-Vlad said.

Hannah Gilheany (CAS ’28) marched with another group of Georgetown students representing Georgetwon University College Democrats (GUCD), who also sponsored the People’s March this year. Gilheany, the club’s social chair, felt that the march raised GUCD’s morale after a difficult fall semester.

Gilheaney said that sponsoring the event also energized the club by leaving the Georgetown bubble to build a stronger connection with D.C.

“Our organization and our school can show that we’re representing this cause for our country,” Gilheany said. “Georgetown can be separated from the city of D.C., so I think it was really great that we were able to get our name out there.”

Burns, Sippel, and Espinoza-Vlad all encouraged Georgetown students to get involved in defending marginalized groups while at college in D.C., stressing the importance of action and organizing during Trump’s second term.

“There’s a multitude of different ways [to get involved] besides coming to protests, which is really important,” Sippel said. “We’re on a college campus, so there are different classes you can take, or organizations you can get involved in that can help educate you on these issues.”

Burns added that college students have doubled as political activists throughout history.

“College campuses in general have historically been a place of really powerful political protest through American history,” Burns said. “On a college campus, there’s lots of advocacy groups and political clubs and groups at Georgetown, and so it’s not hard to get involved if you make an effort.”