Yesterday, in cities around the country, women and men marched in support of women’s rights and against the continuing war on women being waged by the GOP. In Denver, we did the same, drawing a crowd estimated between 1,500 and 2,000. Although, if you live in Denver and weren’t able to attend the rally, or weren’t able to witness the march by virtue of being downtown at the time, you’d never know it happened, because we have seen a complete blackout of media coverage from virtually every news outlet in the state. Their move to blackball the event is actually quite impressive.
But, before I go ranting and raving about that, I have to say I was so proud of my city yesterday, and to think that I almost didn’t go makes me want to kick my own ass. My best friend and I hauled ourselves out of bed and made a mad dash for Civic Center Park in Downtown Denver, where a huge crowd rallied on behalf of women everywhere.
It was an amazing experience to see women of all ages – from child to senior – and the men who also support us, gather on what was a beautiful spring morning in the Mile High City and it was a perfect day.
The crowd was made up of children running around having a blast, young girls with their moms and dads, young women, who probably never dreamed they’d have to protest this shit, to women who have been there, done that, and are rather irritated that they have to do it again.
The speeches we many, and completely inspiring. One woman spoke of her ordeal, of the cancer that had stricken her body and the absolute necessity for her to have access birth control, because if she ever gets pregnant, it will kill her.
And hers is a story that is ignored with impunity in today’s game of who can out-crazy whom. In the battle over birth control, we have seen panels of men convene, deciding what is best for women, without ever asking women, under the bogus guise of religious freedom, while the true issue of women’s health, and all the complications it entails, is completely ignored. These men, in their pious arrogance, would have us be utilitarian baby carriers, rather than human beings on the same par with them. And that’s been made crystal clear.
And I just want to say one other thing about this. Republicans are making a big deal about the “drummed up war on women,” and many Progressives are calling on their own ranks to cool it with the war rhetoric. Melissa Harris-Perry said something to this effect yesterday, If there’s not a gun in your face or a bomb about to be dropped on hour head, it’s not a war. That might be true, but when policies are enacted that blatantly endanger the lives of women, to the point of death, then what the hell do you call it?
Whatever you want to call it, the women of Denver were having none of that, thank you very much! They came out loud, and they came out proud. They came, they saw, and they marched, goddammit! And they made me proud to be a woman, standing shoulder to shoulder with them. And it made me proud to be a Coloradoan, which boasts the highest ratio of women lawmakers in the country.
Now, to the media blackout. As we all went home, anxious to relate our experiences over social media and to see how the news would cover our victorious march, we heard…
Crickets.
Actually, I think crickets is an overstatement.
Not a single peep was heard over the airwaves of Denver from the major news outlets in our city, including: 9News (KUSA-NBC), Channel 7 (ABC), Channel 4 (CBS), or Channel 31 (Fox). Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
I woke up this morning, thinking, Well, maybe they just needed some time to get the information out there. But a cursory glance at all of their websites would indicate that these local networks are, in fact, not interested in covering women’s rights at all or a local march that brought thousands to the steps of the State Capitol and was attended by many local politicians in support of the march. Even the Denver Post, our one and only local paper, blew us off – not even a sidebar mention.
Of course, this mobilized the Denver group even more, and they set to work contacting the various news outlets to respectfully ask why no media coverage. Their response?
From TheDenverChannel.com: “We have a limited staff on the weekends and can’t cover everything we’d like to. We had a couple of breaking news events that pulled our resources.”
9News stated that there would be coverage on the late evening newscast, which apparently there was, and one of the marchers said “it was short, but it was unbiased and well done.” But, by the same token, there was no coverage on their Sunday morning newscast – at all.
How’s that for liberal media bias?
Still, I’m not going to let it rain on my parade, nor are the others who participated. It was a fabulous day for women’s solidarity in Colorado, and we have a lot to be proud of!
And hat’s off to the organizers who did an absolutely fantastic job in organizing the event, which went off without a hitch: Nancy Cronk (Aurora), Pat Hansen (CO-Springs), Meg Fossinger (CO Springs), Kristie Wheeler (CO Springs), Kathryn Brusco (Evergreen) and Allison Vail (Aurora). Thank you, ladies! You have our eternal gratitude!
About Beth
Great article Beth! I wish I would have seen it earlier today because I wasted two hours looking for said local media coverage (with no luck, obviously). I will spread and share this post far and wide and make sure that people know a) that there were over a thousand of us out there yesterday and that b) none of the news outlets in Denver found that noteworthy. So sad.
Thank you for writing this article, and to all of the amazing people who made our dream a reality. In addition to the 1500-2000 people who were at the rally, even more joined the march afterward, some of whom returned to Civic Center for a concert, while others went to the NARAL fundraiser at Katie Mullens. All in all, the weekends events had between 2000-3000 participants. You can catch many of the speeches and festivities on YouTube under “We Are Women March Colorado”.
I know exactly the feeling of thinking I would never see such things in my life. I’m 20 so obviously I wasn’t around when the women’s rights took place in the late 60s-70s. My grandmother, a woman from the baby boomer generation was also shocked. She participated in those protests and marches back in the day and was saying: “really, this again?!”
I’m pretty astounded over the media blackout myself. I’m guessing since there was hardly any controversy or no violence involved it wasn’t worth their time. Because you know, they love talking about terrible things. Damn you news people!
I participated in the Los Angeles march and as it was in Dener – NO MEDIA COVERAGE! While the flimsy excuse of limited staffing my eek by in Denver, Los Angeles is a city that has the media staffing to monitor the bowel movements of celebrities and has become a hub for media outlets. I find it absolutely horrific that so little is being said about the men and women who are taking a stand for the rights of women.
Little said that is – other than calling us sluts.
Wow, that’s surprising that even L.A. wouldn’t cover a march. Surprising and disturbing. I personally think women are going to have to get a little louder.