Hey, that's me with the Gilead sign.
I was with a group of around 20 of us, although we met a few stray handmaids that day too. We all came for different reasons. And I don't appreciate you calling me a Social Justice Warrior as an insult before you've actually gotten to know me. I'm not familiar with this Trans issue in your bonnet (continuing the puns), but I'd encourage you to go protest and stand up for what you believe in too.
I was the only American expat in my group, so protesting a President I didn't vote for called to my very core. I also work in fertility, so I bear witness to the struggles so many families go through to conceive, and how precious that baby is when it finally arrives. How those mums will do anything to give their children a better life - just like June did in this season's finale.
I'm not sure how much of the American news we get over here as I don't have a TV license, but there has been a big fiasco regarding the separation and detainment of families seeking refugee status on the US southern border in the last month. Mothers are making the dangerous journey up from South America to try and claim asylum if they are able to set foot on American soil at the crossings. Except that they've got National Guard blocking the legal entrance. So some in desperation try to cross elsewhere. When they get caught breaking the law, the adults had been detained desperately as they are criminally charged, and their children have been taken away from them. Some of them are too young to speak, others have memorized a family member's US telephone number and asking adults for help. They've placed some of these babies in foster care across the country, and it has been a real mess trying to get the thousands of non-speaking children paired back up with their parents. You can hear the audio of these babies non-stop crying, and the staff aren't allowed to comfort them. Anyone who's been around an infant knows that all they need sometimes to settle is their mum.
I'm not naive to think that there won't be some foul play. But it spoke out to me like the Handmaid's Tale, where these fertile women are ritually raped and forced to bear children for wealthier white wives. It isn't an exact parallel, but it speaks to how the government can neglect that basic bond between mother and baby.
Reason 2: I've survived sexual assault, as I'm sure some of you have. There isn't a woman alive who hasn't either experienced it, or knows someone who has. We all knew DJT was a misogynist, womanizer, cheats on his wives and has little to no respect for the sanctity of other's person-hood. When the Access Hollywood tapes came out, I cried. He was so willing to brag- publicly - about grabbing women by the pussy. He was forced to apologize for getting caught, but if you look him in the eye, you know that's how little he values us at his core. It is dehumanizing. I've been forced up against a wall by a man 50 lbs heavier than me reaching up inside me, panicking, trying to decided if fight or flight or talking down will get me out of the situation least injured. So his pussy grabbing comment was very ptsd-like for me, and I could smell that CK One again almost instantly.
Gilead ritually rapes their handmaidens, putting no value on these women other than as incubators for the wealthy, where their highest job in life is to feel privileged to be able to live in a nice house, so long as you are demure, follow instructions and allow the Commander to rape you each month between his wife's legs. They value the humanity of these women about as much as DJT does.
So I marched. Because it meant a lot to me, and it was topical. I don't know what beef you have with the Trans community, but if it means that much to you, march. x