Pre-Election Santa Barbara Women’s March

November 5, 2024, 1:51 pm 2.4k Views 23 Comments

Women’s March Santa Barbara held a final rally and march in the last few days before the election. The Women’s March started in January 2017 with the inauguration of Trump. Trump’s Supreme Court legacy continues to take rights away from women.

Here are my photos of the women and men who turned out for this rally and march in Santa Barbara.

World Dance for Humanity energized the crowd as people gathered.

Here they posed for a group photo.

Michal Lynch was emcee for the event, noting that there was no formal program. She invited people to speak ad hoc and it worked OK. She also noted that many people were out knocking on doors to get out the vote as she spoke.

Jonathan Abboud is President of the SBCC Board and he made an impassioned pitch to vote for Measure P to fund needed repairs and construction for the campus.

County Supervisor Laura Capps talked about the political gravity of our time.

Reverend Dr David Moore “leads Santa Barbara’s Beloved Community Church, and also Jesus Collective, an online community which exists to foster wholeness and equity by healing relationships and cultural divides, honoring the dignity of all peoples, and protecting the biodiversity of our planet, through actively listening, understanding, partnering, and serving” according to his web site.

He spoke about his journey from conservative Christian to liberal Christian.

I know MJ as a Solstice artist. She wanted to make a clear point: Congress should have exactly nothing to say with regard to regulating women’s bodies.

Sharon Byrne is a visible activist in the area on a range of issues. She is defiantly “independent” of either party. But she gave a full-throated endorsement of Kamala Harris.

The most powerful and memorable speech came from a woman who did not want to be identified. She had never shared her story in public before. Her mother’s mother died of a botched abortion back when abortion was illegal before Roe v Wade.

Her death left the children basically to raise each other with little or no guidance. The children had no role model for how to be good parents. The speaker’s younger brother went on to commit suicide. Would he still be alive without that death due to abortion being illegal? We can never know for sure. But she wanted people to know: Her grandmother’s death continues to affect people generations later. We can’t allow this history to repeat today.

My dear friend Gary Atkins is a quiet hero who makes everything technical work at these events.

Janet Reineck is no longer in the US, but it seems that Heather Jane Williams is able to keep World Dance for Humanity energized and organized! I am sure she has plenty of help!

Of course, many people gathered with a variety of signs, large and small.

Marian Shapiro is a life long activist for women’s rights and abortion rights since living in Kansas. She wore her sign.

After almost an hour of speakers, the crowd moved out onto State Street and marched up the street.

To keep up with Women’s March Santa Barbara, check out their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WomensmarchSB

– Robert Bernstein

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Written by sbrobert

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23 Comments

  1. Sharon Byrne should not have a platform to speak at events that advocate for ALL women. She is the executive director of the “Women’s Liberation Front,” a group that works against the LGBTQ+ community and fertility advocates. Byrne is a TERF, like JK Rowling. Do not give her room to speak at events that are inclusive for all.

    5

    • The bigger question is why it’s a problem for you that Sharon Byrne is FOR Harris, yet you want to silence her. Isn’t that misogyny? Byrne protested California transferring men into women’s prisons and men inserting themselves into women’s sports. She also opposes male violence against women, prostitution, and is very much for women’s reproductive rights.
      This is a reasonable feminist position, in many people’s minds.
      When you say ‘ALL women’, you mean we must now include trans women as some new subcategory of women. Trans women are MEN who demand to be validated as women. We used to call them transvestites.
      This centers men in women’s rights – which is hardly feminist.
      Feminists can and do say no to this. For you, these women are witches.
      You accuse Byrne of being anti-LGBTQ+, when you don’t admit that this term forced-teams gays and lesbians who fought for decades just to love who they’re born to love with people who are straight, but demanding to be seen as the opposite sex. Lesbians find their dating apps full of men in dresses demanding to date them, and they dare not object, or else these lesbians are ‘transphobic.’
      Women who won’t bend the knee to the fantasy of men in dresses being given the status of women are true feminists. You paint them as bigots.
      People like you are the reason we just lost this election.
      Not Byrne.

      -2

      • Dogsnsand, thank you for fully displaying your transphobia. At least you’re saying it out loud, much like JK Rowling. I don’t care who Byrne performatively states she votes for, my whole point is she’s at a Women’s march that is supposed to be inclusive of everyone, including transwomen, and she represents a group that excludes and fights against the rights of transwomen. You’re spinning the words but they still equal Byrne and her sham of a nonprofit being a hate organization that is also connected to the alt-right Heritage Foundation. So don’t say she’s fighting for “women’s rights” when in reality she’s fighting against the LGBTQ+ community, against all women, against transwomen, and doing the bidding of MAGA BS policies.
        Oh and all your homophobic dribble speaks like a 1950s ad campaign and is full of complete nonsense. Do not dare to speak for the gay community that you know NOTHING about. The LGBTQ+ community is inclusive and embracing of all identities, not the fear mongering propaganda you’re spewing. Feel free to visit the Pacific Pride Foundation and have a real conversation with someone there.

        4

    • COAST – why is it funny to you that women are concerned about their reproductive rights? You going to joke about the 18 year old Texan girl who died the other day due to anti-choice laws that put her doctors in fear of treating her? That shit funny to you?

      3

      • It’s not, actually. There are about 240 million eligible voters, and about 30% of them voted for Trump. And many of those people are remarkably uninformed about him (largely due to malfeasance on the part of the mainstream media and active disinformation from Fox, Newsmax, RSBN, etc.) I said here repeatedly that Trump might win.

        But all of us will suffer the grave consequences.

        1

        • DALGORF – I’ve been seeing a concerning trend in the articles and comments I’ve been reading online – many of the far left refused to vote or voted 3rd party out of “protest.” I’m struggling to come to grips with the fact that anyone who considers themselves “left” in any way would knowingly and willingly hand the country to Trump just because Kamala wasn’t “left enough” or that Biden was “too soft” on Israel.

          Could you imagine being so selfish that you would knowingly let a professed wannabe dictator take over just because you didn’t get your way about a couple of issues? I’ve always disliked the uber left, but this…. this would be just awful.

          The Dems lost this race more than Trump won.

          5

          • I am fairly certain voter turnout is going to only be slightly less than it was in 2020. A couple hundred thousand votes is not many compared to tens of millions. Any articles you have read are speculative at this point.

            Kamala lost & Trump won. The two things are not mutually exclusive.

            I don’t know how many ways there are to say it.

            The country chose him and rejected her.

            -3

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