They wore pink hats and called themselves nasty. They carried signs, some clever, some angry and some profane.

“Tweet Women With Respect.” “We Shall Over-comb.” “Hate Does Not Make America Great.”

They gathered, marched, screamed and sang in Washington D.C., Chicago, Boston, Denver, Portland, Los Angeles and big cities and small towns across America. Marches were held in some 60 countries around the world. There was even a protest march in Paradise Harbor, Antartica.

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Never has a U.S. presidential inauguration inspired so much protest. President Donald Trump spent his first full day in office with more than a million people in the streets of America to oppose his stances on health care, the environment, immigration, international relations and myraid issues.

The protesters were mostly women, angered by Trump’s history of what were widely considered misogynistic comments and tweets and reports that he would defund Planned Parenthood and other programs.

The biggest crowd Saturday was in Washington D.C., where the number of protesters — an estimated 500,000 — grew so big, they couldn’t march on the planned route to the White House. Organizers of the event had applied for a permit for a crowd of 200,000. They turned out to be quite wrong.

Madonna sang “Respect Yourself” and surprised television audiences by yelling the F-word. More than once. Actress Ashley Judd recited an angry poem. Director Michael Moore implored people to call their Congressmen.

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem, 82, who was among the first speakers, looked out over the huge crowd and exulted, “This is the upside of the downside. This is an outpouring of democracy like I’ve never seen in my very long life.”

Washington D.C. police reported no arrests Saturday. More than 200 protesters were arrested on Inauguration Day.

L.A. STORIES

In Los Angeles, crowd estimates were difficult to confirm and varied widely, from 100,000 according to emergency management officials to as many as 750,000, according to organizers. Marchers, who included celebrities such as Jane Fonda and Miley Cyrus, walked from Pershing Square to City Hall. Crowd estimates from cities around the world were difficult to confirm.

Women’s March Los Angeles was among dozens of similar events in Southern California, including marches in Santa Ana, Riverside, Pasadena and Ontario. The local protests were coordinated with the massive march on Washington, where organizers said they would “send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office and to the world that women’s rights are human rights.”

People heading to the Los Angeles march filled trains to the point that even after new trains were added, hundreds of riders waited hours to get on board.

Ariella Fiore, 44, of Van Nuys took Metro to Pershing Square, and held up a sign that said, “no I am not ovary-reacting.”

Fiore, who described herself as bisexual and Latina, said it was important that she take part.

“In the last few months, I’ve felt kind of helpless and I wanted to come down here to be with people who felt the way I did,” she said.

One sign in Los Angeles read, “Our rights are not up for grabs, neither are we,” a reference to Trump’s explicit remarks about women on a video released before the November election. It also was the origin of the pointy-eared pink hats worn in protest on Saturday.

Friends Lyn Henley and Debra Silbar, both of Topanga Canyon, and Mogan Coffey of Santa Barbara came dressed as women from the suffrage movement.

“This is what we do we do as Americans,” Silbar said. “This is our patriotic duty to stand up and say there are certain freedoms that are important to us.”

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O.C. MARCHES

Throngs of people – perhaps up to 20,000, by an unofficial count – marched in Santa Ana along Fourth Street and past the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse.

The peaceful event drew families, like Birana Danis, 33, of Los Alamitos, who brought her 10-year-old daughter Amber and her 12-year-old son, Austin.

“I want my children to see that it’s not OK to treat people like Donald Trump treats people,” she said.

Mo Langley, a 50-year-old surf instructor from Laguna Hills, likened the demonstrations to protests in the 1960s.

“Can you believe this is Orange County right now?” she said. “It’s a beautiful thing to see.”

Hundreds of protesters also attended a rally in Laguna Beach. Several hundred people – one organizer said he counted 652 – answered an online call to action, parading up and down the sidewalks of San Clemente’s Avenida Del Mar.

Many Republicans didn’t like what they saw on Saturday.

Deborah Pauly, a GOP central committee member who hosted an inaurugal ball called The DeploraBall in Newport Beach on Friday night, said the protests were too emotional.

“It’s really sad when I see other women overreacting and acting emotionally instead of using their brains,” Pauly said. “Use your brain. That’s really what it boils down to. They’re using emotionalism instead of intellect and fact.”

Tina Vandivier, 67, of Dana Point, who worked for the Trump campaign in Orange County, said she found Saturday’s women’s marches across the nation “confusing.”

“I didn’t quite understand what they were marching for,” she said. “Women today have rights and we’ve come a long way. I don’t think they had a clear message.”

Vandivier said she believes Trump will work for the welfare of all Americans, including women.

“I don’t think he is a misogynist,” she said. “He employs a lot of women. Nothing he said during the campaign really offended me.”

John Bentley, an antique store owner who lives in Orange and voted for Trump, watched the marching and wondered, “Are they going to do this for the next four years?”

He laughed. “I don’t think they can.”

MORE PROTESTS

A loud, peaceful crowd of more than 4,000 people packed Riverside’s Main Street mall and marched through the streets of downtown.

Violet Balu, a 59-year-old Temecula resident, said she’d never been to a political march before. She carried a pink and white sign featuring the Statue of Liberty with the slogan, “Make America Compassionate.”

“There’s been a lot of discussion about taking away programs that help humanity and I’m terrified that a lot of people are going to suffer,” she said.

More than 500 women, men and children amassed on the steps of Pasadena City Hall to raise their voices and their protest signs for a little over an hour Saturday morning before trekking to Los Angeles via the Metro Gold Line to join an even larger protest that assembled there.

“What an incredible sight I see before me: hundreds of women marching for their rights,” Congresswoman Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, told the crowd. “It’s so incredible, and to think about what’s happening all across this country.”

In Ontario, about 200 people marched from Ontario City Hall to the Euclid Avenue median at F Street. The event was called “Inland Resistance: United Against the Trump Agenda.”

The groups in Ontario, as elsewhere, included members of the LGBTQ community, Muslims, environmentalists and others. Mary Valdemar of San Bernardino said she attended three political rallies Saturday.

She said the Inland Empire has a number of problems that includes government corruption cases, air quality issues, a shortage of jobs and other concerns.

“If people don’t stand and use their voice and hold politicians accountable then it’s going to spread to the point of no return,” she said.

Thanks for standing, speaking & marching for our values @womensmarch. Important as ever. I truly believe we’re always Stronger Together. — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 21, 2017

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The protests trended on Twitter for most of Saturday. Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, who he once called a “nasty woman,” tweeted her gratitude to the marchers: “Thanks for standing, speaking & marching for our values @womensmarch. Important as ever. I truly believe we’re always Stronger Together.”

More:

Live coverage: Womens March Los Angeles and other protests

There are too many marchers for L.A.’s trains to carry

Women’s March demonstrators raise their voices in Pasadena

Women’s march draws crowd to downtown Riverside

Thousands of Southern Californians will stride into women’s marches

Women descend en masse on D.C. to push back against new president

Deepa Bharath, Fred Swegles, Nathan Percy, Alicia Robinson, Monica Rodriguez, Brian Day and the Washington Post contributed to this report.