Hannah Sparling

hsparling@enquirer.com

They screamed.

They banged on bucket drums and hoisted "punny" signs mocking President Donald Trump. "We will overcomb," read one, featuring an unflattering caricature of the new president's hair. And another: "Yuuuge mistake."

They marched, clapped and chanted.

And seriously, they screamed. Really, really loudly.

"Fired up!," came the call.

And the ear-piercing response: "Ready to go!"

Thousands of women, men and children crammed into Washington Park on Saturday before a roughly mile-long march and protest around Downtown. It was Cincinnati's Sister March, a complement to the Women’s March on Washington to mark Trump’s first full day in office following his inauguration Friday as the nation's 45th president.

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There were a couple jeers as the protesters made their way through downtown, but their progress was met overwhelmingly with cheers and honks of support.

“Love Trumps Hate!,” the marchers shouted. “This is what democracy looks like!” And, “What do we want? Equal rights! When do we want them? Now!”

Sierra Allen held her 3-year-old daughter’s hand as well as a sign condemning misogyny. Allen’s daughter, Brinnley, held a sign that said, “The Future is Nasty,” a reference to Trump calling Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” during his campaign for president. She and Brinnley made the signs together, Allen said.

“I knew this was going to be a really big movement, something that is probably going to be in the history books,” she said, “and I really want her to be able to say that she was here and she stood for our fundamental rights along with her mom.”

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Cincinnati’s was one of more than 670 Sister Marches nationwide, according to the organizers’ website. In Chicago, the crowd grew so large the march was canceled. In Cincinnati, the path was so crowded the walk took a couple hours to complete. That sends a message, said Connie Hollins and Tiffanie Scott, who were among the final few to finish.

“I think he felt so many people were for him,” Hollins said of the new president, “and this is showing that we’re not going along with his program.”

“We will not accept the disrespect,” Scott said. “We will not accept the degrading of any human being.”

The women's march took place on the same day as the Pro Life Rosary Procession marking the anniversary of the Roe V. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Taken together, the two marches made Downtown unusually busy for a Saturday, with traffic delays common.

Topically, the women's march was a broad protest, with signs for environmental protection, abortion rights, health care, education and immigrants, to name a few. But Trump took the brunt of the abuse from the speakers and the signs.

“I want a leader, not a tweeter,” one sign proclaimed.

Another simply said “Rude, crude, lewd dude.”

And then there was a baby in a white T-shirt with a permanent-marker message: “Trump makes my tiny uterus angry.”

The truth is, women have been oppressed for a long time, well before Trump won the election, said Ashley Harrington, of Black Lives Matter, speaking to the crowd ahead of the march.

Others have been and are still being oppressed, too, Harrington said, but now is the time to stand together.

“We won’t fight sexism with sexism,” she said. “We’ll fight sexism with solidarity. … Prejudice never has and never will set the people free.”