Anti-Trump Women's Rights Meetup Reaches Max Cap; Hundreds Spill Into Street

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, NY — The National Women's Liberation movement NYC chapter has monthly meetings that usually attract dozens of people, but this month, its meeting attracted thousands from all five boroughs.

A line of hundreds of excited people wrapped around the block Tuesday night outside a stadium packed to capacity with thousands of New Yorkers participating in the NWL meeting.

They were all filled with furor over a Donald Trump win.

And they were all there to "plan and mobilize" after the election to protect their human rights, they told Patch.

"This is one freaking huge movement," one woman in line yelled when she found out she couldn't get in to the stadium.

The vast majority of the attendees found out about the meeting through a Facebook event. The NWL always posts Facebook events for their monthly meetings, but this one went viral.

Part of the spillover of hundreds of people who weren't admitted into the stadium gathered at Cadman Square a block away and held an organized discussion.

One by one, women announced to the group their fears and their hopes. The group debated about the best ways to fight for affordable healthcare, the right to get a safe abortion, and the importance of women, especially women of color, voicing their opinions loudly and proudly, to both family and local elected officials.

"We are all in a lot more danger now," a woman named Maggie told the group. "We are now f----d, and it's the billionaires' fault, and it's the army of the KKK, and the boys' club culture that keeps it all in place."

Aida, a grad student and teaching assistant at the New School in Manhattan, said girls woke up on Saturday to find swastikas painted on their doors, along with words like "b---h" and "w--re."

"New School is like a progressive island in this progressive island, so we are all feeling really unsafe right now," she said.

Elizabeth Kuster, a woman who put together a flyer on how she believes a woman's right to choose affects men in their checkbooks, handed out dozens of the flyers for women to place in men's bathrooms.

Here's the flyer's text, courtesy of Kuster:

MEN: PROTECT YOUR ASS(ETS)!
• 45% of all pregnancies in the U.S. each year (2.8 million) are unintended. [Source: guttmacher.org.]
• Today, 42% of these unintended pregnancies are legally terminated [source: guttmacher]. If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court under President Trump, however, that will no longer be legal.
• In the days before Roe v. Wade, paternity was impossible to prove. But thanks to DNA testing, paternity is easily proved today — meaning that after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, millions of men may suddenly find themselves financially responsible for children they didn’t plan to have.
• Some states (such as New York) can legally deduct up to 65% of a birth father’s gross income until the child he cocreated reaches age 21. [Source: childsupport.ny.gov.] PROTECT YOUR FINANCIAL FUTURE!
• Do your part to prevent unintended pregnancy. Use condoms every time. And if you don’t want to father children in the near future, consider vasectomy — it is one of the most effective forms of birth control. [Source: nichd.nih.gov.] It is a simple outpatient procedure, and it is reversible. To find a vasectomy provider near you, visit www.urologists.org.
• Support Roe v. Wade. It protects men’s right to choose fatherhood, too.

The predominant mood was anger and frustration that Trump, vice president-elect Mike Pence, and Trump's pending administration have said they will punish women for abortion and take away Obamacare, which many of the women believed is not sufficient.

Speakers urged people to call their local officials and demand they denounce Steve Bannon, Trump's future chief White House strategist, for his antisemitic statements and ties to Breitbart, a publication many in the group said promotes bigotry and white supremacism.

"Or you can call Mike Pence and tell him how your period is," one woman joked.

The group was anxious it wouldn't be able to bottle its anger past inauguration day to force political change.

"This hardly ever happens, so many women together speaking out," one woman told the crowd. "I am just so scared. I'm really scared it's going to die here. Take this power home, have a f------g voice. Don't let this die here."

The New York chapter of the NWL urged people to stay involved by emailing nwl@womensliberation.org, or calling (347) 560-4695, and/or come to the next meeting.

Photo credit: Sarah Kaufman/Patch