STGEORGENEWS.COM - Eric Goold reporting - Jan 19, 2025 Approximately 70 people marched for women’s rights at a blustery Vernon Worthen Park Saturday morning in St. George.
The demonstration coincided with numerous People’s Marches across the country, on the eve of Monday’s inauguration of Donald Trump and the beginning of his second presidential administration on Jan. 20.
“In two days, we’re going to have an administration that’s been treating women like property,” Chuck Goode, chairman of the Washington County Democratic Party, told St. George News.
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“Women in America already teach our kids, they teach America’s kids, they raise America’s kids,” Goode added. “They actually have control of most of the money in America, they do all the family finances. And I think they just deserve respect, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The event in St. George mirrored People’s Marches in Moab, Kanab and Salt Lake City. The largest turnout nationally for a People’s March was expected in Washington D.C.
“It’s zero degrees there, and yet they’re still holding their march,” Goode said about his compatriots in the nation’s capital. “And we’re part of that organization. Every large city across the nation is doing this.”
At 10 a.m., the designated start time for marches across the country, the group of sign-carrying, dog-walking, chanting marchers departed Vernon Worthen Park, walked to St. George Boulevard, then meandered back to the park in a straight line.
At the head of the line and carrying a purple flag was Utah Tech sophomore Gillian Morrison.
“I’m from Seattle, Washington, this is something that I’m very used to preaching,” Morrison said. “My biggest goal here is to support women, support humans and support our rights. We’re from America. This is a free country.”
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“That is my main goal here, to emphasize that," she added. "We all get to live in a union.”
There were no disruptions to traffic and many passing drivers honked their horns in support while marchers and supporters walked through town.
Morrison said that she noticed a definite change in perspective when she left her home state and came to St. George for her education.
“Things are a lot different there politically in Washington,” she said. “So coming here it’s been kind of a culture shock. But this is really warming my heart today because everybody’s here and that’s awesome — I’m so excited.”
Morrison was clear about her reasons for marching on Saturday.
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“It’s absolutely about our reproductive rights,” Morrison said. “This is not something that we would like to have taken away from us. It is our right. Our bodies should not be about politics.”
While there were families, children and teenagers supporting the march, for the most part the participants were older citizens. As Goode said to the crowd before the march got going, “We have to wait for the young people!”
Morrison smiled when she heard that.
“My grandparents worked through all of this, they fought for our rights and they watched Roe versus Wade get passed and they also watched it get banned,” Morrison said.
“That’s been a very heartbreaking thing for my grandparents," she added. "But I feel like it’s my duty as the next generation to stand up and to take the baton and to move on. We’re not going to go back to the 50’s quietly. We’re not going to go back, and we won’t.”
The largest Women’s March occurred eight years ago in 2017, when an unprecedented number of citizens across the country marched in support of women’s rights during President Trump’s first inauguration.
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Mimi Hall was there. Her voice was still strong eight years later, at another protest, this one is St. George.
“It is like deja vu, I didn’t think we’d have to do this again,” Hall told St. George News. “I’m 71-years old now and I fought for women’s rights back in the 60’s. And so I thought we had gone beyond these issues.”
Hall noted that in her opinion, there seems to be an anti-woman’s perspective dominating public discourse. She said many women are being harassed in universities.
“I mean, we’re talking about a 100-year difference in perspective,” Hall said. “So we’re really concerned that this blind acceptance of the new norm is correct.”
The marchers finished their walk back to Vernon Worthen Park shortly after 11 a.m.