In march to protect freedoms, Mainers show collective might ahead of Trump’s inauguration

For Bre Danvers-Kidman, the hardest thing to say is also the most honest thing: “We cannot wait on the government to save us.”
Speaking at a rally to the hundreds of attendees of the People’s March in Portland on Saturday, Danvers-Kidman, executive director of MaineTransNet, a community based organization led by transgender people for transgender people, urged the crowd to hold those in power accountable, use the collective might of community and not discount the power of showing collective love.
“We are the ones who will save us,” said Danvers-Kidman, a lawyer who was the first openly nonbinary person to run for U.S. Senate in 2020. “… We may not be able to change federal politics right away, but I do believe we have the courage to come together and change the way we show up for each other.”
Formerly known as the Women’s March, the People’s March occurred across the country on Saturday ahead of the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump on Monday.
“We are uniting under a larger umbrella because we need everyone,” said Dania Bowie, organizer of the Portland march and the communications coordinator for Maine Women’s Lobby. “Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a systemic preference for men, and so this also helps us acknowledge our trans folks and the fact that everybody can be a feminist.”
Participants gathered in Monument Square Park, holding signs and dancing to live music, before marching to city hall, where speakers urged the crowd to use the event as an entryway to sustainable, long-term networks for future organizing and political education. They called for efforts to defend reproductive freedom and LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights, as well as access to housing, education, health care and a healthy environment for all.
While most speeches focused on the work ahead, Destie Hohman Sprague, executive director of Maine Women’s Lobby, also empathized what she views as recent progress in Maine state law, including a “shield law” that now protects providers of reproductive and gender-affirming health care from other state’s bans and the recently launched Paid Family and Medical Leave program.
“We know that policy advocacy can work to change lives,” Hohman Sprague said. “But, we have not yet enshrined our fundamental right to protection from discrimination in our foundational document, the Constitution.”
President Joe Biden declared the Equal Rights Amendment the law of the land on Friday, but the White House acknowledged that assertion won’t have the force of law. Hohman Sprague said passing an Equal Rights Amendment in Maine is the top priority of Maine Women’s Lobby this legislative session, which began earlier this month.
In addition to pushing for new protections, organizations in Maine are focused on preventing existing ones from being taken away. Providers of reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare sounded the alarm this fall for a slew of possible changes under another Trump presidency that could threaten their funding and override protections offered by Maine state law.
Nicole Clegg, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, who joined the march on Saturday, said she is also concerned about the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court, established by Trump’s nominations, taking further steps to restrict protections thought to be enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, like what occurred with the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
But, Clegg added that she’s also thinking about what has changed since Trump’s previous administration. “Well, Roe fell and that has galvanized the American public,” Clegg said.
She pointed to states that voted for Trump in November but also passed amendments to protect abortion as evidence of widespread support for reproductive health care.
“We also need to remember we had some success,” Clegg said. “When you look at the attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the language that was included in there that called for defunding Planned Parenthood — that failed. And that failed in an environment where Republicans had both the House and the Senate and the White House.
“So, there are pathways for us to have influence.”
April Fournier, an at-large city councilor for Portland, told the crowd that it was important to acknowledge what they were likely feeling: “That there is uncertainty, that there is fear, anger, frustration and a strong pull to turn inward and unplug,” Fournier said.
However, she cautioned, “If we don’t give space for these feelings, they go unresolved and let me tell you in this next year, over this next presidential term, we need all of the resolve we can get.”
Fournier, who is a citizen of the Navajo Nation, shared a lesson she learned from Judith LeBlanc from the Caddo Nation, who says, “Elections don’t solve problems, but they do create the conditions in which we organize.”
Voters had shared this sentiment with Maine Morning Star in the leadup to the election, particularly when explaining why they decided to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris despite not agreeing with her stance on Israel’s deadly attacks on Palestinians.
Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire and hostage deal this week, which includes a pause in fighting and the phased exchange of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, as well as Palestinian prisoners.
“Yes, there’s a ceasefire agreement and we are praying it sticks,” said Sarah Almatri from the Coalition for Palestine. “Regardless, the governments responsible for perpetuating this violence need accountability to ensure this does not happen on any land to any children anymore.”
The coalition and the local chapter of Jewish Voices for Peace have been advocating for Maine to stop manufacturing weapons that support such violence and pushed for Portland City Council to divest from companies doing business with Israel.
Phillip Joseph spoke on behalf of his wife Lili Joseph, a disability and racial justice advocate, about the conflict abroad, arguing that struggles for liberation anywhere negatively affect us all.
“They say that sunlight is the best disinfectant, that visibility necessarily brings change — it doesn’t,” Joseph said. “Just like the oppressive systems around us have been intentionally developed, we have to intentionally develop the tools of liberation.”
One of those tools is community, several speakers emphasized.
Nuna Gleason, founder of the Maine Afro Yoga Project, a community initiative under the nonprofit Wounded Healers International, which is dedicated to healing trauma and preventing sexual and domestic violence, explained that the need for community is what led to the founding of the project.
“Maine Afro Yoga was born out of a need — my need, our need — for spaces where we could
breathe freely, move joyfully, and reclaim peace in a world that so often tries to take it away from us,” Gleason said. “We practice yoga in natural spaces even if it’s — by the ocean, under the sky — because healing is not just something we do individually. It’s something we build in the community.”
