Asked why she brought her one year old daughter to celebrate International Women’s Day at Five Corners on Thursday afternoon, Kaylan Look of Edgartown said, “Without crying?”
She carried her bundled up child, Ruby, in a baby carrier on her chest. She held a pink women’s sign cut out of cardboard and embellished with ribbon, lace and beads.
“I think women are very powerful,” she said. “I think that it’s important to have my daughter here so she knows we’re powerful and so she embraces being a woman.”
She did begin to tear up.
About two dozen other women and men gathered at Five Corners, many with home-made signs. The demonstration was organized by the women’s committee of We Stand Together, an activist group formed following the election of Donald Trump.
The group has pulled together to become politically engaged, meeting with elected officials, advocating for changes in school bias policies, and educating people about immigrant rights among other projects.
Organizers of Thursday’s gathering said they’re currently lobbying state lawmakers to pass an act ending child marriage in Massachusetts. Currently, underage people can be married with a parent’s permission.
Nicola Blake of West Tisbury held a sign that said “Respect existence or expect resistance.”
“I’m a real Elizabeth Warren fan, and [Massachusetts Attorney General] Maura Healey” she said. “We met Maura Healey on the Island a few months ago. She was just fabulous.”
Sarah Nevin approached with extra signs. She handed Ms. Blake a hand-knitted pink hat to wear.
Ms. Nevin held a sign that said “Women’s rights are human rights.”
“I had an illegal abortion when I was 25,” she said. “I don’t mind if you print that. It was scary.”
She later met her husband and moved to the Island, and she’s been an activist ever since.
“The women’s movement is old, and it hasn’t gone away,” she said.
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