About 1,000 people marched through downtown Denver for International Women's Day on Saturday. The event was held in concert with protests across the country, including a couple hundred people who gathered in Colorado Springs.
It was a spiritual successor to the 2017 Women's March, the first big action opposing President Donald Trump's first term in office. The organizers behind that event disbanded in 2024. This weekend's protest was put together by nine local groups, including Denver Anti-War Action and Denver Students for a Democratic Society.
Rev. Doris Hoskins was one of just a few people on Saturday wearing a pink hat with ears, a symbol of the original Women's March. She was here for that first event in 2017, and said there've been more substantial changes in this movement than protesters' preferred headgear.
"I think it has a different energy in a sense. This energy has more hope, because everyone was shocked eight years ago," she said as she followed the crowd up Speer Boulevard. "Now we know what it is."
Protests in 2017 were more "siloed," activist Dana Miller said, dedicated to singular concerns as they arose. Those issues were all combined on Saturday. People marched with signs about abortion rights, Elon Musk's government purge, the U.S. Department of Education, Ukraine, Gaza, transgender rights and more.
"Now it seems like we're all in it together, and all these issues: we're understanding how deeply they're connected," Miller said. "Now we're able to be in coalitions that normally wouldn't stand together. We're learning that we have to stand together if we're going to build a big enough coalition to actually make a difference in what's going on right now."
It wasn't just separate groups marching side by side. Protesters like Shelly Flecha, who drove up from Colorado Springs and was handing roses out to marchers, said people are now fighting for all of these causes. She carried a sign that read, "No sign is big enough to list all the reasons I am here."
"Trans rights — is absolutely insane. Women's rights being demeaned. It's absolutely horrible how everybody's risking being defunded. People are losing their jobs for absolutely no reason. Black rights," she said, naming a few of the items that didn't make it onto her sign. "This isn't the world I thought I'd be living in."
John and Brittany Raper brought their 2- and 3-year-old daughters to participate. The girls held signs that said, "Hear us roar" as they rode on their parents' shoulders. Naomi, their 3-year-old, let out a ferocious growl to demonstrate her power.
Brittany Raper said she expects the sprit of this movement to rub off on her kids, even at such a young age. Exposing them to all of these fights, joined together in one place, felt necessary.
"They're a part of it, so yeah, they need to see it," she said. "It's rights for all humans — really, specifically for them. Their rights are being taken away as we're going through this year. Just a lot has happened. So I just think it's important to be out here to support the movement."
