International Women’s Day rally, Florida style

In observance of International Women's Day on Wednesday, some women went on strike. Or boycotted. Or wore red in solidarity. Or took to the streets to protest a political climate that brought a man they consider the arch-misogynist into the Oval Office.

In Florida, there is another way, though.

In a hastily assembled pre-dusk gathering on Treasure Island, activists did Women's Day a little differently.

Responding to a call to action from the Pinellas Chapter of the Women's March on Washington, a large crowd gathered on a wide swath of beach to spell out the word "RESIST" on the sand near the gulf. A small drone took photos from above. All during a most lovely Gulf of Mexico sunset.

Although word about the event only started getting out Monday, it was disseminated far and wide via social media and IRL guerrilla advertising. This reporter even saw fliers for the event in the women's locker room at the L.A. Fitness on 4th Street North (not the first time the local arm of the resistance has sought to spread the word there, mind you).

Those efforts clearly worked; they had enough people to spell out the word and then some.

In 2017, International Women's Day takes on a special meaning for those who participated.

Many women are concerned about the rollback of their access to healthcare — not just family planning, but healthcare itself. The Affordable Care Act barred insurance companies from charging women more than men, among many other consumer protections, and women are concerned about what the bill's impending repeal would mean for their autonomy and wellbeing.

One might be remiss to not also point out the fact that this demonstration took place right along the shoreline in Florida, which is bracing for potentially detrimental consequences of climate change, like sea-level rise and ocean acidification. The current presidential administration as well as the majority of members of U.S. Congress are unwilling to enact or even enforce policies that could help reduce the onslaught of climate change or prevent pollution in the atmosphere and waterways.

The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency has said he doesn't even believe CO2 emissions are a major contributor to climate change. And the current administration wants to abolish environmental protections like abolishing environmental protections is going out of style.

So, even if the beach on which they demonstrated was one of the widest swaths of Treasure Island and is thus not drastically eroding from rising sea levels, the flat Florida coastline might have been the perfect venue for such an event.

This article appears in Mar 9-16, 2017.