Jen Pham-Corbett is 31 weeks pregnant as she prepares to march today in opposition to the anti-woman agenda of President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans.
“After the election, my first thought was, ‘What if I have a baby girl?'” said Pham-Corbett, 36, who lives in West Seattle and traveled to Washington, D.C. for today’s march. “You can’t help but see your own children, how that will affect their futures. What if I have a child who’s gay or transgender or any sort of identity that will put them at risk?”
So Pham-Corbett booked her ticket.
“There was a pull I couldn’t really ignore,” she said. “I was like, I’ve got to do this. This feels like the moment in my life and my generation where I could stand up for what I believe and stand up for things that matter to me.”
Today’s march in D.C. and sister marches in nearly 700(!!!) other cities around the globe are not only a show of force against a new administration, but also a chance to inspire the people who march to stay involved beyond today.
“We see this as the first convening,” Janaye Ingram, the head of logistics for the march, told USA Today. “New alliances will be forged through this effort.”
Pham-Corbett owns a letter-press paper goods company in Georgetown. She’s considered herself only semi-politically active in the past, “but I definitely see myself becoming more involved.” Right now, her business is donating half of its sales of cards to the ACLU. “I’m trying to do what I can.”
As she prepared for her trip, Pham-Corbett expressed a feeling familiar to many on the left: something straddling both hopelessness and righteous inspiration.
“I fall into this place where I can’t even look at the news,” she said. “I can’t even look at the [cabinet] nominations. It’s so depressing. This is exactly the opposite outcome that we want. At the march, I’m looking to find inspiration, to be around people who are like-minded, and [to find] that reason to keep working and fighting for the next four years.”
Earlier this week, we heard from five other Seattle women traveling to D.C. for today’s march. Read their stories here.
