“We wear white to unite”
On Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump made his first official address to the nation at a Joint Session of Congress, forgoing the standard State of the Union address. During his speech he discussed his position on immigration, his plans to build the border wall, along with his plans to end “radical Islamic terror.”
Inside Congress, political leaders and guests both cheered and jeered at his remarks. But some attendees didn’t have to utter a single word to let the president know exactly how they felt.
Dozens of Democratic women planned their silent protest ahead of the president’s remarks by agreeing to all wear white in honor of the suffragettes.
I'm wearing suffragette white for Trump’s #JointSession in honor of the generations of women who marched & fought f… https://t.co/ybXUyzkqIZ— Rep. Barbara Lee (@Rep. Barbara Lee) 1488310412.0
Tonight, our Democratic #WomenWearWhite in support of women's rights -- in spite of a @POTUS who doesn't! https://t.co/kKJpfV5iUE— Nancy Pelosi (@Nancy Pelosi) 1488319473.0
The all-white everything plan was hatched by the House's Democratic Women's Working Group, according to NBC, as a symbol of "the ongoing fight to attain equal rights for all women," members said.
Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., the chair of the party's Women's Working Group, said in a statement, "We wear white to unite against any attempts by the Trump Administration to roll back the incredible progress women have made in the last century, and we will continue to support the advancement of all women.”
The attempts Frankel refers to are the Trump administration’s alleged plan to defund Planned Parenthood, to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act which has provided many women with birth control, and of course Trump’s now infamous remarks about grabbing women by their genitalia against their will.
"Women all over this country are terrified right now," Frankel told Fortune Magazine. “They're afraid of losing access to reproductive choice, afraid of Planned Parenthood getting defunded, afraid of an Affordable Care Act repeal, and losing access to affordable birth control."