A crowd rallied at the steps of Syracuse’s Clinton Square Friday in solidarity for the 103rd International Women’s Day, waving posters attached to wooden handles.

“I always recognize and celebrate International Women’s Day because it represents the legacy and continuing struggle for gender equality in the world,” said Michael Kowalchuk, a Syracuse University senior architecture student who attended.

Kowalchuck was one of about 30 city residents and Syracuse University students, both women and men, that rallied at the Saints and Soldier’s monument in Syracuse’s Clinton Square Friday afternoon. Pay inequality, transgender rights and rape were among the women’s rights issues discussed at the rally.

The International Women’s Day event was co-organized by the months-old Women Organized to Resist and Defend Syracuse chapter and SU’s Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.

As temperatures dipped to 31 degrees, ralliers waved signs reading “A woman’s place is in the struggle,” and shouted, “The women, united will never be defeated.” After an introduction from event organizers, some in attendance presented brief speeches on women’s rights issues, including mistreatment of immigrant women by law enforcement and transgender inequality.

SU graduate student Nikeeta Slade discussed rights for transgendered individuals. Slade, a Pan-African Studies student, detailed the experiences of Chrishaun McDonald. McDonald was a transgendered Minnesota woman who was sentenced to three years in prison for manslaughter after stabbing a man who had directed racist and homophobic taunts at McDonald and her friends, according to a June 5 Minnesota Star Tribune article. Though McDonald identifies as a woman, she was sentenced to serve her prison term as a man.

“Trans people disproportionately bear the brunt of the system’s oppression,” Slade said, delivering one of the afternoon’s more emotional testimonies.

The late-afternoon gathering wrapped up after about 35 minutes, but some ralliers stuck behind for more prolonged conversations.

Erin Kinsey, an event organizer with WORD, said the rally was an opportunity to take the pulse of the community’s stance on women’s rights issues as well as to inform.

Said Kinsey: “Because it was International Women’s Day, we really wanted to reach out to the community and have some people share their thoughts on it and where the struggle is in their mind.”

Published on March 9, 2013 at 9:59 am

Contact Debbie: [email protected] | @debbietruong