Why We March: SF’s March Against Rape

On Saturday morning at 10 a.m. some 300 to 400 supporters for the March Against Rape gathered at the Women’s Building to march up 18th Street through the Castro and then circling back into the Mission. We talked to some of the marchers along the route.

The march is sponsored by San Francisco Women Against Rape, known by its acronym, SFWAR.  Among other services, the organization runs a 24-hour crisis line at 415-647-7273.

Student and survivor Maddy Grey is a second time marcher. “I’m a survivor and SF War helped me a lot during that time.  So I wanted to kind of give back. It’s very healing to give back and especially with this organization because I feel like there should be more organizations like this.”

Activist Joey Johnson:  “I’m out here because the oppression of women is intolerable.  It’s just as intolerable as the oppression of black people or Latinos or immigrants,  it’s all bound together.   It’s good that people are out here standing up against it.  I think its important that men be a part of these, just like white people speaking out against white supremacy, men need to speak out again male supremacy, so of course I’m out here. This is an intolerable situation – 1 in 4 women are going to be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.”

SF WAR peer counselor and medical advocate, Sindura Reddy, “For me what brought me out here is my story and the story of my friends and being tired of hearing about the women and men in my life having to have rape be just so normalized that it’s everywhere. It’s impacted every single person in all of our communities, and it’s time to come together and to really stand up against that – and to have it stop being pushed under the rug.  I think that’s really why this is so powerful.”