“March for Life” in Sacramento
A man in a “Let’s Go Brandon” beanie shouting. Pink Knight Press.
03.06.2023 | Today was the California event for the anti-choice group March for Life (1), a national anti-abortion organization. Charter buses line their speaking event, which drew something in the region of 200 people, with 15-20 counter-protesters at any given time. The counter-protesters stayed loud throughout the anti-choice speakers’ time, drowning out speeches and annoying the audience. There were booths for Turning Point USA and other conservative and far-right causes and organizations.
Through the crowd of suburbanites and casual supporters runs a vein of far-right security, some with Proud Boys and three percenter logos- others remain more casual, with only an earpiece or quick exchange of words revealing their true role.
The opposition force had a roaring good time throughout, chanting, singing, dancing, and laughing together. When accused of being demons, they held a mock exorcism, and when told to not use inappropriate language, their speakers boomed with Cardi B’s smash hit WAP.
A massive red banner sways at the edge of the crowd reading Tradition, Family, Property, the name of a Catholic traditionalist movement. They advocate against abortion, Queer and Trans rights, and fight on other moralist extremes. It was the first I’d seen of it, so I asked what it meant; its bearer said they advocate for family traditions. I asked if they fought gay marriage, and he said yes; I asked if they were fighting interracial marriage, and he smiled and said yes, but quietly admitted that one was “trickier” to fight.
As the march began, so did a cold downpour of rain. The counter-protesters cheered that it was God telling the marchers to go home. As it continued, a rash of hail pelted the crowd. Counter-protesters found themselves in the fold of the march, chanting to the deflated pro-life advocates. A man decked with anti-communism symbols began obsessively baiting the cheerful opposition group with anti-Trans, racist, anti-Queer, sexist, and anti-Semitic slurs and remarks, listing through them as if it was a prepared list. He got in peoples’ faces, shouted, and shoved until a line of police bicycles meandered between him and would-be targets.
Sources
1 marchforlife.org/california-march-for-life/
2 pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/13/about-six-in-ten-americans-say-abortion-should-be-legal-in-all-or-most-cases-2/
3 Bruneau, Thomas C. (1974), The Political Transformation of the Brazilian Catholic Church, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 227
