People's March Cortland County

Since the Dobbs decision in 2022, a committed group of people has held regular protests on one of the major corners in downtown Cortland New York, which assures a great deal of traffic and drivers to have to watch and listen to us while sitting at the stop light! We have strong support from people in the community, and we typically draw a decent crowd. We also coordinate very closely with the Cortland County Democratic Committee and Indivisible Cortland County. This past August we held the event on the Saturday that students were moving into SUNY Cortland, and we got a lot of "beeps" and "thumbs ups" along with a few negative catcalls.

We see holding a People's March on January 18 as completely consistent with our ongoing efforts to publicly express our anger and unhappiness over any attempt to limit people's choices. While our protests have typically focused on reproductive rights, we always have signs and cheers that promote the rights of all people regardless of gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, trans status, or class. For the upcoming march we plan to have explicitly political messaging targeting the incoming president and the Electoral College.

We plan to congregate at our normal meeting time, 11 a.m., and our permit allows us to remain in place for an hour. At that point, assuming we receive a permit to march around town, we will do so. We are orderly but loud, singing songs and chanting. We encourage people to bring signs but we also have a supply of signs they can use if necessary.