Beth Greenfield

To mark the International Day of the Woman on March 8 and Women’s History Month, Yahoo Lifestyle is exploring notions of feminism and the women’s movement through a diverse series of profiles — from transgender activist Ashlee Marie Preston to conservative campus leader Karin Agness Lips — that aim to reach across many aisles. 

Yahoo Lifestyle was lucky enough to spend much of Women’s History Month speaking with some amazing individuals — activists, mothers, actors, and influencers among them. And one thing we asked them all is about the term feminism — what it means to them, and if there is room for more than one definition within the context of today’s women’s movement. Here’s what 12 game-changers had to say.

Padma Lakshmi, Top Chef host

“I don’t think there’s room, actually, for more than one definition. I think there’s one definition and it’s very plain: If you’re a feminist, you believe that all people, including women — half the population — deserve to be treated equally. We deserve equality under the law, in our culture, in our marriages, as parents, and as professionals. We have a long way to go. We’ve come some way, but we have a long, long way to go. … But if you believe that everybody deserves the same rights, then you’re a feminist. It’s that simple. It’s not hating men; it has nothing to do with that. I love men — I love men — I love women, I wear bikinis, I wear lipstick, I have a lot of lipstick, I wear high heels, I am a feminist. I don’t think that I could love someone who wasn’t a feminist, because I wouldn’t respect them. Because I would feel like they don’t respect me. Because if you say, ‘I’m not a feminist,’ then that means you’re bigoted in some way — that you think I’m less because of my gender, or that I deserve less than someone who’s a man. And I think that person is crazy.”

Asia Kate Dillon, Billions and Orange Is the New Black actor

“Feminism feels to me like an acknowledgment of the ‘fem’ … the fem-ness — the feminine energy as just as powerful and integral toward life as masculine energy, and the idea that everything that we’ve been taught, traditionally, about the ways in which feminine energy is somehow less than or weaker or not as capable. It’s just about subverting all those ideas and saying, actually, we all are capable of experiencing the feminine and the masculine but also the investigation of what those words actually mean – what is feminine? What is masculine? Other than the traditions of a social contract that was created before we were born — that we never signed — that we’re asked to adhere to.”

Tamika Mallory, Women’s March cofounder

“I’m still trying to figure out what feminism is to me. There are broad definitions that have been historically used to describe the term, but I’m still working to define it for me and my generation, because the word itself — yes, it is a word — I believe has manifested itself in a real movement. It’s a breathing and living thing, and in order for that to be so, it has to actually represent the issues and concerns that I carry with me, and that is not always so. Some folks who claim feminism may not be concerned with the things that matter to me. But then there are other people who claim feminism, and they are part of the body of people who are interested in how black and brown people are impacted by oppression and other very significant issues. So it does have different meanings for different people. But how it manifests itself collectively is something I think we, specifically Women’s March, are still trying to define and still trying to figure out.”

Trace Lysette, transgender activist and Transparent actor

“I think that the key, going forward, is intersectional feminism —inclusionary feminism versus conservative old-school feminism, or white elitist feminism. Being a feminist is to be compassionate, and compassion doesn’t stop at just cis white women — it should permeate into all different walks of humanity. If you’re not with that, you’re going to get left behind.”

Marley Dias, 13-year-old author and activist, head of #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign

“I believe that feminism needs to teach more girls about how to make institutional changes and how to further engage men and boys into being our allies. … I don’t see my generation at the forefront [of #MeToo and Time’s Up], the way older women are. I don’t see where they are making a place for us to continue, refine, and expand the work they have started. Young girls like me may not understand all the issues, but we are the ones who will be left to deal with anything they have not dealt with; we must be taken seriously.”

Melissa Harris Perry, professor and former MSNBC commentator

“For me feminism is a question, and the question is: What truths are missing here? So it is not a particular set of policy prescriptions or position on any set of ideas; it’s a question that we’re asking ourselves all the time. We are always limited in our own understandings, and so no matter how woke you are, you’re always asleep to something else. We have some blind spots in our periphery. [I remind my students] that they should probably not eliminate everybody that asks a stupid-ass question in class, because … just because they don’t have all their truths doesn’t mean that they’re not on the path to them. So just keep asking, as feminists: What truth is missing?”

Lorelei Lee, sex worker and activist

“For me, feminism means recognizing that misogynist underside of so many of the systems in which we live. But it also means recognizing the ways that misogyny intersects with other forms of oppression. So I think that a definition of feminism that isn’t intersectional, to use a frequently misunderstood word, is a failed definition of feminism. I think it fails to uphold the ideal that it pretends to support. If you claim to agree with gender equality, you can’t actually uphold that without recognizing the ways that gender discrimination intersects with so many other forms of discrimination. Obviously, two of the very big areas in which that happens is exclusion of sex workers and exclusion of transgender people from feminist discourse.”

Kimberly Drew, Metropolitan Museum of Art social media manager and “Museum Mammy”

“For so many people, it can mean so many exclusionary things, and it is a term/phrase that needs to be constantly interrogated. It’s maturing every day. Every year we are learning new ways in which there is a hole in it and we’ve got to fix it and not just put a Band-Aid on it. … It’s not perfect. It will never be perfect, but it doesn’t have to hurt. We have to keep flexible and in flux because all of these identities are constantly on a spectrum and all of these oppressions are constantly on a spectrum — there are always new ways in which people get cut out.”

Kassy Dillon, founder of the Lone Conservative

“It’s supposed to mean equality and helping women get to a status where they’re equal. In modern day terms, it’s changed, or the connotation has changed, where there’s this standard for the feminist movement and what you must believe. I don’t like the term feminism. Women are not a monolith and have different viewpoints.”

Ashlee Marie Preston, writer and activist, Revry host

“I would say, ultimately, that feminism that doesn’t acknowledge the experiences of women of color, immigrant women, disabled women, or trans women is faux feminism. Sometimes we forget that there are identities that carry more privilege within the women’s movement, and often what happens is the experiences of women of color and trans women tend to be put to the back, and there’s a lot of myopia. And any time you don’t consider the experiences of all women, it’s coming from a self-serving place. … I feel that it’s impossible to be an ultraconservative feminist, because you’re supporting people that are working against your own interests. So when I see white women who are Trump supporters, who say they’re feminists, it blows my mind. … Feminism is about improving the quality of life for all women. And if you’re not actively dismantling racism, or discrimination based on class and economic position, then you are part of the problem — and you’re benefiting fromm the oppression of other women. Therefore, you cannot be a feminist.”

Karin Agness Lips, founder of the Network for Enlightened Women and the Independent Women’s Forum

“Right now, one of the problems with feminism is that it lacks a universally agreed-upon meaning. If you would gather a group of leaders in the women’s empowerment movement, the definition would vary dramatically. The problem with modern-day feminism is that it lacks that universally agreed-upon definition, and it’s been co-opted by political liberals and progressives as a vehicle to pass their political agenda. The feminism I’d love to talk about is opportunity feminism, which seeks to maximize women’s opportunities to build the fulfilling and meaningful lives they want to build. When I speak on campuses, I talk about opportunity feminism focusing on the opportunities our policies should be promoting.”

Tarana Burke, Just Be Inc. activist and #MeToo creator

There’s always room. I never try to tell people anything that personally impacts their lives. Right? For me, it is about gender equity, and it’s just about us having the same things as men. Because I think there are things that exist in the world that are associated with men that are just toxic in general. For instance, when people talk about pay equity, we’re really talking about white women having the same amount of pay as white men. When pay equity happens, what happens to the women of color? Pay equality rather. But when you talk about equity, you’re talking about an equitable distribution of resources and things like that and so my feminism is a feminism that reaches all of the marginalized communities, includes all of their voices and centers on their needs, which is hard because it’s a lot of different needs from a lot of different people. But my feminism is one that is committed to that work. That’s how I look at it. I try to work from that gaze.”

Virgie Tovar, author and body-positive activist and influencer

“For me, it’s fundamentally about the belief that every single woman has the right to thrive, and that’s a different definition for every single person. Like, for me, my right to thrive is my right to have sex whenever and with whomever I want, to have relationships on the terms that work for both of us, and for me to be able to sit by a pool and have a Chihuahua and speak my mind without cultural repercussions. It means the right to actually do the things that authentically nourish me, and for the culture to support — or at least not actively hinder — that endeavor. We’re living in a reality in which women’s right to thrive and women’s right to freedom are deeply hindered by patriarchy, and there’s not an active investment in women in our culture right now. What we see is a woman is more likely to be sexually assaulted than to live a life on her own terms, that’s the reality … as for conservative women, if you are actively exercising politics and voting on politics that hinder women’s autonomy, you are not a feminist. It’s just that simple.”

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To mark the International Day of the Woman on March 8 and Women’s History Month, Yahoo Lifestyle is exploring notions of feminism and the women’s movement through a diverse series of profiles — from transgender activist Ashlee Marie Preston to conservative campus leader Karin Agness Lips — that aim to reach across many aisles. 

Ever since she first burst into national view as an MSNBC commentator, and then host of her own show in 2012, Melissa Harris-Perry has been telling it like it is.

But the esteemed professor of African-American studies and political science — at the University of Chicago, followed by Princeton University, Tulane University, and now Wake Forest University, where she is also the executive director of the Pro Humanitate Institute and founder of the Anna Julia Cooper Center — has been speaking and writing frankly about race relations and human rights for much of her life.

It was in a way unavoidable, considering the groundbreaking Southern family Harris-Perry, 44, comes from: Her father was the first dean of African-American affairs at the University of Virginia, and his twin brother was the first chair of aeronautic engineering at MIT, and their legendary status infused the family with the fierce believe that being black in this country was not a reason to be held back.

Today, MHP, as she’s known, is teaching, writing, leading, and parenting (she has three daughters) younger generations to be strong thinkers and leaders, with feminism at the core of all her messaging. She recently spoke with Yahoo Lifestyle in honor of Women’s History Month, touching on topics from the Women’s March and its recent controversy to raising a rebellious teen.

Yahoo Lifestyle: Ahead of the March for Our Lives, you wrote for Elle, where you are editor-at-large, about who is and who is not allowed to be angry in our culture. The Parkland students have done a great job at bringing students from across the country, including Chicago, into this anti-gun-violence movement. How else can we change the narrative?

MHP: The kids are great. The students from Parkland themselves, I think, are highly aware of the ways in which they operate and are clearly deploying their race and economic privilege to… acknowledge and recognize that their peers who were less able to do so. We can go back to Rosa Parks, and the idea of how Rosa Parks’ role in our memory is so different from [that of] Claudette Colvin… the unmarried pregnant African-American girl who had also resisted Jim Crow segregation just a month before, and been arrested on the bus, but didn’t have the training of being an activist and just wasn’t reputable in the same ways.

I saw you address the crowd at Power to the Polls, the Women’s March Las Vegas event in January. You said, “Saying thank you to black women is not a damn hashtag.” What did you mean?

Part of what I was doing was telling my personal family story. My family has long thought of itself as originating itself from my father and his twin brother, highly accomplished men. I’d recently gone back and was reading this late 1950s Ebony article [now framed] that reported on my dad and his twin brother and called them “the genius twins of Richmond, Virginia.” This time I noticed in the story, more carefully, my grandmother. And there’s one [part] in which they’re talking about my dad and his brother going off to this academic summer program, and how my grandmother, who was a really brilliant seamstress… knew, because the boys were going to this summer program, that they weren’t going to work that summer, so there wasn’t going to be coal to heat the house that winter. It was the first time it has truly occurred to me how much that story is not really my dad’s story or my uncle’s story — it’s really my grandmother’s story. And as much as they were geniuses, how could they possibly be geniuses unless they came from a genius — one literally willing to be cold in the winter so that they could go to school? It floored me. I couldn’t speak.

Thanks @TimesTalks for the opportunity to moderate this amazing conversation with @OsopePatrisse and #AngelaDavis. I’ll never forget it. pic.twitter.com/BDMzfgV3xF

— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) February 21, 2018

We don’t really know how to recover the genius of a black woman who died never being degreed or rich or any of these particular things that we call success, but nonetheless made every other single thing possible. So what I want to do is when we say “thank you, black women,” what we’re actually doing is having a reclamation of their genius, and thinking about how to make public policy that would’ve made life easier for Grandma Rosa just so that her sons could learn.

What’s your take on the recent controversy surrounding Women’s March founder Tamika Mallory, and her refusal to denounce the anti-Semitic, homophobic statements of Louis Farrakhan?

My sense is she has a personal connection to Minister Farrakhan, that that personal connection is about a deep loyalty that extends way farther back to a community —like, decades deeper than the Women’s March — and that in many ways, the Women’s March and her leadership takes advantage of her sets of ties… So my sense is that the most dangerous anti-Semite in the country currently lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And to have any concern about Louis Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism is weird.

Like, Louis fu**ing Farrakhan? Are you serious? Because Louis Farrakhan is empowered to do what? He runs an organization that controls what resources? And creates what policy? And owns property where? I mean, it’s weird. The President of the United States has questioned the humanity — like are they human — of Jewish people. The President of the United States. So I’m super-duper focused on that. And that various people walking around the planet are racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, is like shrug-my-shoulders true. I mean I’m a black woman. Most people I’ve worked around, worked for, worked near, have opinions about me that are typically pretty fu**ing horrifying. Like, I grew up in the South in the 1970s with a white mother and a black father. I don’t thought-police people. From my perspective it’s like, “OK, sure.”

We saw Barack Obama break ties with his minister, Jeremiah Wright, following controversy during his campaign…

We said, “Oh my god, Jeremiah Wright said racist words, in our opinion, and you must now break your ties with your minister!” And as far as I know, that family has never had a church home again. That’s rough. I mean, I’m sure they’ve gone to church as an official matter… but they don’t have a church home, which in the black community is actually a big fu**ing deal. So they broke their relationship with their minister, but at least they got elected to office twice. As far as I know, no one is offering that to Tamika Mallory. And she’s being asked to denounce this by people who, as far as I know, have never denounced their racism, sexism, their homophobia. That’s strange, no. So it’s not that complicated to me. I wouldn’t [apologize] either. No. We get to all pick our own relationships.

The thing I’m always worried about in the world is power, and how power is wielded in ways that cause inequity. So if you can show me that Minister Farrakhan has taken his position and used his position to create inequity and inequality for Jewish people, then I will denounce that tomorrow. But holding horrifying opinions seems to me to be a protected right under our constitution — so protected, that I even think it’s OK for our president to hold them. And our president uses his horrifying opinions to then enact them into policy. If he believes that Mexicans are rapists and then withdraws DACA, that’s a problem. So I’m always much more interested in racism, sexism, homophobia when they are manifest as a matter of inequity in public policy.

Your daughters are 4 and 16. How do you balance teaching them about all the injustices in this world without terrifying them with reality?

They’re sort of funny and different in this way, and my big girl, who’s 16, is like not what most people would probably expect. [Laughing] You probably think, “Oh MHP, 16-year-old daughter, I’m sure she’s, like, burning down the streets!” No, she’s more like your first black Republican first lady! A little bit. Not completely, but more like that than burning it down in the streets. She’s been in about three years of very, very strong rebellion. So what does rebellion against MHP look like? I’m real sex-positive and feminist and progressive, so my kid is like, “My god, sex is dirty, and drugs are bad!”

She goes to an all-girls’ high school [and the day after Trump was elected] they were all in tears, and Parker being Parker looks at the young women in her class and says, “Pull yourselves together, he’s your president now, be respectful!” [Laughing] And I was like, “Oh my goodness, no!”

But my kids are just like fish swimming in the waters of social justice and race talk and feminism conversations, and it is just what we do and talk about and think about in the house. So in that sense it’s not scary, because it just is. So I think, because the news is fodder for conversation and because we try not to either talk over their heads or make things like ‘Oh that’s just for adults and kids shouldn’t know about it,’ what I hope is that it feels empowering in whatever way she wants to feel empowered. So when we do have political disagreements, which we sometimes do, what she knows is that there’s no thing that she could say or do or believe that would keep her outside the circle of our family and of our love.

With the 4-year-old, she’s actually the most woke child on the planet. She somehow is, like, from Wakanda! [Laughs] I don’t really know how it’s possible, but even though she’s only 4 she goes first to the black kids on the playground, and loves her people from the core of her soul. It’s not that she knows what politics are, but she does seem to have a preference for blackness and always has. It will be interesting to see what all that turns into, but man, I think that kid might actually be Alicia Garza who I had by accident. She just showed up that way. I always say: You’re a sociologist until you have children, and then it’s your nemesis, because you realize they come however they come. And you can crush that experience or you can nurture them, but they show up how they show up. I like them both a lot, and I can’t wait to see who they turn into.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• Why ‘Museum Mammy’ believes the feminist movement ‘will never be perfect’
• The most pressing question of Women’s History Month: What is feminism in 2018?
• Conservative millennial Kassy Dillon: ‘I don’t like the term ‘feminist’”

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A short thread on the Women’s March leaders & their support for Farrakhan.

1) Three out of the four co-Presidents of the Women’s March have expressed their support for Farrakhan, one of the most vile antisemites in America.

Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarour and Carmen Perez.

— Daniel Sugarman (@Daniel_Sugarman)

March 6, 2018

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• The reason was simple — Trump won: Why 9 women decided to run for political office
• Trump-loving conservative women protest the Women’s March: ‘A feminist is someone who is kind of hateful’
• Faces of Power to the Polls, the Las Vegas Women’s March: ‘Our voices are finally being heard’

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Of the many, many impactful statements made onstage at the Women’s March Power to the Polls event in Las Vegas on Sunday, one stood out for the uniqueness of its voice in the largely mainstream political context: “I am a mother, I am a grandmother, and I am a sex worker.”

The statement was made by Cris Sardinia, head of Desiree Alliance, a national coalition of sex workers and health professionals working toward harm reduction, advocacy, and education. She was the only one of 30-plus onstage speakers to focus on the rights of prostitutes, adult-film stars, strippers, and other sex workers as an issue.

But even as a lone voice in the day’s lineup, she symbolized a powerful shift — as did the noticeable presence of many sex-worker rights activists, who turned out more forcefully than for last year’s main Women’s March event. That was due, said many, to a more targeted welcome effort on the part of event organizers. They aimed to right a perceived wrong last year, as publicized by Janet Mock, over briefly watering down and then removing a sentence embracing sex workers from its mission statement, before reinstating it under pressure.

Still, the issue remains a touchy one among women who equate all prostitution and sex work with sex trafficking; activists, meanwhile, see a difference, and defend their work as a freedom-of-choice issue.

“I want you to see the sex worker rights movement as part of the solution and not the problem,” Sardinia said to great applause from the stands of the Sam Boyd Stadium. She took the stage near the end of a four-hour lineup of speakers, when the sea of 20,000 women in requisite pink pussy hats had begun to thin out, most of the day’s clever, anti-Trump and pro-woman signs cast aside after a long, chilly afternoon.

“We are a strong and fierce community made up of every color, every race, every identity, every shape, every economy, every religion, and so much more,” Sardinia continued, before declaring, “I’m a sex worker. And I have the right to be here.”

It’s unlikely that most women in the crowd caught her reference to the unwelcome feeling had by many sex workers regarding last year’s Women’s March events. But it certainly resonated with those in the business.

“I think last year [Women’s March organizers] were less on the same page about sex workers,” Lux Lives, a Las Vegas-based pornographic film actress with faded lavender hair who held a sign reading “Sex worker wisdom can change the world,” told Yahoo Lifestyle. “They made it clear they wanted us here this year.”

It’s why she had come to Power to the Polls with her partner, Casey V, to assert her rights, along with a loosely knit group of about 20 others in the sex business. Many others were scattered throughout the crowd, including Amber Batts, who had traveled all the way from Alaska to represent SWOP Behind Bars, a support community for incarcerated sex workers. “I think, finally, sex workers are being afforded the opportunity to be heard,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.

That was particularly true at the local level, according to Deborah Harris, Women’s March coordinator for Nevada — a state that has legal, strictly regulated brothels. “We wanted to make sure sex workers are represented,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle in the days leading up to Power to the Polls. “We want to center our efforts on the most marginalized. And they deserve to be understood and respected.”

Sex workers were indeed just one of the many marginalized groups who found a welcoming space at Sunday’s rally — others included black women, indigenous women, Latina women, poor women, immigrant women, migrant workers, domestic workers, sex-trafficked women and girls, disabled women, Muslim women, abused women, incarcerated women, and LGBT women.

The issue of sex workers and their rights is a particularly complex and hot-button issue, though, particularly within feminist circles. That’s largely because many equate all pornography, prostitution, and other forms of sex work with human trafficking, or the capture of women and children who are coerced into the trade, or sold into it against their will.

But sex worker rights activists dispute that all forms of sex work are equal, arguing that they too want to fight trafficking — and that the most effective way to do so is through the decriminalization of sex work, which would theoretically empower coerced sex workers to come forward to authorities without fear of arrest. They also argue that granting women full autonomy over their bodily choices is an essential freedom — no different than the right to use contraceptives or have an abortion (a belief countered by some feminists, who see sex work as inherently nonconsensual because of money throwing off the power balance).

Amnesty International favors the decriminalization of sex work — which “does not mean the removal of laws that criminalize exploitation, human trafficking or violence against sex workers. These laws must remain and can and should be strengthened,” its website explains. “It does mean the removal of laws and policies criminalizing or penalizing sex work.”

The inclusion of sex workers’ rights by this year’s Women’s March was particularly noteworthy to those in the business — especially after last year’s behind-the-scenes controversy was brought to light by author and activist Janet Mock in a January 2017 Tumblr post. In it, she explained that she had helped march organizers write the mission statement, but that the line she wrote, about sex workers, had been removed, repeatedly altered, and eventually reinstated, due to internal conflicts.

“I helped draft the vision and I wrote the line ‘…and we stand in solidarity with sex workers’ rights movements,’” Mock explained in her Tumblr post. “It is not a statement that is controversial to me because as a trans woman of color who grew up in low-income communities and who advocates, resists, dreams and writes alongside these communities, I know that underground economies are essential parts of the lived realities of women and folk. I know sex work to be work. It’s not something I need to tiptoe around. It’s not a radical statement. It’s a fact.”

She went on: “I reject the continual erasure of sex workers from our feminisms because we continue to conflate sex work with the brutal reality of coercion and trafficking. I reject the policing within and outside women’s movements that shames, scapegoats, rejects, erases and shuns sex workers… There are no throwaway people.”

A Women’s March national spokesperson, Sophie Ellman-Golan, acknowledges last year’s controversy, telling Yahoo Lifestyle, “We’re grateful for the sex workers who continue to hold us accountable and push us to be more inclusive. We aren’t fully there yet — we still have a lot of trust to rebuild — but we are making progress. There is always more work to do.”

“The intentional inclusion of sex workers in the program and the planning process was a combined effort,” Ellman-Golan continues. “The moment we decided on Las Vegas [known for its Sin City offerings], members of our national team discussed the need to include sex workers on the host committee.” The Nevada team was on the same page, she says, inviting groups like the Sex Worker’s Outreach Project and Desiree Alliance, although not all local-level organizers were in agreement on the issue.

“There’s still an enormous amount of work to do, and to do it, we need to have sex workers at the table,” she says. “That means building a table where all sex workers feel safe and welcomed, and I think we are still in the process of building that table.”

This year, the Women’s March national mission includes the following language: “…we stand in full solidarity with the sex workers’ rights movement. We recognize that exploitation for sex and labor in all forms is a violation of human rights.”

Also signaling change was the fact that some sex-worker activists operated an informational table at the event, right alongside other organizations such as the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, and Planned Parenthood. And at points throughout the day, women holding sex-worker themed signs and red umbrellas — the international symbol for sex-worker rights — were visible to the entire stadium, as they’d been onstage with other activists as a sort of backdrop for various speakers.

“It was a really beautiful moment to see all those red umbrellas on stage, with a national platform,” Ellman-Golan says.

Madeline Marlowe, of Las Vegas, was among those positioned onstage. “Obviously the stigma of what we do runs very, very deep,” said Marlowe, who is a porn actor and director, as well as a professional dominatrix, who started out in the industry as a webcam model. “But we need decriminalization. It’s important that people start to recognize sex work as work. There’s been all this talk about sexual violence in Hollywood, but we’re still not including sex workers in that narrative. We need to have space, like in any job, to report abuse. But thanks to mainstream feminism promoting the stigma over the years, police just say, ‘Well, isn’t that part of the job?’ Ending violence against women starts with ending violence against sex workers.”

Dee Severe, who had traveled to the rally from Los Angeles, where she directs adult films, told Yahoo Lifestyle she was there because “sex workers are among the most stigmatized, demonized people in the world, and it’s time to be decriminalized.”

Roxy Renee of Las Vegas, who works as a fetish model, said she had come to let people know that “sex workers’ rights are women’s rights.” She added, “We’re all fighting for the ability to make our own decisions.”

While most of the sex workers who spoke with Yahoo Lifestyle on Sunday expressed a feeling of being well received, some said they were left with mixed feelings.

Valerie Stunning, a stripper in Las Vegas who blogs about her experiences and maintains an impressive Instagram following, left the event right after an appearance by Cher, carrying her “Stigma increases violence” sign and walking towards her car with fellow strippers Kelsey Griffith, also of Las Vegas, and Giselle Marie, of New York City. Stunning said she had felt repeatedly disappointed throughout the day when speakers would run down the list all the marginalized groups they supported — from immigrants and transgender women to women of all colors and religions. “They would not say ‘sex workers’,” she noticed.

Still, she said, “It’s really important that we keep coming back. The official statement from Women’s March was validating… It’s empowering when you feel like you’re being heard.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• The reason was simple — Trump won: Why 9 women decided to run for political office
• Trump-loving conservative women protest the Women’s March: ‘A feminist is someone who is kind of hateful’
• Faces of Power to the Polls, the Las Vegas Women’s March: ‘Our voices are finally being heard’

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.

By the time Cher took the stage at the Power to the Polls Women’s March rally in Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon — nearly five hours after the doors to the Sam Boyd Stadium had opened — the crowd was beyond ready to hear some wise words from the biggest celebrity on the lineup. And Cher, in town for her residency at the Park Theater and known for her all-caps Twitter rants against Donald Trump, did not disappoint.

“You know, I’ve been alive for 13 presidents, and I’ve never seen anyone like the president that we have — I can’t even call him the president — that has been willing to destroy our country for money and power,” began the 71-one-year old superstar. I’ve never seen it. Never believed that it could happen.”

She continued, “In 1776, the Union was formed. In 1920 we got the vote. What I’m going to tell you now is, it’s time to step up to the plate and own it. It’s time for women to own it, you know? If you don’t take it, no one’s going to give it to you.”

Cher talked a bit about her hard-won independence, beginning with a personal story about her grandmother. “She had my mother when she was 14 years old, she picked cotton, and didn’t have a say in anything,” she said. “My mother thought that you had to have a man take care of you. And even though she had more fun when she was divorced and with her girlfriends, all of those women thought that was what had to happen.”

As for herself, she shared, “I was kind of a punk girl, and little bit balls to the wall. I once — I didn’t steal the horse I just jumped on him and rode him until the fence gave up, and then I saw a boxcar and I jumped in it. So that’s kind of who I was at the time. Then I got married and I lost a lot of my power through marriage and it was my fault. I was young.” Cher famously married the late Sonny Bono when she was just 18. “It took me a long, long time to get back the power that you see that I have. And even now, it’s so crazy, even now in doing business I have to ask three times for what a man would have to ask for once. And when you ask for it you’re a bitch, and when you don’t ask for it they just run all over you.”

Finally, Cher, who was a big Hillary Clinton supporter, revisited the night of her loss. “There was a march down Fifth Avenue [in New York City] the night that Trump became whatever he became. I didn’t mean to get in it. I had taken a shower. I was really upset, because this is the second time this has happened to me. The last time I was with Al Gore in Nashville getting my makeup on, ready to go to the party, and then it just flashed ‘Bush is the president.’ And this time I was up in a room with Hillary, putting my makeup on. I thought, to hell with this I’m not putting anything on until I find out what’s going to happen. And then he became the president.

“This is one of the worst times in our history,” she declared, “and that’s why I honestly believe that women are going to be the ones that fix it.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• Faces of Power to the Polls, the Las Vegas Women’s March: ‘Our voices are finally being heard’
• Trump-loving conservative women protest the Women’s March: ‘A feminist is someone who is kind of hateful’ 
• The reason was simple — Trump won: Why 9 women decided to run for political office

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.

“They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas — but not today.” So said Alejandra Castillo, head of YWCA USA, from the stage of Power to the Polls, this year’s national Women’s March event, held on Sunday afternoon in Sin City. It was a fitting declaration for a day of taking stock and reinvigoration, meant to drop like a heavy stone into the waters of civic action and send ripples back out as far as they can travel.

Because unlike last year’s massive, anger-fueled march through the streets of Washington D.C., this was a rally, meant to be the official kickoff toward a decidedly more focused goal: to get one million women — the same number that marched through the capitol in February 2017 — registered to vote, with a special eye on mid-term elections. And volunteers got to work as soon as the doors to the Sam Boyd Stadium opened, roving with clipboards and getting people registered at designated tables.

Many speakers of the day — national activists like Melissa Harris-Perry and Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood, a smattering of politicians, Las Vegas shooting survivor-turned-gun-safety-activist Christine Caria, and even superstar Cher — stayed powerfully on message, but there was no shortage of party vibes in the crowd of about 20,000. Women of all ages and races, and plenty of supportive men, were out in force in their dusted-off pink pussy hats, holding cleverly updated signs.

Most seemed to come from Nevada or California, though some traveled from as far as New York. All were laser-focused on the speakers and the vibes of empowerment, screaming and whooping and cheering in all the right places.

Above, a glimpse at some of the women who brought their best game to the stadium.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.

Winter Minisee

Winter Minisee, 17, of Los Angeles, who is part of the Women’s March Youth Initiative, was inspired to get involved when she heard a cofounder of the march speak last year. It earned her a scholarship to the 2017 Women’s Convention. “Now I do outreach and give out Empower toolkits to other youth,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Some of my peers are involved in Women’s March, but I’m the only one on an actual outreach team.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Power in the stands

An estimated 20,000 women came out to Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas for Power to the Polls on Sunday Jan. 21. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Ella Bargo

Ella Bargo, 7, came with her family from Springfield, Mo. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Deanna Robinson

Deanna Robinson is president of the Las Vegas nonprofit Very Awesome Girls Into Nerdy Activities (VAGINA), a quirky empowerment organization for women 18 and up. When she learned the main Women’s March event would be held in Las Vegas, she says, “I was excited to know we’d become a pivotal place in the country… and that our voices are finally being heard.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Marcie Wells

Marcie Wells gave good vibes from the stands at Power to the Polls in Las Vegas. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

A sea of women

The crowd at Sam Boyd Stadium had the feel of a mellow, happy concert — with lots of pussy hats. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Rebel

Rebel, of Las Vegas, came out in support of sex workers’ rights. “Sex worker rights are basic rights and human rights,” she said, holding her son. She’s been active in local efforts to protect and unionize prostitutes and says she’s created apps that can assess the safety of potential clients. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Rallying cries

The women filled about half of Sam Boyd Stadium for the Power to the Polls event on Sunday. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Delena Bobbera

Delena Bobbera of Las Vegas has always been politically active — she was a Hillary Clinton delegate, worked on John Kerry’s presidential campaign, and was at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1997. Today, she says, “I am appalled with our presidency, and I’m here to voice my disgust with him as a leader, and how our country has been overrun.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Jenna Cumbers

Jenna Cumbers, 15, of the Las Vegas area, attended her first ever political rally on Sunday, with her friend Clara Applegate (next slide). “I was so excited I couldn’t sleep last night,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “We live in a kind of conservative area. We have a white supremacist on our school bus.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Las Vegas trio

From left: Jasmine Mejia, Jessica Walter, and Samantha Leslie came together from Las Vegas. “We’ve got to come together, it doesn’t matter if you’re injured,” says Walter, who has a dislocated knee. Leslie says, “I’m here to support all women, to support Planned Parenthood, and the fact that we’ve come so far and are now at a stalemate.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Li G

Li G attended Power to the Polls with his mother on Sunday. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Tutu much

The tutu-wearing trio of, from left, Jennifer Thomas, Amy Lords and Taryn Louis came from Las Vegas. “I don’t believe in that two-party system anymore,” says Thomas, who supported Bernie Sanders in the last election. “I think we’ve moved beyond it.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Women Rising

This Chuck Sperry designed poster was among the official Women’s March merch on Sunday. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Echo Marie Jake

Members of the Cedar Band Paiute tribe, of Utah, took to the stage on Sunday to speak out about young women of their tribe who had gone missing or been found murdered, and whose cases had gone cold, they believe, because they’re native people. As Echo Marie Jake, 10, explained to Yahoo Lifestyle after leaving the stage, “My cousins were murdered, so we’re here to represent them.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Mia Agudo

Mia Agudo, 10, stands for a photo at a Women’s March rally in Las Vegas. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Clara Applegate

Clara Applegate, 15, attended from a nearby area with her friend Jenna. “It’s really motivational,” she says of the rally. “We’re learning about topics we haven’t even thought about or heard about yet, like Native American [issues].” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

“They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas — but not today.” So said Alejandra Castillo, head of YWCA USA, from the stage of Power to the Polls, this year’s national Women’s March event, held on Sunday afternoon in Sin City. It was a fitting declaration for a day of taking stock and reinvigoration, meant to drop like a heavy stone into the waters of civic action and send ripples back out as far as they can travel.

Because unlike last year’s massive, anger-fueled march through the streets of Washington D.C., this was a rally, meant to be the official kickoff toward a decidedly more focused goal: to get one million women — the same number that marched through the capitol — registered to vote, with a special eye on mid-term elections. And volunteers got to work as soon as the doors to the Sam Boyd Stadium opened, roving with clipboards and getting people registered at designated tables.

And though the many speakers of the day — national activists like Melissa Harris-Perry and Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood, a smattering of politicians, Las Vegas shooting survivor-turned-gun-safety-activist Christine Caria, and even superstar Cher — stayed powerfully on message, there were no shortage of party vibes in the crowd of about 20,000. Women of all ages and races, and a plenty of supportive men, were out in force in their dusted-off pink pussy hats and holding cleverly updated signs. Most seemed to come from Nevada or California, though some traveled from as far as New York. All seemed to be laser-focused on the speakers and the vibes of empowerment, screaming and whooping and cheering in all the right places.

Above, a glimpse at some of the women who brought their best game to the stadium.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.

Winter Minisee

Winter Minisee, 17, of Los Angeles, who is part of the Women’s March Youth Initiative, was inspired to get involved when she heard a cofounder of the march speak last year. It earned her a scholarship to the 2017 Women’s Convention. “Now I do outreach and give out Empower toolkits to other youth,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Some of my peers are involved in Women’s March, but I’m the only one on an actual outreach team.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Power in the stands

An estimated 20,000 women came out to Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas for Power to the Polls on Sunday Jan. 21. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Ella Bargo

Ella Bargo, 7, came with her family from Springfield, Mo. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Deanna Robinson

Deanna Robinson is president of the Las Vegas nonprofit Very Awesome Girls Into Nerdy Activities (VAGINA), a quirky empowerment organization for women 18 and up. When she learned the main Women’s March event would be held in Las Vegas, she says, “I was excited to know we’d become a pivotal place in the country… and that our voices are finally being heard.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Marcie Wells

Marcie Wells gave good vibes from the stands at Power to the Polls in Las Vegas. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

A sea of women

The crowd at Sam Boyd Stadium had the feel of a mellow, happy concert — with lots of pussy hats. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Rebel

Rebel, of Las Vegas, came out in support of sex workers’ rights. “Sex worker rights are basic rights and human rights,” she said, holding her son. She’s been active in local efforts to protect and unionize prostitutes and says she’s created apps that can assess the safety of potential clients. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Rallying cries

The women filled about half of Sam Boyd Stadium for the Power to the Polls event on Sunday. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Delena Bobbera

Delena Bobbera of Las Vegas has always been politically active — she was a Hillary Clinton delegate, worked on John Kerry’s presidential campaign, and was at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1997. Today, she says, “I am appalled with our presidency, and I’m here to voice my disgust with him as a leader, and how our country has been overrun.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Jenna Cumbers

Jenna Cumbers, 15, of the Las Vegas area, attended her first ever political rally on Sunday, with her friend Clara Applegate (next slide). “I was so excited I couldn’t sleep last night,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “We live in a kind of conservative area. We have a white supremacist on our school bus.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Las Vegas trio

From left: Jasmine Mejia, Jessica Walter, and Samantha Leslie came together from Las Vegas. “We’ve got to come together, it doesn’t matter if you’re injured,” says Walter, who has a dislocated knee. Leslie says, “I’m here to support all women, to support Planned Parenthood, and the fact that we’ve come so far and are now at a stalemate.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Li G

Li G attended Power to the Polls with his mother on Sunday. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Tutu much

The tutu-wearing trio of, from left, Jennifer Thomas, Amy Lords and Taryn Louis came from Las Vegas. “I don’t believe in that two-party system anymore,” says Thomas, who supported Bernie Sanders in the last election. “I think we’ve moved beyond it.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Women Rising

This Chuck Sperry designed poster was among the official Women’s March merch on Sunday. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Echo Marie Jake

Members of the Cedar Band Paiute tribe, of Utah, took to the stage on Sunday to speak out about young women of their tribe who had gone missing or been found murdered, and whose cases had gone cold, they believe, because they’re native people. As Echo Marie Jake, 10, explained to Yahoo Lifestyle after leaving the stage, “My cousins were murdered, so we’re here to represent them.” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Mia Agudo

Mia Agudo, 10, stands for a photo at a Women’s March rally in Las Vegas. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

Clara Applegate

Clara Applegate, 15, attended from a nearby area with her friend Jenna. “It’s really motivational,” she says of the rally. “We’re learning about topics we haven’t even thought about or heard about yet, like Native American [issues].” (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

It’s a fairly certain truth that any major protest march will bring with it counter-protesters. And on Saturday Jan. 20, when hundreds of Women’s March anniversary events flooded the streets with thousands of people in cities and towns across the country, handfuls of counter-protestors were reportedly there to yell back, from Seattle and Los Angeles to Dallas and Boston (and in Knoxville, Tenn., where a women’s march event is slated for Sunday, a neo-Nazis group has promised to disrupt it).

In Las Vegas, where the main national Women’s March event — a rally called Power to the Polls — is set for Sunday morning, a minor counter protest got a jump on the action.

Conservative Women for America, an event mobilized through Facebook and hosted by the Make California Great PAC, brought a small but passionate bunch of about 100 Trump supporters (split about evenly between men and women, despite the name) to the grounds of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building on Saturday.

Dubbed “a day of celebration, community, and hope,” it kicked off Friday night with a meet-and-greet on the Las Vegas Strip at Trump International Hotel, and continued with a four-hour lineup of speakers — Conservative radio hosts, bloggers, anti-abortion activists, and aspiring politicians among them.

Those present came mostly from California and Nevada, but from as far away as Ohio and South Carolina. Some wore red Make America Great Again caps or “Fight Sanctuary State America” T-shirts, while a few waved large American flags. A life-size cardboard cutout of Donald and Melania Trump stood just next to the speakers’ podium, blowing over at one point in the afternoon’s fierce wind.

“This is to counter their narrative,” event co-organizer Lisa Collins told Yahoo Lifestyle, referring to the Women’s March activists. When fellow organizer Carrie Fleming learned of the Power to the Polls event in Las Vegas a month ago, Collins said, “It was offensive to her… To wear pussyhats on your head is really offensive. Plus they take a lot of liberty in saying they represent all women.” She, like many who voiced their opinions at the event, did not hesitate to denounce feminism.

“I think being a feminist means pro-abortion, emasculating your men, and no room for any common ground or dialogue,” Collins, of Crestline, Calif., said. She praised Donald Trump for his stances on illegal immigration, terrorism, and the media.

Laura Zulema had come from Sacramento for the counter-protest, and she brought plenty of spirit — wearing a Wonder Woman costume and waving a massive black-white-and-blue American flag (originally meant to symbolize the sacrifices of law enforcers but appearing en masse in August during the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville).

“I feel like Wonder Woman represents everyone, but she is now misconstrued as a feminist,” Zulema said. “And a feminist is someone who is kind of hateful — they make themselves into victims instead of strengthening themselves. They are extreme, and they talk down about men.” Still, Zulema said she also planned to attend the Power to the Polls event on Sunday, and had hope that it would be more “all-inclusive” than she felt it was last year.

Victoria Muñoz of Northern California, who made the trip with a friend, agreed. “I’m not a feminist. Never have been,” she said. “I love Trump,” she added, because she wants “the wall,” and because “I pay too much taxes and I’m still poor.” Regarding Linda Sarsour, Muñoz said, referring to one the Women’s March co-chair, she gave a hearty thumbs-down signal.

Sarsour, the hijab-wearing feminist who formerly headed the Arab American Association of New York, was a favorite target of criticism among many of the day’s speakers — although feminism (which one male speaker dubbed “a cancer”), pussyhats, pro-choice women, and sanctuary cities were also jabbed and booed.

Jessica Martinez of La Habra, Calif., who is running for a seat in the state’s 57th Assembly District, said she made the trip on Saturday because she is “pro-life, pro- the Second Amendment, pro-jobs, and pro-working families.”

The Second Amendment held a particularly important place in the heart of another speaker, Erin Sith of San Francisco, who is rare in that she is an outspoken Conservative woman and gun enthusiast who is also transgender. “My opinions don’t fall within a narrow range,” she said, noting that she had also come to Las Vegas to attend the Shot Show later this week.

And on Saturday, she appeared happy to be among like-minded individuals, noting, “As I like to say, it’s easier to come out as LGBT than it is to come out as Conservative.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle

• The reason was simple — Trump won: Why 9 women decided to run for political office
• What you need to know about the 2018 Women’s March events
• Some very good dogs are supporting the Women’s March

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.

It’s a fairly certain truth that any major protest march will bring with it counter protesters. And on Saturday Jan. 20, when hundreds of Women’s March anniversary events flooded the streets in cities and towns across the country, handfuls of counter protestors were reportedly there to yell back, from Seattle and Los Angeles to Dallas and Boston (and in Knoxville, Tenn., where a women’s march event is slated for Sunday, a neo-Nazis group promised to disrupt it).

In Las Vegas, where the main national Women’s March event — a rally called Power to the Polls — is set for Sunday morning, a minor counter protest got a jump on the action.

Conservative Women for America, an event mobilized through Facebook and hosted by the Make California Great PAC, brought a small but passionate bunch of about 100 Trump supporters (split about evenly between men and women, despite the name) to the grounds of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building on Saturday.

Dubbed “a day of celebration, community, and hope,” it kicked off Friday night with a meet-and-greet on the Las Vegas Strip at Trump International Hotel, and continued with a four-hour lineup of speakers — Conservative radio hosts, bloggers, anti-abortion activists, and aspiring politicians among them.

Those present came mostly from California and Nevada, but from as far away as Ohio and South Carolina. Some wore red Make America Great Again caps or “Fight Sanctuary State America” T-shirts, while a few waved large American flags. A life-size cardboard cutout of Donald and Melania Trump stood just next to the speakers’ podium, blowing over at one point in the afternoon’s fierce wind.

“This is to counter their narrative,” event co-organizer Lisa Collins told Yahoo Lifestyle, referring to the Women’s March activists. When fellow organizer Carrie Fleming learned of the Power to the Polls event in Las Vegas a month ago, Collins said, “It was offensive to her… To wear pussyhats on your head is really offensive. Plus they take a lot of liberty in saying they represent all women.” She, like many who voiced their opinions at the event, did not hesitate to denounce feminism.

“I think being a feminist means pro-abortion, emasculating your men, and no room for any common ground or dialogue,” Collins, of Crestline, Calif., said. She praised Donald Trump for his stances on illegal immigration, terrorism, and the media.

Laura Zulema had come from Sacramento for the counter-protest, and she brought plenty of spirit — wearing a Wonder Woman costume and waving a massive black-white-and-blue American flag (originally meant to symbolize the sacrifices of law enforcers but appearing en masse in August during the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville).

“I feel like Wonder Woman represents everyone, but she is now misconstrued as a feminist,” Zulema said. “And a feminist is someone who is kind of hateful — they make themselves into victims instead of strengthening themselves. They are extreme, and they talk down about men.” Still, Zulema said she also planned to attend the Power to the Polls event on Sunday, and had hope that it would be more “all-inclusive” than she felt it was last year.

Victoria Muñoz of Northern California, who made the trip with a friend, agreed. “I’m not a feminist. Never have been,” she said. “I love Trump,” she added, because she wants “the wall,” and because “I pay too much taxes and I’m still poor.” Regarding Linda Sarsour, Muñoz said, referring to one the Women’s March co-chair, she gave a hearty thumbs-down signal.

Sarsour, the hijab-wearing feminist who formerly headed the Arab American Association of New York, was a favorite target of criticism among many of the day’s speakers — although feminism (which one male speaker dubbed “a cancer”), pussyhats, pro-choice women, and sanctuary cities were also jabbed and booed.

Jessica Martinez of La Habra, Calif., who is running for a seat in the state’s 57th Assembly District, said she made the trip on Saturday because she is “pro-life, pro- the Second Amendment, pro-jobs, and pro-working families.”

The Second Amendment held a particular important place in the heart of another speaker, Erin Sith of San Francisco, who is rare in that she is an outspoken Conservative woman and gun enthusiast who is also transgender. “My opinions don’t fall within a narrow range,” she said, noting that she had also come to Las Vegas to attend the Shot Show later this week. And on Saturday, she appeared happy to be among like-minded individuals, noting, “As I like to say, it’s easier to come out as LGBT than it is to come out as Conservative.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle

• The reason was simple — Trump won: Why 9 women decided to run for political office
• What you need to know about the 2018 Women’s March events
• Some very good dogs are supporting the Women’s March

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.

It’s a fairly certain truth that any major protest march will bring with it counter protesters. And on Saturday Jan. 20, when hundreds of Women’s March anniversary events flooded the streets in cities and towns across the country, handfuls of counter protestors were reportedly there to yell back, from Seattle and Los Angeles to Dallas and Boston (and in Knoxville, Tenn., where a women’s march event is slated for Sunday, a neo-Nazis group promised to disrupt it).

In Las Vegas, where the main national Women’s March event — a rally called Power to the Polls — is set for Sunday morning, a minor counter protest got a jump on the action.

Conservative Women for America, an event mobilized through Facebook and hosted by the Make California Great PAC, brought a small but passionate bunch of about 100 Trump supporters (split about evenly between men and women, despite the name) to the grounds of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building on Saturday.

Dubbed “a day of celebration, community, and hope,” it kicked off Friday night with a meet-and-greet on the Las Vegas Strip at Trump International Hotel, and continued with a four-hour lineup of speakers — Conservative radio hosts, bloggers, anti-abortion activists, and aspiring politicians among them.

Those present came mostly from California and Nevada, but from as far away as Ohio and South Carolina. Some wore red Make America Great Again caps or “Fight Sanctuary State America” T-shirts, while a few waved large American flags. A life-size cardboard cutout of Donald and Melania Trump stood just next to the speakers’ podium, blowing over at one point in the afternoon’s fierce wind.

“This is to counter their narrative,” event co-organizer Lisa Collins told Yahoo Lifestyle, referring to the Women’s March activists. When fellow organizer Carrie Fleming learned of the Power to the Polls event in Las Vegas a month ago, Collins said, “It was offensive to her… To wear pussyhats on your head is really offensive. Plus they take a lot of liberty in saying they represent all women.” She, like many who voiced their opinions at the event, did not hesitate to denounce feminism.

“I think being a feminist means pro-abortion, emasculating your men, and no room for any common ground or dialogue,” Collins, of Crestline, Calif., said. She praised Donald Trump for his stances on illegal immigration, terrorism, and the media.

Laura Zulema had come from Sacramento for the counter-protest, and she brought plenty of spirit — wearing a Wonder Woman costume and waving a massive black-white-and-blue American flag (originally meant to symbolize the sacrifices of law enforcers but appearing en masse in August during the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville).

“I feel like Wonder Woman represents everyone, but she is now misconstrued as a feminist,” Zulema said. “And a feminist is someone who is kind of hateful — they make themselves into victims instead of strengthening themselves. They are extreme, and they talk down about men.” Still, Zulema said she also planned to attend the Power to the Polls event on Sunday, and had hope that it would be more “all-inclusive” than she felt it was last year.

Victoria Muñoz of Northern California, who made the trip with a friend, agreed. “I’m not a feminist. Never have been,” she said. “I love Trump,” she added, because she wants “the wall,” and because “I pay too much taxes and I’m still poor.” Regarding Linda Sarsour, Muñoz said, referring to one the Women’s March co-chair, she gave a hearty thumbs-down signal.

Sarsour, the hijab-wearing feminist who formerly headed the Arab American Association of New York, was a favorite target of criticism among many of the day’s speakers — although feminism (which one male speaker dubbed “a cancer”), pussyhats, pro-choice women, and sanctuary cities were also jabbed and booed.

Jessica Martinez of La Habra, Calif., who is running for a seat in the state’s 57th Assembly District, said she made the trip on Saturday because she is “pro-life, pro- the Second Amendment, pro-jobs, and pro-working families.”

The Second Amendment held a particular important place in the heart of another speaker, Erin Sith of San Francisco, who is rare in that she is an outspoken Conservative woman and gun enthusiast who is also transgender. “My opinions don’t fall within a narrow range,” she said, noting that she had also come to Las Vegas to attend the Shot Show later this week. And on Saturday, she appeared happy to be among like-minded individuals, noting, “As I like to say, it’s easier to come out as LGBT than it is to come out as Conservative.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle

• The reason was simple — Trump won: Why 9 women decided to run for political office
• What you need to know about the 2018 Women’s March events
• Some very good dogs are supporting the Women’s March

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.