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WASHINGTON – Congressman Paul Tonko joined more than a thousand Capital Region residents and hundreds of thousands of U.S. demonstrators this morning to participate in the Women’s March on Washington. The group traveled from across New York’s Capital Region to Washington, D.C. in a caravan of buses to protest abusive and misogynistic language used by President Trump and Congressional Republicans during the recent campaign season, and to call for the adoption of pro-family policies that represent the needs and interests of all Americans.

Congressman Paul Tonko:

“This election seemed to me to erase decades of hard-won progress on gender equality. It brought us back to a darker time when women were objects to be freely subjected to overt and unapologetic sexual language and even violence. This must stop here and now. The rights of women are the rights of all humankind and they must be defended.

“The message of today’s march is about more than women, though. It is about the fight for progress and opportunity for all Americans. We need laws and policies that will help America’s working families by providing fairness in the workplace, guaranteeing equal pay for equal work, and respecting and defending our rights to access quality affordable healthcare and to govern our own bodies. We must take greater steps to end violence against women, strengthen paid family leave, ensure antidiscrimination protections, defend civil and workers’ rights, clean and protect our air and water, raise the minimum wage, and get big money out of politics.

“In the words and spirit of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which he delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, ‘we cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.’”

Photos of Congressman Tonko demonstrating with visitors from the Capitol Region are available on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram: @RepPaulTonko or by request from matt.sonneborn@mail.house.gov.

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