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By Melanie Nathan, March, 29, 2017.

Last night Women’s March San Francisco launched the first in a series of panel discussions: “We Marched. We Rallied. Now What?” And it was a great success.

The event was held at the JCC, San Francisco and was attended by over 150, mostly women.

The panelists included: Amina from The Islamic Networks Group (ING), Gabriella Jimenez from Planned Parenthood, Minda Berbeco from the Sierra Club and Melanie Nathan (yes me) Executive Director of African Human Rights Coalition and Vice President San Francisco Pride Board.  The event was Emceed by Kanishka Karunaratne, legislative aide for the San Francisco Planning Department.

The well rounded and robust discussion melded well with highlighting issues from Islamophopobia, Muslim travel bans, refugee suspensions, threats to immigrants and LGBTQI equality, Trump’s new assault on the environment and Republican attacks on women’s reproductive rights and healthcare and the related discussion about advocacy, actions and resistance. 

It was clear that women are fired up and continuing to actively #resist this administration’s attempts to oppress and deny rights for minorities such as women, immigrants, LGBTQI people and Muslims.

It is my hope that future panels will continue to be diverse and inclusive – we have so many issues impacting us all  – there is so much more we need to talk about and so much still to be done to #resist and #insist!

A big thank you from me to all who participated – and to Women’s March San Francisco and JCCSF for the fantastic organization and smooth flow of the event and of course to all who attended and participated.

A special thanks to my 12 year old daughter, who stood up and on microphone asked a big question. Our greatest hope is in the future – let us all model what is right  for our kids and when it is necessary, resistance and our quest for full inclusion, humanity and equality for all.

@MelanieNathan1