By Angelina Nunez and Vanessa Lim

Members of the University of Maryland’s Students for Reproductive Justice, known as Repro Terps, joined hundreds of demonstrators in Washington, D.C., on Thursday for a march calling for greater attention to sexual violence and tangible accountability for sexual assault cases.

Women’s March, FEMINIST, Feminist Generation and me too. International organized the “#StopSexualViolence: From the Frat House to the White House” march and brought students, advocates and community members together following a lawsuit filed against Cornell University and seven Chi Phi fraternity members. The lawsuit alleges that fraternity members drugged and gang raped a former Cornell student anonymously known as Jane Doe, and that the university imposed insufficient consequences.

This gathering was one of many protests, walkouts and rallies taking place across the country on Oct. 8, a day Women’s March declared as the nationwide “Women’s Wave” day of action.

Grace Wankelman organized the march, starting in front of the Washington Monument and drew a crowd of more than 300 participants holding signs and banners.

Repro Terps has a history of attending these types of events, such as the 2022 Women’s March in D.C. 

“I want to be a part of a space where we can share our frustration for what’s happening across universities and hopefully fight for change in administrative reporting processes and how these kinds of cases are handled in the future,” said Evie Troy, a senior women, gender and sexuality studies and philosophy, politics and economics major at UMD and a member of Repro Terps.

Troy traveled to D.C. with other members of the organization including Violet Harris-Blackburn, a freshman studying elementary education, who said she wanted to participate because sexual violence survivors can face barriers when speaking about their experiences. 

“A lot of women have lost their voice in a way or lost their courage to share their voice,” Harris-Blackburn said. “So I think it’s important to speak on it for those who can’t.” 

Speakers addressed sexual violence and accountability as protestors gathered around the monument. Featured speakers, including Cheyenne Hunt, a lawyer and activist, described the issue as a larger problem of misogyny.

 “This is the rot of misogyny that has infected an entire system,” Hunt said. “Now it is on all of us to cut the rot out.”

Hunt later told demonstrators that their anger could be used as motivation to push for change. 

“We’ve stood our ground, we’ve turned that anger into action,” Hunt said. 

Allyson McKinney Timm, an author and human rights lawyer, also spoke about the need for accountability for sexual violence.

“I believe sexual violence is a grave sin, which demands accountability,” Timm said. “It is a crime, it is a human rights abuse, it is a grave offense against the victim to be sure, but it is also an offense against the community, it is an offense against all that is good and right.” 

As the march moved through Washington D.C., protesters chanted phrases including “We are Jane Doe” and “Fuck the silence, end the violence.” The crowd also repeated, “Women’s rights are human rights.”

After the march, Repro Terps members reflected on the experience and what it meant to participate alongside other demonstrators. 

AJ Gundrum, a junior history and sociology major and the field director of Repro Terps, said the demonstration brought both grief and a sense of collective strength. 

“I feel a lot of grief and rage for all of the Jane Does, everyone who is a survivor and who is suffering, especially at the hands of the [Trump] administration,” said Gundrum. “But I also feel a lot of power being here with all these other people.”

Gundrum said participating in the demonstration also provided an emotional outlet, allowing them to express their frustrations alongside like-minded people while hoping to make a difference. 

For Colin Flynn, a sophomore studying philosophy, politics and economics, the march was an opportunity to challenge the idea that young people have to accept the world as it is. 

“Being young, you kind of just get the world as it’s handed to you and in a lot of ways that really sucks,” Flynn said.

The march offered the Repro Terps an opportunity to take their advocacy beyond UMD’s campus and join a larger movement calling for change. 

“Make sure you go to the next one,” Flynn said. “There’s seriously always protests and it is always important protests … The fact that our voices can do something is so amazing.” 

Featured Image: Repro Terps clap in support of speech given next to the Washington Monument on Oct. 8. Photo by Vanessa Lim.