Women’s March January 18, 2025

Speech by Gabrielle Wright

I re-wrote this entire speech last night. Why? 

I decided it was too removed, too cold, and I didn’t really feel the empowerment, the frustration, or the sliver of hope I see looking across this crowd today.  

Because this?

This is real.

This is me- at 15, a sophmore in highschool, extremely concerned about her community, her state, her country and the direction it’s going in.

I rewrote it because I wanted to be vulnerable, I wanted to show my humanity. I wanted to show the legislators in this capitol that I too, am human, and deserve to be treated as such.

The unfortunate truth is that all too often, the humanity in all of us is forgotten. Too many forget that we’re all just souls, trying to find our way.

This lack of simple awareness has turned politics into a game.

And I don’t know about you, but that scares me. 

When I play monopoly, I play to win. I buy up all the property, I place hotels all over the board, and I have no remorse

I do this because I’m a very competitive person, my family, watching me today, would agree-

But the key distinction between me and many of the people in power right now is that I know what’s a game

And what’s absolutely not.

Your bodily autonomy is not a game. Your right to love whoever you want is not a game. Your right to equal opportunity no matter who you are, or where you come from will never be a game.

And so, when my teachers ask me what I want my future to look like- I think of two conflicting visions.

First, I’m feeling this country as soon as I turn 18.

But second, I’m staying. 

It would be so easy to leave. [So easy.] But the thing about humanity is that no matter how hard we try to suppress it, there is a natural instinct to fight for what is right. 

And so I know, that as much as I love to dream about a future where I run away to a perfect world, my future is fighting. It’s fighting for, and alongside every one of you.

Even though thinking about the future stresses me out, fills me with feelings of anxiety, rage, and uncertainty, there’s a little bit of hope too.

My hope comes from my friends, my peers, who I see every day, enraged, but also empowered, fighting so that each and everyone of us can be valued and recognized as human in our government,

Because even though our game nights may get heated, we know what’s a game, 

and what’s not. 

Our future, is not a game.

The day after the presidential election, I was, like so many of you, simply coping. But the one thing that got me through it was an analogy I had been given. 

Politics is like a pendulum. Only when it is at it’s farthest in one direction is there the most force to go the opposite way. 

Even though it often feels overwhelming, I could not be prouder or more grateful. 

Because how lucky are we to be a part of the solution.

Thank you.