15 Men On Why They Joined The Women's March On Washington

Colin: What brings us out here today? Solidarity. Women. Queer rights. Immigrant rights. Black Lives Matter. And unity.

Joe: These names on our shirts are for the women in our lives who we're marching for, those who are with us and the ones who are not with us. We want them to be on the record and be in the moment with us. I've got my mother, my grandmother, some of my closest girlfriends, my sisters and my aunts.

Colin: I've got co-workers on here, grandmothers, old teachers. I've sent out a few little notes telling them I was doing it. I actually reached out to my high school history teacher that I haven't spoken to since high school. I sent her an email today.

Joe: We made these shirts last night and the night before. It was really emotional.

Colin: To spend the time writing each name, and then once we started the names just kept flooding. I wish we had more space!

How can you not come here today? If you believe in democracy, this is how it works. If you believe and love your country, you should be here.

This is like the Civil Rights Movement. It's not just about your rights; it's about the rights of everyone in your family and your country.

Alan: I'm marching for women, but I'm also marching for my son. He is an immigrant from Russia (he is my wife's son and I adopted him after she moved here). He understood -- living under Putin -- he understood more than what 62 million Americans do about what's at stake here. He was right on the money.

Kirill: I wanted to be here because I have seen that Trump does not treat women right. They are human, and they should have the same rights as men.

Alan: I wrote his school principal in Florida to get him out of school. It's a district policy to not allow excused absences for something like this, but I wrote him to tell him why we wanted to come. I could have made up an excuse, but I didn't want to lie. He said [reading from his phone], "Alan, wow this is awesome, and I have asked that Donna mark 'excused absence.' This is an experience they will never, ever forget.'"'

My girlfriend, Allison, has been pulling me into ideas about equality. We've been together for three years, and she's the reason I'm here today. Before I met her, feminism seemed like more of an aggressive idea, that women should have more rights than men. That's completely the opposite of what it is. It's about equality. I think I would have understood that eventually, but she really helped me get it.

Rob Jr.: We're here to support women because they've not been treated as well, and we're hoping we can stand up for them through this against people like Trump who are trying to degrade them. It's very exciting to be here. Also pretty crowded, but it's very spirited here.

Rob Sr.: I am deeply offended by the tone our new president has set. I wouldn't like my 14-year-old son or daughter to think it's normal to talk about women the way our president has. My son made that sign himself. He gets it. He knows it's not OK to treat women the way the president has treated women, and it is OK to protest.

Milo: We can't stop fighting. He can't, he just can't... he's racist, sexist, homophobic, everything. We've just got to stop it.

Priyanga: The rhetoric surrounding women around this campaign has been intense, so it's nice to see this kind of turn out. My sister here came from Los Angeles from the red eye last night. It's exciting. The metro was packed when we came in this morning and with each stop, it was filling up more and more.

Johnathan: I wanted to be a part of this. To show that anything extreme that happens over the next four years, there will be a group of people here to do something about it.

Priyanga: It's definitely not like it was yesterday. I came for the demonstration up at Union Station and that was a pretty good turnout, but the metro was sparse, the streets were sparse. This is pretty f*cking awesome to see all these people come out here.

Eric: How could we not be here? We needed to come out and show our support.

David: I'm gay, so I understand why allies are so important and how they can help movements. I'm marching for my mom -- who is an independent, professional woman -- and for my sister, who is having her first child in May.

Eric: Our lives are full of incredible women. Without them, we wouldn't be here and we're marching for all of them.

Jerry: I just heard about the march yesterday. We drove down from North Carolina -- it was three hours or something. We were speeding [laughs], we didn't want to miss this one.

I wasn't concerned at all about coming to a women's march; my only concern was that not enough guys would show up. This young man here -- AJ -- jumped in the car with us and was up until late last night making his sign. I feel a sense of responsibility to be here as a man, because we have a man in the White House who is saying all kinds of dumb junk towards women, and is targeting them, so we're showing we don't agree with him.