Group makes case by drawing upon dystopian horror of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
By Tim Carpenter
TOPEKA — Five people walked through the Kansas Capitol on Monday shrouded in long, red cloaks and with faces concealed from view by wing-like white bonnets.
The intent was to catch the attention of legislators and lobbyists, who complied with puzzled looks as they tried to comprehend the scene.
Why the outfits? Were they part of a cult? Might they be nuns? What do they want? Could they be dangerous?
Christy Allen, among the women dressed as characters from the dystopian novel and TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale,” said the group chose the distinctive wardrobe to emphasize frustration with the direction of state government in Kansas and Missouri as well as the dismantling of political norms by President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C.
Allen and her peers carried small cloth signs that summarized their message to politicians. It said, simply: “Shame.” They were told they would be asked to leave if they displayed the signs inside the Kansas Senate chamber.
“I’m tired of people putting party over people,” Allen said. “I feel with the erosion of all people’s rights, the United States becomes a theocracy. Our uniform, and it is a uniform, and we are an army, stands for the subjugation of all people’s rights, and that’s what’s happening with the hypocrisy right now. It’s carrying over into Kansas. We are free staters, right, and we should stick with that.”
The 1985 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and a more recent TV series based on the book described a world where fertility rates plunged and fertile women were enslaved to bear children for the ruling class. Civil war in the United States produced a totalitarian, Christian form of government led by power-hungry leaders who relied on a divine law to control women. In the Handmaid world, female residents were forced to survive under laws forbidding them from owning property, handling money or reading and writing.
Angela Korbin, another member of the Handmaid group, said she was in Topeka to protest how democracy was under attack for the benefit of white, evangelical men.
“I want people to know that women’s rights are trans rights and trans rights are human rights,” she said.
She was referencing Senate Bill 244, an anti-transgender bill passed by the Republican-led House and Senate but vetoed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
Under the legislation, Kansans using public restrooms would be required to make use of facilities aligned with their sex declaration at birth rather than respect a person’s gender identity. It would establish a mechanism for people who claimed they were offended to seek $1,000 bounties from violators of the law. Government agencies not in compliance could be hit with a $25,000 fine on a first offense or $125,000 fines for subsequent incidents.
“It’s punitive,” Allen said. “Actions say a lot.”
The Handmaid contingent also voiced objections to public policy decisions in Kansas on immigration, health care, education and elections.
The outsiders
Outside the Capitol on Monday, a couple hundred people with colorful signs and flags conducted a protest on Presidents Day that was labeled “Not My President.” It was organized by Kansas 50501, which promotes nonviolent protests in Topeka that build relationships among people eager to defend the Constitution, respect coequal branches of government and deliver on the promise of equal rights for all.
Much of the anger on the south steps of the Statehouse centered Trump’s alleged campaign to violate rights of Americans by directing federal agents to, organizers said, “kill us.”
Teresa Gorby of Ottawa was on hand with a sign that declared “Stop ICE Now.”
“I’m here for my country,” she said. “We need funding for health care, things that help our people not rich guys.”
Topeka residents Duane and Kathy Dahm carried signs that urged people to respect the Constitution and to remind people that “silence kills democracy.”
“We’re just tired and fed up with everything that’s going on,” Duane Dahm said. “All the illegal stuff (Trump’s) doing.”
Other signs registered other concerns: “We’re not being governed, we’re being lied and looted,” “No dictator, no crown. We the people won’t kneel down” and “The darkness has got to give.”
Doug McGaw, a Vietnam veteran who earned a Purple Heart and taught at Emporia State University, said the people had to compel the three branches of the federal government to bring order to chaos.
“We have a corrupt government that will not obey the law,” he said. “We need to stiffen the spine of people who are responsible for our laws and justice system.”
