Last Saturday, a year after听the 2017 to protest President Trump, millions of men and women were at it again in cities across the world. Among them was climber Alex Honnold,听attending his first听political rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his girlfriend,听Sanni McCandless,听who works as a life coach. The next day, he posted a few photos to Instagram of scenes from the rally with a decidedly un-controversial caption:
Many of his followers were not happy.听鈥淵ou snowflakes are the reason the rest of the world thinks Americans are total idiots!鈥 was one typical response. Honnold听followed it up a day later:听
So 国产吃瓜黑料 called him up to talk about his recent foray into politics, the Women's March, and Instagram haters.听
鈥淚鈥檝e posted a lot about politics, public lands,听gun control, and听various issues over the years, and听there鈥檚 always a fairly strong backlash. I听have a diverse following that鈥檚 pretty representative of the general population, so I get the full spectrum of responses.听I guess I was a little surprised, but I follow the news fairly closely, and I follow politics, and so I think I have a decent sense of how the country as a whole feels about different issues. Sometimes听I鈥檓 a little bit surprised that, you know, half of my followers feel strongly on the opposite side of an issue than I might. But the reality is that in America, it鈥檚 fairly evenly split on a lot of issues.鈥
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I鈥檓 capable of reading all people鈥檚 comments, but I certainly try. I think it鈥檚 sort of douchey if you don鈥檛 read the comments on things like that because I feel like if I鈥檓听starting a big conversation then I鈥檓 sort of obligated to at least read responses and learn from it and听at least be receptive to other people鈥檚 sides. Which I am. I read as much as I can.听I follow people鈥檚 links and I look into things when people post a well-reasoned counter-argument. But when you have some 20-year-old man saying that women shouldn鈥檛 be in charge of their own reproductive rights, you鈥檙e like 鈥楾hat鈥檚 kind of ridiculous.鈥听It kinda听drives me crazy.鈥
When you have some 20-year-old man saying that women shouldn't be in charge of their own reproductive rights, you're like, that's kind of ridiculous.
鈥淭wo of the most powerful speakers at the rally in Vegas were two of the organizers of the original听Women鈥檚 March. One of them, , is a Muslim American woman from Brooklyn, I think, but she frickin鈥 has the voice of like a 300-pound man from Jersey or something鈥攊t was outrageous. We kept joking that she was the hype man, because she would introduce people like 鈥楢nd comin鈥 up on stage is鈥︹櫶齀t was so over the top and amazing.鈥澨
鈥淭here was a lot of talk about the Native American community, and there was recognition that we were on southern Paiute land, and then they introduced the rally with the original Paiute dance and prayers. It felt more inclusive than I expected. I had heard that some of the criticism for the first Women鈥檚 March was that it was just a bunch of white ladies getting together and protesting Trump, and this definitely did not feel that way. I think part of it is the demographics of Vegas, but it was a very, very inclusive crowd, and听there was a lot of talk about immigration and people of color and LGBTQ communities. There were three guys on the corner saying that we were all going to hell because of abortion, you know, with big posters of dead babies and things. But it was a pretty underwhelming counter protest.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to support people that need support as often as possible. The reality is that I鈥檓 a professional climber and I spend most of my time outdoors and climbing, but given the opportunity, it was a pretty impactful way to spend my day.鈥