Members of the Women's March movement are no longer grabbing their trademark pink "pussy hats" out of concern they might be offensive to minorities and transgender women.
Following Donald Trump's inauguration, marchers donned pink cat ears, a mocking reference to the president's hot mic comments saying that he enjoyed grabbing women by the "pussy."
But the Detroit Free Press reports that women activists in Michigan and elsewhere are making a conscious effort to move away from the hat out of fear that it "excludes and is offensive to transgender women and gender nonbinary people who don't have typical female genitalia and to women of color because their genitals are more likely to be brown than pink."
"I personally won't wear one because if it hurts even a few people's feelings, then I don't feel like it's unifying," said Phoebe Hopps, the founder of Women's March Michigan. "I care more about mobilizing people to the polls than wearing one hat one day of the year."
Hopps said it is not just her, and that national Women's March organizers "are not making it the cornerstone of our messaging because ... there's a few things wrong with the message."
The Facebook page for the Women's March in Pensacola agreed, lecturing followers that "The Pink P*ssy Hat reinforces the notion that woman = vagina and vagina = woman, and both of these are incorrect."
LaShawn Ebly, co-chair of Black Lives Matter-Lansing, told the Free Press that she intends to make the hats the cornerstone of her speech at an upcoming rally. "I will say this one thing: It is a problem," she said by way of a preview.
For their part, the original creators of the pussy hat deny the color pink has anything to do with skin color, saying it was chosen for its traditional association with femininity.
"Anyone who supports women's rights is welcome to wear a Pussyhat. It does not matter if you have a vulva or what color your vulva may be," reads the Pussyhat Project website.