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The Portland chapter of the Gray Panthers, an activist organization that protests ageism and other social ills, plans to march through Portland during the Rose Festival parade on Saturday to protest gun violence.
The “Portland March for Our Lives” is scheduled to begin at 11 am at Portland State University’s Urban Plaza, according to a flyer for the event. The Gray Panthers will march downtown from noon to 2 pm.
The Grand Floral Parade runs from 10 am to noon. Protesters and parade fans are unlikely to meet because the Rose Parade stays on the east side of the Willamette River and the protesters plan to stay on the west.
The Gray Panthers march is one of 400 across the country, according to the flyer. The Gray Panthers also ask people to sign petitions for two initiatives aimed at curbing gun violence: IP 17, the Reduction of Gun Violence Act, and IP 18, the Reduction of Harm from Weapons Act.
Activist Maggie Kuhn founded the Gray Panthers in 1970 to fight ageist policies after she was forced to retire from a job at the Presbyterian Church at age 65 because of a church policy mandating retirement at that age, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.