LOS ANGELES, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 activists, dressed up like characters in the novel and TV series "The Handmaid's Tale," Thursday afternoon gathered in Denver to protest against U.S. Vice President Mike Pence for his support to policies potentially determining women's freedom.
All of the protesters, wearing red robes and white bonnets associated with the 1985 novel and new Hulu show "The Handmaid's Tale," stood in line along a drive way leading to Denver Marriott Tech Center, where Pence appeared at a Republican fundraiser.
"The Handmaid's Tale" takes place in a fictional country -- the Republic of Gilead - inside the former boundaries of the United States, where a fundamentalist sect seized power and forced fertile women to bear children for the wives of the leadership.
In the fiction, women who fail to produce children after a prescribed time period are sent to clean up toxic waste until they die since women exist in total subservience to men.
"By wearing the Handmaid's red cape and white bonnet, we will send a strong message to Pence and the administration that we demand freedom and autonomy for women in all areas of our lives, as well as members of marginalized communities everywhere," protest organizer Dana Miller of the Indivisible Denver group said in a statement.
She also pointed out that many feminists worried policies supported by Pence, former governor of Indiana, could result in a terrifying future where women's bodies and healthcare choices are controlled, and women's freedom, personal experiences, and desired outcomes are all determined.
The organizer provided costumes to volunteers joining in the protest and directed them how to play a Handmaid role.
"As a Handmaid you will keep your head down, hands clasped in front of your body, no signs, and you'll stay in formation with your fellow subservient Handmaids. We will want to keep character as Handmaids throughout the rally so that we get good visuals out via the press to demonstrate that women's rights are under attack," a hint posted on the organizer's website reads.
A similar protest occurred in June when demonstrators dressed in the robes and bonnets picketing Pence when he attended the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian organization headquartered in Colorado Springs, a city 200 km south of Denver.
Daniel Cole, spokesman for the Colorado GOP, shrugged off the Handmaids in an email to Colorado Politics website Wednesday, saying "Peaceful protests are in the best tradition of America -- and silly costumes in the best tradition of late October."
However, Pence's motorcade did not use the normal route Thursday to the convention center.
"108 maidens all in a row for @VP. But like the coward he is he ran to the back without stopping," an activist Marco Velo tweeted.
