100 activists to participate in ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ protest of Pence in Philly

At least 100 women are planning to dress in garb resembling handmaids from “The Handmaid’s Tale” to greet Vice President Pence when he arrives in Philadelphia on Monday.

Pence is hosting a fundraiser Monday night at the Union League club in support of GOP Senate candidate Rep. Lou Barletta (Pa.).

Samantha Goldman, an organizer of the protest, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the dozens of women have signed up to wear handmade robes and bonnets to protest outside of the fundraiser.

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Goldman is a member of the liberal group Refuse Fascism, which is organizing the protest along with the Philadelphia and Delaware County chapters of the National Organization for Women.

“We just felt that the visual of the ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ costumes, a society in which women in Gilead are stripped of their most basic rights and their humanity, was appropriate,” Goldman told the Inquirer.

The 1985 novel, which takes place in the Republic of Gilead, a dystopian U.S. where women are stripped of reproductive autonomy, is now a hit series on Hulu. Many have drawn comparisons between the Margaret Atwood novel and rhetoric from the Trump administration, including Atwood herself.

The author said earlier this year that the U.S. was becoming more like “Gilead-like” under President Trump.

The creator of the series said he has also seen parallels between the show and the U.S. under Trump, and said that he “would be very happy if my show became irrelevant as quickly as possible.”

The registration page for the protest calls Pence “one of the most dangerous reactionary figures in modern history,” and says that the event aims to protest what they call Pence’s “anti-women, anti-science, and anti-LGBTQ policies” while Indiana governor and his endorsement of Trump’s policies.

Activists have staged several protests dressed like the show’s characters to protest Trump and Republican policies.