An estimated 100,000 LGBT people and their supporters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to a rally on the west lawn of the Capitol Building on Oct. 11. The National Equality March called for action to correct the second class citizenship of gays.
â┚¬Å”Let us be clear to America, we are looking at a system of gay apartheid,â┚¬Â said gay political consultant David Mixner, â┚¬Å”one set of laws for LGBT citizens and another set of laws for the rest of America.
Mixner called upon the senior Democratic leadership to speak out against the antigay measures on the ballot this fall in Maine and Washington State. He said it simply was not right â┚¬Å”to allow Americans to vote on our rights, to choose whether we can be free human beings.â┚¬ÂÂ
The first openly gay head of a major union, Stuart Applebaum, invoked the Stonewall Riots of 1969 while at the March.
â┚¬Å”Justice delayed is justice denied,â┚¬Â Applebaum said. â┚¬Å”It is 40 years since Stonewall. How long are we supposed to wait? Nobody should be patient when it comes to the denial of their human rights.”
Christine Quinn, the lesbian head of the New York City Council challenged political leaders everywhere.
â┚¬Å”Look me in the eye and tell me I am less of a person than you are,â┚¬Â Quinn said. â┚¬Å”Look me in the eye and tell me my family is less than yours. Look me in the eye and tell me I am not an American. Not one of them can do that.â┚¬ÂÂ
Lt. Daniel Choi, who served in Iraq and has since become an activist for LGBT equality, mesmerized the crowd with a cadence that seemed to come from the pulpit.
â┚¬Å”We love our country, even when our country refuses to acknowledge our love,â┚¬Â Choi said. â┚¬Å”But we continue to defend it and we continue to protect it. Because love is worth it. Asking is over, we will tell. In the face of injustice, patience is not a plan. In the face of discrimination, silence is not a strategy. We will tell.â┚¬ÂÂ
While many speakers and attendees at the march remembered Stonewall, others compared the fight for LGBT equality to the fight African-Americans finally won in the 1960s. Julian Bond, chairman of the board for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, asked the crowd if gay rights were civil rights.
â┚¬Å”My answer is, â┚¬ËœOf course they are,'â┚¬Â he said. â┚¬Å”It isn't special to be free from discrimination; that is an ordinary, universal entitlement of citizenship. We people of color ought to be flattered that our movement has provided so much inspiration for others, and that our tactics, and our heroes have been copied or serve as models for others.
â┚¬Å”We know that good things come, and they don't come to those who wait, they come to those who agitate.â┚¬ÂÂ
March organizer Cleve Jones also spoke to the crowd. He said that LGBT people need to believe they are equal and that they should act like they are equal. That means not tolerating prioritization of their rights.
â┚¬Å”When we see leaders and those who represent us saying you must wait again, we say, â┚¬ËœNo!â┚¬ÂÂ' Jones told the screaming crowd. â┚¬Å”You heard our President give a beautiful speech, he delivered it well. But he did not answer the question: When?”
Jones said the issues Obama are facing are not reason to delay on the matter of equality for gays.
â┚¬Å”We remember eight years of peace and prosperity under another Democrat, a man named Bill Clinton, who went to our parties, who took our checks, who wrote flowery proclamations and gave some of us some great jobs,â┚¬Â Jones said. â┚¬Å”And what did we get out of that? We got Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act. We say, no more.â┚¬ÂÂ
Jones said Equality Across America and the Courage Campaign, two principle organizations behind the March, â┚¬Å”are going to build action teams in all 435 congressional districts and we are going to say to our President, our Congress, and the leaders of our own organizationsâ┚¬â€Âno more compromise, no more delays, we are one country, one constitution.
â┚¬Å”You must go home and make that real.â┚¬ÂÂ
