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TechnoratiGay Rights Advocates March on DC, Divided on Obama
WASHINGTON - Tens of thousands of gay rights supporters marched Sunday from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that President Barack Obama keep his promises to allow gays to serve openly in the military and work to end discrimination against gays.
![[Lauren Hendricks, 20, of Tallahassee, Fla., left, and Cameron Tolle, 21, of Cincinnati, Oh., chant with thousands of gay rights advocates during a march in Washington, on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/gay_rights_March.jpg "gay_rights_March.jpg")
Rainbow flags and homemade signs dotted the crowds filling Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House as people chanted "Hey, Obama, let mama marry mama" and "We're out, we're proud, we won't back down." Many children were also among the protesters. A few counter-protesters had also joined the crowd, which stretched several blocks by the afternoon.
Jason Yanowitz, a 37-year-old computer programmer from Chicago, held his daughter, 5-year-old Amira, on his shoulders. His partner, Annie, had their 2-year-old son, Isiah, in a stroller. Yanowitz said more straight people were turning out to show their support for gay rights.
"If somebody doesn't have equal rights, then none of us are free," he said.
"For all I know, she's gay or he's gay," he added, pointing to his children.
Keynote speaker Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, firmly linked the gay rights struggle to the Civil Rights movement, saying gays and lesbians should be free from discrimination.
"Black people of all people should not oppose equality, and that is what marriage is all about," he said. "We have a lot of real and serious problems in this country, and same-sex marriage is not one of them. Good things don't come to those who wait, but they come to those who agitate."
Some participants in the National Equality March woke up energized by Obama's blunt pledge to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military during a speech to the nation's largest gay rights group Saturday night.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that Congress will need to muster the resolve to change the "don't ask, don't tell policy" - a change that the military may be ready for.
"I think it has to be done in the right way, which is to get a buy-in from the military, which I think is now possible," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
Obama's political energies have been focused on two wars, the economic crisis and health care reform, though he pledged "unwavering" commitment even as he wrestled with those problems.
March organizer Cleve Jones, creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and a protege of gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, said he had initially discouraged a rally earlier in the year. But he and others began to worry Obama was backing away from his campaign promises.
"Since we've seen that so many times before, I didn't want it to happen again," he said. "We're not settling. There's no such thing as a fraction of equality."
Pop singer Lady Gaga got the biggest cheers on stage. She didn't perform but pledged to reject homophobia in the music industry for her "most beautiful gay fans in the world."
Unlike the first march in 1979 and others in 1987, 1993 and 2000 that included celebrity performances and drew as many as 500,000 people, Sunday's event was driven by grassroots efforts and was expected to be more low-key. Washington authorities don't disclose crowd estimates at rallies, though at least several thousand appeared to be in attendance.
Also among the crowd were a couple of noteworthy activists: Cynthia Nixon, a cast member from HBO's "Sex and the City" who hopes to marry partner Christine Marinoni next year; and Judy Shepard, who became an advocate for gay rights after her son Matthew was killed because he was gay.
Many marchers were outraged after the passage of California's Proposition 8, which canceled the right of gays to get married in the state.
Kipp Williams, a 27-year-old San Francisco resident, said he moved to California from the South seeking equality but realized after Proposition 8 that gay people are second-class citizens everywhere.
Contrary to the California Supreme Court's decision on the legality of the referendum, he said "there is no exception to the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution."
Sara Schoonover-Martin, 34, came from Martinsburg, W.Va., with her wife, Nicki, wearing matching veils and pink T-shirts that said "bride" and "I do." The couple eloped at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts earlier this year.
"This affects my life every day, 365 days a year," Martin said.
For Lt. Dan Choi, the day began with a jog around Washington's memorials, calling cadence at 8 a.m. with fellow veterans and supporters before joining the march. A West Point graduate, Arabic speaker and Iraq war veteran, Choi is facing discharge under the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for revealing in March that he is gay.
He appeared later at a rally in his Army uniform and a piece of black tape over his mouth.
"Many of us have been discharged from the service because we told the truth," he said. "But I know that love is worth it."
Other activists doubted the march would accomplish much. They said the time and money would have been better spent working to persuade voters in Maine and Washington state, where the November ballot will include a measure that would overturn a bill granting same-sex couples many of the benefits of marriage.
A bill introducing same-sex marriage was introduced last week by the District of Columbia Council and is expected to easily pass.
Rep. Barney Frank, an openly gay member of Congress, said the marchers should be lobbying their lawmakers. He said the demonstrations are simply "an emotional release" that do little to pressure Congress.
"The only thing they're going to be putting pressure on is the grass," the Massachusetts Democrat said Friday.
10 Comments so far
Show AllIMO, Frank is one of several legislators who used to be one of the progressive "good guys", but who has shed his concern for non-corporate-welfare issues-- ESPECIALLY human rights and civil liberties issues-- like a snake sheds its skin. That's not where the money is!
John Conyers and David Obey, for instance, likewise mutated this century from relatively humane politicians to huffy para-corporate technocrats. (When Obey snapped out at antiwar protestors in the Capitol, including the mother of a soldier killed in combat, there was a chorus of progressive commenters defending Obey as one of the "good guys", and deploring progressive criticism. THAT faded fast.)
I won't stop to Google for links, but Frank had a hissy fit in Florida last year when constituents objected to his decision to let transsexuals twist slowly in the wind-- essentially because transsexualism is too "icky" to be politically palatable.
It was obvious that Frank was freaked out that his usual sycophantic cadre of supporters were daring to accuse him of "selling out", or at least being too accommodating to his homophobic colleagues (including the ones cruising for sex in restrooms and being diapered by whores).
Again, I'm not troubling to refresh my memory by checking news reports, but I remember that Frank's hissy fit was as obnoxious as his latest comment. As far as he was concerned, those who dared to protest his actions were merely idiots or children living in a fantasy world, who didn't have a clue about the "reality" of politics.
He pretty much told the unhappy crowd that they needed to grow up, go home, and "work within the system" by supporting candidates like him, and trusting that they'd make the best deals possible on their behalf.
Barney, like Obama, has utterly forsaken the constituency that got him to the position he holds today.
· Yr Obd't Servant
"Rep. Barney Frank, an openly gay member of Congress, said the marchers should be lobbying their lawmakers. He said the demonstrations are simply "an emotional release" that do little to pressure Congress."
Barney is right. And its simply the wrong time for this.
Why was Barney Frank to busy to attent the Equality March in Washigton?
Barney had two fund-raisers scheduled in San Francisco this weekend which he raised bucks.
Many gay leaders in San Francscio has "other engagements" a nice way of spiting in his face.
Barney is a has-been gay voice, he has sold out lock stock & gay barrel.
Barney has never really supported lgbt movements, not once, ever.
With friends like this who needs enemies.
( Think of all the help Barney gave the banksters, but not the homeowners. )
( Barney is all about lips service and not the good kind, lol. )
I believe Barney Frank is an arrogant twit who serves only himself. But I do believe he is right about activism, especially right now. We are concentrated on more pressing priorities right now.
I would have no problem voting in favor of gay rights myself, I can't see why someone should be denied the choice of husband/wife of their choice. Love is love if you ask me. Which no one is of course.
Activists in the 1960s working on issues of women, black liberation, Chicano liberation, environment, GI resistance, and gay and lesbian issues as well as the antiwar and anti-nuclear concerns, had the smarts and human interconnections to link issues and understand that we were all working in various ways against the deadly agendas of the ruling elites of US global militarism and empire. Signs and speakers at events back then, both national and local, often linked issues. Today's identity politics is self centered, fragmented and often ineffective. The ruling elites are confident of their entrenched power and control with a lapdog corporate media machine to act as their megaphone to drown out and disparage movements for basic change. This past weekend's GLBT events were identity politics at its worst, begging the rulers for some concessions. For a community hard hit by the enormous health crisis of AIDS, one wonders if there were any speakers, signs, or links to the ongoing debate about getting a civilized healthcare system for ALL? Or was there any linking and understanding of the enormous toll on society of the US global military empire, costing more than an unimaginable TRILLION $$$ a year? What a distorted politics to have as a major issue of the weekend, a demand for inclusion in the bloody murders, tortures, and vicious attacks of the US military machine on hapless peoples all over the world? This is a movement for freedom and liberation??? The freedom to join the torture crew at the US gulags? The liberation to pilot drones to rain down devastation on peasant farmers in remote mountains living in medieval conditions? Sucking up and accepting the total lies of the ruling elites and their endless justifications for delivering "democracy" with bombs, rockets, torture chambers? What kind of a movement asks its followers to check their moral sensibilities and consciences at the door and just follow the dictates of the ruthless rulers of empire? With the corporate lapdogs of the Human Rights Campaign as "leaders", the clear aim is to channel a potentially dissident movement into the full embrace of the Empire. Watch out, the call boys of Empire transmit a host of deadly social diseases: compassionless ravaging of the earth for profits, unending search for profits no matter the human or environmental costs, brazen lying on fundamental issues transmitted by an unmatched propaganda machine, remorseless drive for global domination via impoverishment of all but a few elites and their close associates, a pyramiding of power and wealth leaving the majority YOYO--you are on your own.
Excellent comment.
From the article:
"Rep. Barney Frank...said the demonstrations are simply 'an emotional release' that do little to pressure Congress."
Maybe I'd get some "emotional release" from punching Barney Frank in one of his faces.
Excellent comment!
The sad thing about watching this on CSPAN was seeing the people leave before the rally ended. Cesar Chavez's granddaughter spoke and there was barely anyone there. Do these people even know who Julian Bond is or were they all there just for Lady Gaga?
This country is a joke, it's a scam and the people in it run on the 'flash in the pan' philosophy.
Where is the dignity of people asking for equal rights? Waiting to get into the latest dance club w/drink specials???
Obama is not to blame, he laid everything out for all of us from the beginning. The only thing that needs to be done is to show him that we really mean it when we say, "repeal DADT and DOMA". Even if that includes putting rainbows up and out everywhere in this country...
Obama lies.