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Equality March Shows What Grassroots Can Do
Oct 14, 2009
Without even one cable news outlet promoting the event and even without Glenn Beck--even without corporate lobbyists sending in activists by the thousands, and corporate advertisers publicizing it--the National Equality March on the D.C. mall on October 11 drew one hell of a crowd.
If for-profit media had given each equality marcher the air time dedicated to the 60,000 or so teabaggers that came to D.C. a month ago, they'd still be hogging the airwaves, dawn to dusk. Most reports estimate October 11's turnout at between 100 and 200,000. The DC Fire Department put the September 12 crowd at 60-70,000, max.
If we had seen commensurate coverage, we might have learned that October 11's march was organized by locally-focused, nationally-connected activists representing every race, class and faith. Everyone keeps calling it a gay rights march, but that was not actually its name.
The National Equality March was named as it was for a reason. Organizers see themselves as part of something larger.
Said one speaker after another: We want Justice but not just for us.
Equal Protection. Equal Rights. We need to add Equal Coverage.
If we'd seen it on the news, we might have learned that the Equality March wasn't called by the big established DC organizations: it was pushed by the fringe, and the youth, and the not-established-yet. Decentralized organizers, with a close eye on Congress, and an agenda that's national, local, and still has time for state-based stuff? Fancy that. It seems like the kind of structure that could change politics. Imagine what we'd learn, given half a chance.
And so it begins...
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© 2023 Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people about the key questions of our time on The Laura Flanders Show, a nationally syndicated radio and television program also available as a podcast. A contributing writer to The Nation, Flanders is also the author of six books, including "Bushwomen: How They Won the White House for Their Man" (2005). She is the recipient of a 2019 Izzy Award for excellence in independent journalism, the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award for advancing women's and girls' visibility in media, and a 2020 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship for her reporting and advocacy for public media. lauraflanders.org
Without even one cable news outlet promoting the event and even without Glenn Beck--even without corporate lobbyists sending in activists by the thousands, and corporate advertisers publicizing it--the National Equality March on the D.C. mall on October 11 drew one hell of a crowd.
If for-profit media had given each equality marcher the air time dedicated to the 60,000 or so teabaggers that came to D.C. a month ago, they'd still be hogging the airwaves, dawn to dusk. Most reports estimate October 11's turnout at between 100 and 200,000. The DC Fire Department put the September 12 crowd at 60-70,000, max.
If we had seen commensurate coverage, we might have learned that October 11's march was organized by locally-focused, nationally-connected activists representing every race, class and faith. Everyone keeps calling it a gay rights march, but that was not actually its name.
The National Equality March was named as it was for a reason. Organizers see themselves as part of something larger.
Said one speaker after another: We want Justice but not just for us.
Equal Protection. Equal Rights. We need to add Equal Coverage.
If we'd seen it on the news, we might have learned that the Equality March wasn't called by the big established DC organizations: it was pushed by the fringe, and the youth, and the not-established-yet. Decentralized organizers, with a close eye on Congress, and an agenda that's national, local, and still has time for state-based stuff? Fancy that. It seems like the kind of structure that could change politics. Imagine what we'd learn, given half a chance.
Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people about the key questions of our time on The Laura Flanders Show, a nationally syndicated radio and television program also available as a podcast. A contributing writer to The Nation, Flanders is also the author of six books, including "Bushwomen: How They Won the White House for Their Man" (2005). She is the recipient of a 2019 Izzy Award for excellence in independent journalism, the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award for advancing women's and girls' visibility in media, and a 2020 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship for her reporting and advocacy for public media. lauraflanders.org
Without even one cable news outlet promoting the event and even without Glenn Beck--even without corporate lobbyists sending in activists by the thousands, and corporate advertisers publicizing it--the National Equality March on the D.C. mall on October 11 drew one hell of a crowd.
If for-profit media had given each equality marcher the air time dedicated to the 60,000 or so teabaggers that came to D.C. a month ago, they'd still be hogging the airwaves, dawn to dusk. Most reports estimate October 11's turnout at between 100 and 200,000. The DC Fire Department put the September 12 crowd at 60-70,000, max.
If we had seen commensurate coverage, we might have learned that October 11's march was organized by locally-focused, nationally-connected activists representing every race, class and faith. Everyone keeps calling it a gay rights march, but that was not actually its name.
The National Equality March was named as it was for a reason. Organizers see themselves as part of something larger.
Said one speaker after another: We want Justice but not just for us.
Equal Protection. Equal Rights. We need to add Equal Coverage.
If we'd seen it on the news, we might have learned that the Equality March wasn't called by the big established DC organizations: it was pushed by the fringe, and the youth, and the not-established-yet. Decentralized organizers, with a close eye on Congress, and an agenda that's national, local, and still has time for state-based stuff? Fancy that. It seems like the kind of structure that could change politics. Imagine what we'd learn, given half a chance.
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