International Socialists

People started gathering in the morning at McPherson Square, buzzing with nervous anticipation about just how many would mobilise for the first national march for LGBT rights in a decade and a half. By the time the march stepped off at noon, everyone knew that the crowd was large, but it did not become clear just how large until the front of the march headed west and then snaked back past the White House - with tens of thousands still waiting in and around the square to start moving! 

In all, some 200,000 people formed a river of humanity that flooded the blocks around the White House and the Capitol, filling the streets with rainbow flags, handmade signs and a festival-like atmosphere. The turnout exceeded even the wildest expectations of march organisers. 

"I think that there are generations of younger activists and straight allies who over the last 15 years have been awakening to the need for them to speak out about LGBT equality, and so this march came at the right time," said Urvashi Vaid, an LGBT activist and author. "It tapped into that energy. A lot of people I've met said that this is their first march on Washington, so I think that's important. Marches are about mobilising the base, and the base of LGBT rights needs to go back around the country and work at the local level. Each time we have had a national march like this, we have had an upsurge in grassroots activism at home." 

People of all sorts came out for the march. Alongside the many first-time marchers were veteran activists, families with children, groups of friends, veteran and active-duty troops, students from campus organisations, members of unions, immigrant rights activists, and people of every race, creed and colour. Together they stood, united around one simple message - full equality for LGBT people in all matters governed by civil law. 

Hundreds of students representing a new generation of LGBT activists carried the lead banner of the march, bursting with energy as they marched through the streets. "Get up, get down, there's a civil rights movement in this town!" was one of the favourite chants that these students belted with all their might. 

"I think, given the economy, the most important demand is having rights in our workplace," said Bridie Jurasevich, a student from Indiana. "I think when it comes to parenting rights and equal adoption rights, marriage equality is crucial. I just don't understand why I don't have this right. I pay taxes. I work. I should have the same rights as everyone else." 

Frank Naso, one of the thousands who was participating for the first time in a big march, explained that it was his frustration with the pace of change that made him decide to come to Washington: 

"I started to get more politically active after realising that Obama was not going to be able to deliver on some of the things he promised. It made me realise that it's not really the person but the system that needs to be changed." 

One of the many topics that marchers discussed as they made their way through the streets was the speech delivered by Barack Obama at a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) the night before. HRC promotes itself as the largest LGBT organisation in the country, but many in the LGBT community were disappointed by HRC's decision not to put its full weight behind the march, or even help to publicise it broadly. 

Obama's speech expressed his support for the full legislative agenda of the new LGBT movement, including the repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) policy and the Defence of Marriage Act (which was signed by Bill Clinton and defined marriage as between a man and a woman) and the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). But he didn't say anything about a timeline for achieving these goals. There was a spectrum of opinion about the speech and what this means for the nascent LGBT movement. 

"I thought it was a strong speech," said Vaid. She added: "I thought it was unequivocally in support. He didn't set a timetable, which people are criticising, and I think we should keep the pressure on the administration. But they are clearly our friends, and he is clearly committed... I think people should turn their disappointment toward Congress and to governors and state legislatures. People should turn their disappointment into political organising back home to create the new majority that we're going to need to sustain social justice in this country." 

But for Princeton student Katie Rodriguez, Obama and the Democrats are playing political football with LGBT rights: "We want equality. Congress has other priorities right now, and I feel like Obama is a really smooth talker. Maybe this march will help pressure him. It's good for him to see that we are not going to tolerate this. People are getting more active." 

Related to the question of Obama's posture toward LGBT demands is the stance of the rest of the Democrats in positions of power - and it's clear that many continue to counsel "patience." 

Another issue, played up by the media in the days leading up to the march, was the "rift" in the movement between those who advocate a state-by-state approach to winning LGBT rights and those who favour a national strategy to demand full equality at the federal level. 

"I hope we don't wake up the day after Election Day and realise we could have won Maine if only so many resources weren't put toward the march," Lynne Bowman, executive director of Equality Ohio, told the New York Times. 

Cleve Jones, a close collaborator of the late Harvey Milk and one of the march organisers, addressed this debate at a press conference just before the march: 

"A year ago today, no one was talking about a national strategy to win federal equality, but now we are. People need to look back to 1963, when the great heroes of the historic civil rights movement were having exactly the same conversation that we are having today. It was bitter and divisive and complicated... But the great heroes of that struggle came to the decision that while they were certainly going to continue fighting in places with names like Selma and Birmingham and Montgomery, they would have to set their sights on Washington, DC. 

"When we look back on the extraordinary bitterness and division in this country at that time, what happened was that white America came to understand the appalling brutality of segregation. 

"There is a sea change happening in this country, and it is very similar to the civil rights movement, and I want to be conscious about not drawing too many parallels between the LGBT and the African American experience, but as far as strategy, the civil rights movement was spot on." 

Russell Reish and Albert Masse have been together for more than three decades - and they couldn't agree more with Jones. Explained Reish: 

"We were here in Washington back in 1987 and again in 1993, and we have seen much progress from the fifties and sixties when we were out and growing up gay. But we still need the right to marry and all these other rights. Albert is sick and he doesn't have too long, but I will not have any benefits as his partner. So that's what we want to see. But we are so happy to see all the young people here who are going to carry on our work." 

As marchers arrived at the Capitol, they pressed forward to hear speeches by a long list of activist leaders, political figures and celebrities, including march organisers Cleve Jones, David Mixner, Sherry Wolf and others; gay rights activist Urvashi Vaid; veteran civil rights leader Julian Bond; Sex and the City's Cynthia Nixon; pop singer Lady Gaga; spoken word poet and political activist Staceyann Chin; labour leader Stuart Applebaum; and many others. 

Sherry Wolf, author of the recently released Sexuality and Socialism, summarised the sentiments of many who spoke: 

"The establishment is telling us that with the economy in collapse, a health care nightmare and two wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are being impatient by demanding that Obama give us our civil rights now. There is too much on the plate. 

"What we need to understand is that LGBT people in this country are among the millions of American who are losing their jobs and are having their homes foreclosed on. 

"We are the ones who are losing their health care or who have crappy health care at best. And we are also the ones, tragically, by the tens of thousands, who are fighting and dying for wars for oil and empire. 

"This is an outrage, it's not acceptable and we are going to continue to fight. And if anyone ever tells you that you cannot build something with no money and no existing organisation, they're wrong. Look around you. The timing is right because the anger is there, and people are fed up and done with the old strategy. It doesn't work. This is our new strategy right here today."