Thursday, October 15, 2009

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On Sunday, Washington All About Equality

Tens of thousands march to the Capitol one day after Obama addresses Human Rights Campaign across town

Published: Thursday, October 15, 2009 2:56 PM CDT
BY NATHAN RILEY 
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Equality — the word was repeated over and over again in Washington DC. The crowd at the October 11 National Equality March made it clear: they want equality all over the land. But speakers who harangued President Barack Obama evoked no enthusiasm.

As tens of thousands of marchers walked down Pennsylvania Avenue filled with signs and rainbow flags, there was no mistaking but that activism is alive and well. This was a cheering, hugging, kissing multitude teeming with individuals of all ages and colors, jubilant in their pride and confident in their call for equal rights. Gay men and lesbians were joined by transgendered activists and straight allies; they favored immigrant rights, handicapped rights, safe schools, and worldwide acceptance of LGBT equality as a basic human right. The march and rally that followed spoke for a queer community that could not be reduced to any single issue. Marriage equality, yes. Ending discrimination in the military, yes. Stopping hate crimes, yes. They wanted it all.

The day was not a time for slicing and dicing the differences in the LGBT movement; it was a moment of celebration and determination. And none were more delighted than David Mixner and Cleve Jones, the two veteran organizers who initiated the call for the march. They were visibly relieved and excited by the size of the turnout, after months in which many other longtime activists questioned the wisdom of the event. “They told me that you didn’t care and you wouldn’t come,” Mixner, once a top informal advisor to President Bill Clinton who famously fell out with him over the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, told the crowd that gathered at the Capitol. “The president asked us to help him, and help him we will.”

State Senator Tom Duane, an openly gay Chelsea Democrat, watching the rally speakers, echoed Mixner’s call for keeping up the pressure on a president who is an ally, saying that Obama is “on our side, and we need to be unyielding.” Abiding support for the president was evident throughout the day. Jones, a longtime gay and AIDS activist who was once a confidant of Harvey Milk, got only scattered applause when he suggested that Obama was the problem. British singer Billie Myers chivvied the president because he hasn’t endorsed marriage equality, but the crowd remained silent except for one sturdy voice that shouted, “He will.”

Dan Choi, the West Point graduate and Iraq War veteran who is challenging Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, marched hugging his boyfriend. At the rally, he walked up to the podium with tape over his mouth, but when he pulled it off, he began his speech in Arabic. Besides showcasing his valuable skills that the military must now go without, Choi’s opening made clear his international perspective, his hopes for the US finding its way to peace with the world of Islam. Julian Bond, the longtime chairman of the NAACP, and actress Cynthia Nixon offered compelling pleas to end discrimination. It was a love fest that imagined an LGBT-friendly America.

Some speakers made an explicit demand that the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equality apply to the LGBT community in all 50 states. They’re not interested in seeing New York and New England hospitable to gay rights, but Alabama antagonistic. Many denounced the ability of the community’s opponents to put human rights up for a vote in referendums; basic human rights, they insisted, should be guaranteed and protected by the courts. About the only development currently in the offing that could lead to this dramatic change in one fell swoop is Perry v. Schwarzenegger; the federal case contesting California’s ban on marriage equality. The lawsuit, argued by two high profile litigators, Ted Olson and David Boies, who famously squared off in the Bush v. Gore case that settled the 2000 election, could lead to marriage equality in all 50 states, but many observers worry that the current Supreme Court is too conservative, and a bad precedent will be established

Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, the Wyoming college student slain in a brutal gay bashing eleven years ago, was honored all over Washington throughout the weekend. When she addressed the rally, with the hate crimes bill named in her son’s honor on the cusp of becoming law, she too suggested the community must assure Obama that they have his back: “The president can never do this alone. He needs your help.”

Equality is an elastic term and, of course, it includes the right marry. One sign read, “Hey, Obama, let mama marry mama.” But the youngest activists in the crowd seemed interested in equality in its broadest possible meaning. Many of them were part of the revolution of the past 15 years, in which gay and lesbian youth become socialized young, coming out at 15, 14, and even younger. They came of age with little patience for ignorance and hostility. There was evidence of plenty of young LGBT marchers from Red States that gave George W. Bush eight years in Washington, during which time many, many states saw no progress on equality, only constitutional reversals. This was a crowd disgusted with the right wing’s lies about LGBT Americans, and fully expecting the Democrats to do for equality what the Republicans had done for the anti-gay backlash –– elevate it into a consensus that dominates the public dialogue.

A 19-year-old student at the University of Kentucky was articulate in presenting an all-encompassing vision of equality that seemed a signifier of his generation. Speaking of being gay, Mario Nguygen, who grew up in Dallas, told the crowd, “It’s not just okay, it’s a right.” He came out to his sister when he was just twelve years old, and she immediately asked for his help in planning her wedding. In the midst of their preparations, he started to tell her of his own dreams for a wedding. His sister immediately burst his balloon, saying, “Only women can marry, men can’t marry men.” It was a turning point, Nguygen explained. He grasped the essential point right away: “I was accepted but was not seen as an equal.” He and the other members of his generation demand the explicit acknowledgement of equality by society. Obama seemed ready to acknowledge that expectation, telling the audience at the Human Rights Campaign dinner the night before, “You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.”

With Obama’s speech to HRC, the marchers could certainly claim significant credit in helping push gay issues to the front burner in the Washington political dialogue. Many LGBT bloggers were quick to downplay the president’s words as mere symbolism, but the mainstream media’s hook was that he had promised to end –– not change, but end –– Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And by the time the march was getting underway on Sunday, there were clear signs of positive congressional reaction.

Carl Levin, the powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was on television that morning saying the Pentagon is receptive to the reform. Prior to the senator’s comments, all the action on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was on the House side, where Pennsylvania Representative Patrick Murphy, another Iraq War veteran, has found 176 of his colleagues to co-sponsor his repeal measure. Now, Levin has signaled the Senate might also be ready.

It proved a weekend full of potent symbols. In the middle of the crucial health care fight, the president spent an evening reiterating his commitments to the LGBT community, in language more personal than he has used before. The House anticipated the march in approving last week the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill, which is expected to win Senate passage soon.

For anyone who remembers the plastic gloves Capitol Police donned when faced with LGBT marchers in 1987, at the height of the nation’s AIDS hysteria, this year’s march was accorded decidedly more white glove treatment. Pennsylvania Avenue was closed to traffic, and the rally platform was at the foot of the Capitol, a prestigious spot generally reserved for groups receiving a quasi-official welcome. The only police visible were at intersections directing traffic. As of 5 p.m. Sunday, the Capitol Police reported zero arrests and said they were able to assign significantly fewer officers than they would normally for a crowd of this size. Washington offered the nation’s LGBT community a warm welcome.


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