The March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation was a large

political rally A political demonstration is an action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause or people partaking in a protest against a cause of concern; it often consists of walking in a mass march formati ...

that took place in

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, on April 25, 1993. Organizers estimated that 1,000,000 attended the March. The D.C. Police Department put the number between 800,000 and more than 1 million,"The 20th Anniversary of the LGBT March on Washington: How Far Have We Come?"
Huffington Post. Accessed April 25, 2013. making it one of the

largest protests in American history The right to assemble is recognized as a human right and protected in the First Amendment of the US Constitution under the clause, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; o ...

. The

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

estimated attendance at 300,000, but their figure attracted so much negative attention that it shortly thereafter stopped issuing attendance estimates for similar events.

Background and planning

Between the 1987 March on Washington and the early 1990s, LGBT people achieved much more mainstream visibility than they ever had in the past.Ghaziani, Amin. 2008. "The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington." University of Chicago Press. The

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

community still faced widespread discrimination, through such policies as

Don't Ask Don't Tell "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service of non-heterosexual people, instituted during the Clinton administration. The policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on December ...

, Colorado's

constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, t ...

(1992) invalidating laws that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and rising instances of LGBT-targeted hate crimes. In this climate,

Urvashi Vaid Urvashi ( sa, उर्वशी, Urvaśī}) is the most prominent apsara (celestial nymph) in Hindu mythology, considered to be the most beautiful of all the apsaras, and an expert dancer. She is mentioned in both ''Vedic'' and ''Puranic'' scr ...

of the

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports act ...

spearheaded the movement for a third LG March. In January 1991, she sent a letter to LG organizations across the U.S. to garner support for a third march and to invite them to send delegates to a planning meeting on March 9, 1991, in Washington, D.C. No consensus was reached regarding the march's potential date at this meeting, so a second meeting was arranged for the weekend of May 11–12, 1991, again in Washington. This meeting provided the mandate for the march: to rebuild and reinvigorate local and national activists. Additional organizational meetings took place in Chicago (August 1991), Los Angeles (January 1992), Dallas (May 1992), Denver (October 1992) and Washington DC (February 1993). During the planning the MOW National Steering Committee voted for adding "transgender" to the official title of the march, but the efforts failed because of the lacking two-thirds majority needed for passage Planning the march took about two years and involved a 12-member executive committee and a 200-plus member steering committee. They used a consensus process to figure out the permitting, the logistics, the networking and fundraising during this time to fully plan the march.

Platform and demands

March organizers agreed upon seven primary demands, each with further secondary demands. The primary demands were: *We demand passage of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights bill and an end to discrimination by state and federal governments including the military; repeal of all sodomy laws and other laws that criminalize private sexual expression between consenting adults. *We demand massive increase in funding for AIDS education, research, and patient care; universal access to health care including alternative therapies; and an end to sexism in medical research and health care. *We demand legislation to prevent discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in the areas of family diversity, custody, adoption and foster care and that the definition of family includes the full diversity of all family structures. *We demand full and equal inclusion of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in the educational system, and inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies in multicultural curricula. *We demand the right to reproductive freedom and choice, to control our own bodies, and an end to sexist discrimination. *We demand an end to racial and ethnic discrimination in all forms. *We demand an end to discrimination and violent oppression based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, identification, race, religion, identity, sex and gender expression, disability, age, class, AIDS/HIV infection.

Speakers and events

In the days surrounding the March, a wide range of events serving different groups within the

community were held in and around Washington, DC. These included historical exhibits, religious services, lobbying events, social gatherings, art exhibits, political workshops, public service events, and candlelight vigils. The day of the event, the mall, from the Washington Monument to the capitol was packed. Even though over 1 million people were present at the event, park police falsely claimed that only 300,000 people were there. One of the performers, Deidre McCalla said "That is because women and people of color are invisible." The march started around noon, from the White House, moved down to Pennsylvania Avenue, and then scattered onto the Mall near Seventh Street NW. The rally had many young, old, black, white, Latino, and Asian individuals who strode past the White House. Marchers were holding things like rainbow flags, banners, signs, red ribbons and pink triangles. The people were chanting things like "Act Up! Fight Back! Fight AIDS!" along with "End the Ban Now!" and "We're here. We're queer. We're not going away." The mood of the march was peaceful with only five arrests for disorderly conduct. The day before the march, two demonstrations raised the issue of same-sex marriage. About 1,500 same-sex couples assembled at the

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with, according to ''The Washington Post'', "a dozen ministers, organ music, photographers and rice". A far smaller gathering of several same-sex couples protested in front of the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

building and performed a symbolic wedding ceremony titled "an Interfaith Ceremony of Commitment". According to the ''Chicago Tribune'', the demonstration's point was a demand "for full legal recognition of domestic partnerships" for tax purposes. Some women marched topless while men wore dresses to represent equality between genders. Around 2 p.m, hundreds of marchers performed a seven-minute "die-in" to symbolize the tragedy of AIDS in the LGBTQ+ community. Later that afternoon,

Larry Kramer Laurence David Kramer (June 25, 1935May 27, 2020) was an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to Lo ...

, a gay activist and founder of the Act-Up group, spoke at the rally. He inspired the marcher with his statement, “.. But now, harder than ever; we must act up, fight back and fight aids.” By sunset, large crowds of gay men and lesbians were still gathered in the Mall, listening to speeches and dancing to music. The rally did not end until 7:20 p.m The March did not attract many counter-protesters, as some anti-gay groups felt that such a response would be counter-productive. The only major counter-protest came from approximately 25 members of a group called Advocate of the U.S., including the group's founder and executive director

Eugene Delgaudio Eugene Anthony Delgaudio is an American politician. In 1981, he started Public Advocate of the United States, a conservative activist group known for its street theater, tax protests, and anti-LGBTQ+ efforts. He represented the Sterling Distric ...

. The counter demonstrators signs said things like "God hates f*gs" "F*gs burn in hell" some marchers responded in silence, while other marchers chanted "Shame" over and over again as the counter demonstrators passed. Speakers and performers at the rally following the march included

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Lani Kaʻahumanu Lani Kaahumanu (born October 5, 1943) is a Canadian bisexual and feminist writer and activist. She is openly bisexual and writes and speaks on sexuality issues frequently. She serves on the editorial board of the ''Journal of Bisexuality''. She ...

, Jesse Jackson, and Martha Wash.

was the only out bisexual to speak at the rally out of 18 total speakers; she had conceived and led a successful national campaign to have bisexual people included in the title of the march. Dorothy Hajdys, the mother of Allen R. Schindler Jr, also gave a speech.

Politics of the March

Some speakers and attendees of the march, including playwright Larry Kramer, expressed discontent with the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

's handling of the AIDS crisis.

President Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

did not attend the march but instead sent a statement of support, which was read by California Representative Nancy Pelosi

References

External links