National Equality March rally at Capitol

The National Equality March was a national political rally that occurred October 11, 2009 in Washington, D.C. It called for equal protection for lesbian, gay,

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

(

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 ...

) people in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The march was called for by activist

David Mixner David Benjamin Mixner (born August 16, 1946) is an American political activist and author. He is best known for his work in anti-war and gay rights advocacy. Early life Mixner was born on August 16, 1946, and grew up in the small town of El ...

and implemented by

Cleve Jones Cleve Jones (born October 11, 1954) is an American AIDS and LGBT rights activist. He conceived the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which has become, at 54 tons, the world's largest piece of community folk art as of 2020. In 1983, at the onset ...

, and organized by Equality Across America and the

Courage Campaign Courage California (formerly Courage Campaign) is a state-based 501(c)(4) progressive grassroots advocacy organization founded in 2005 and based in California. The organization claims an online grassroots activism network of over 1 million member ...

. Kip Williams and Robin McGehee served as co-directors. Leaders like actress

Michelle Clunie Michelle Renee Clunie (born November 7, 1969) is an American actress and former ballet dancer. A native of Portland, Oregon, Clunie studied ballet from an early age, earning a scholarship at the Academy of Professional Ballet. In 1992, she starre ...

marketing director,

Billy Pollina William Vito Pollina (born June 25, 1961) is an American film and television writer, producer and director. Pollina was born in Harvey, Illinois to Italian immigrants from Sicily. He studied theater at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA ...

and New York gubernatorial aide Peter Yacobellis hosted the first fundraiser in the spring of 2009. This was the first national march in Washington, D.C. for

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, ...

since the 2000

Millennium March The Millennium March on Washington was an event to raise awareness and visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and issues of LGBT rights in the US, it was held April 28 through April 30, 2000 in Washington, DC. The Mill ...

. Many groups joined by also organizing other events for the weekend, which coincided with

National Coming Out Day National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is an annual LGBT awareness day observed on October 11, to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people ( the LGBT community, sometimes also called the queer community) in " coming out of the closet". Fir ...

on October 11 and marked eleven years since the beating and murder of gay

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

student

Matthew Shepard Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Pou ...

, which prompted national attention and action to expand

hate crime laws A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograp ...

. Equality Across America, which is fiscally sponsored by the non-profit Tides Center, states it intends to develop a network of decentralized organizers from each of the 435 U.S. Congressional districts.

History

Because organizers made extensive use of online social media tools to recruit and organize participants, the event was organized faster and more economically than those previous events. Organizers spent $156,000 to produce the event, and raised approximately $260,000. The surplus funds are being used by Equality Across America to pursue full Federal equality for LGBT people.

March route

15th Street NW closed for staging between I Street NW and M Street NW. The march began at the intersection of I Street NW and 15th Street NW and initially headed south on Vermont Avenue NW then turned right on H Street NW. The march proceeded west past Lafayette Park, south on 17th Street NW, and then east on the closed portion of Pennsylvania Avenue immediately facing the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

before turning south on 15th Street NW. Finally, the march followed Pennsylvania Avenue to the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

Workshops

There were a series of workshops, including one on tactics for repealing "

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 Decembe ...

", a law prohibiting gays and lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces. In addition, other workshops were on "How to Organize on Campus" and "Adoption Option: Adoption Is an Option." A "Transgender Community Building Caucus" was held.House OKs Matthew Shepard Act to protect gays

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

, October 8, 2009 Cleve Jones and Sherry Wolf held a workshop at Busboys and Poets café, with several hundred attending, on The Struggle for LGBT Liberation.

Speakers

After the march a rally at the

US Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

featured more than 30 speakers,Previewing National Equality March

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

, October 10, 2009 including: * Jarrett Barrios – President of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts and President of the

Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

(GLAAD) * Dustin Lance Black – American screenwriter, director, television producer, and LGBT rights activist *

Julian Bond Horace Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015) was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the e ...

– chairperson of

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&n ...

and former Georgia State Senator who has often likened the US gay rights movement to the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

, as he did in a

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

op-ed explaining his reasons for participating in the march * Staceyann Chin –

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics o ...

poet,

performing artist The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perfor ...

and LGBT rights activist * 1st Lt. Daniel Choi – openly gay

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

combat veteran and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

whose discharge from the

New York Army National Guard The New York Army National Guard is a component of the New York National Guard and the Army National Guard. Nationwide, the Army National Guard comprises approximately one half of the United States Army's available combat forces and approxim ...

under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is currently being reviewed * Penelope Williams -

Dominican American Dominican Americans ( es, domínico-americanos, ) are Americans who trace their ancestry to the Dominican Republic. The word may refer to someone born in the United States of Dominican descent or to someone who has migrated to the United Stat ...

and

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

right activist, spokesperson for national

rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory ...

group BiNet USA, officially introduced

speaker

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

– singer and bisexual-identified

LGBTQ ' 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 ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

Michael Huffington Michael Huffington (born September 3, 1947), is an American politician, LGBT activist, and film producer. He was a member of the Republican Party, and a congressman for one term, 1993–1995, from California. Huffington was married to Arianna H ...

–

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

, former United States Congressman, film producer * Tanner Efinger – March Organizer and Founder of Postcards to the President *

– the march’s co-chairperson and longtime gay rights activist *

– civil rights activist and best-selling author * Nicole Murray-Ramirez – LGBT rights activist and a San Diego city commissioner * Chloe Michelle Noble – bi-

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the l ...

human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing cam ...

and founder of Homeless Youth Pridewalk and Operation Shine America * Cynthia Nixon – lesbian-identified

actress, most notably from ''

Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO. An adaptation of Candace Bushnell's newspaper column and 1996 book anthology of the same name, the series premiered in the United Stat ...

'' * Reverend Troy Deroy Perry II – founder of the

Metropolitan Community Church The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), also known as the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), is an international LGBT-affirming mainline Protestant Christian denomination. There are 222 member congregations in 37 ...

* Christine C. Quinn – first openly gay speaker of the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model, the performance of ...

Speaker *

Bill Rosendahl William Joseph Rosendahl (May 15, 1945 – March 30, 2016) was an American politician. He served on the Los Angeles City Council, representing Council District 11 from 2005 to 2013. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to being a cou ...

– openly gay

Los Angeles City Council The Los Angeles City Council is the legislative body of the City of Los Angeles in California. The council is composed of 15 members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The president of the council and the president pro temp ...

member *

Judy Shepard Judy Shepard (née Peck; born August 15, 1952) is the mother of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at University of Wyoming who was murdered in October 1998 in what became one of the most high-profiled cases highlighting hate-crimes against ...

– mother of brutally murdered gay

student Matthew Shepard and co-founder of the Matthew Shepard Foundation * Babs Siperstein – the first openly transgender member of the Democratic National Committee * Maxim Thorne – Senior Vice President of the

* Urvashi Vaid – LBGT activist * Lawrence Webb – first openly gay, African-American elected official in the

Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

Falls Church Falls Church is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is included in the Washington metropolitan area. Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Churc ...

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural coun ...

member * Sherry Wolf -author, LGBT and socialist activist, associate editor of International Socialist Review * Kit Yan – slam poet, musician, activist, and out transgender man

Endorsements

The National Equality March was endorsed by many of the major national LGBT organizations, including

GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayal ...

, HRC, MCC, the Task Force, and P-FLAG. In addition, it was endorsed by other organizations, such as the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to me ...

, including many SAG members who individually endorsed the march as well. As well, the march was endorsed by other individuals, politicians, such as Senate Majority Leader

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...

,‘Our fight for full equality’
SOVO, Amy Cavanaugh, October 9, 2009 faith leaders such as Rabbi and President of North American Reform Judaism, Eric Yoffie,On Eve of March, Faith Drives Activism for Gay Rights Supporters
BeliefNet, September 30, 2009 and others.

References

External links

National Equality March official websiteEquality Across America
{{Don't ask, don't tell 2009 protests 2009 in LGBT history 2009 in Washington, D.C. Don't ask, don't tell LGBT civil rights demonstrations LGBT events in Washington, D.C. LGBT politics in the United States LGBT rights in the United States Marching Protest marches in Washington, D.C. October 2009 events in the United States