via Southern Voice, by Amy Cavanaugh
Plans for a march on Washington in October to push President Obama to take a more aggressive approach to advancing LGBT rights initiatives are building momentum, but have also already encountered controversy.
Four days after the November passage of Proposition 8, which barred same-sex marriages in California, one of the plaintiffs in that state’s marriage case called for a march on D.C. in 2010.
“In 1978, I called for the very first gay march on Washington,” Robin Tyler said during a Nov. 8 speech in California. “In 2000, I called for the last march on Washington.
“Marches work, not because Washington listens, but because they mobilize youth, and our youth need to carry on the leadership of this movement.”
Gay activist David Mixner seconded the call May 20. Writing on his blog, DavidMixner.com, he called for a march for marriage equality in November 2009, noting that he “can’t stomach any more being told ‘not now.’”
“As this administration sits in offices plotting timeline charts on what rights they feel comfortable granting us this year, clearly it is time for us to gin up our efforts and stop waiting for them to hand us our God given entitlements,” he wrote.
Cleve Jones, who conceived of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in 1983, also wrote a response to Mixner on Towleroad.com, agreeing with the call.
“In my travels throughout California and around the country, I have been stunned and inspired by the determination and fearlessness of our young people,” Jones wrote. “This is the generation that is going to win. This is the time to unite and push — as we have never pushed before — to achieve victory.”
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