National Equality March - Christine Thomas

Gay Pride & the National Equality March



When the LGBT community gets together, one of the activities we enjoy most is marching. We don’t seem to care much where we do it, it doesn’t matter what time of year it is, and we don’t need any one reason—we just like getting together, making signs, chanting and cheering at the top of our lungs, and causing a big scene no matter where we end up. I mean, sure, it’s most effective when we go somewhere like Tallahassee, FL, to demand our rights from our state’s capitol at the Rally in Tally; or when we go to Washington, D.C., to participate in a nation-wide show of force to demand our rights from our nation’s capitol during the National Equality March. Still, if the LGBT community can get some attention by being a part of a big gay parade anywhere, anytime, for any reason, we’re in.

Why did we start up with this whole “marching” thing, anyway? I think we’ve got the Stonewall Riots of 1969 to thank for this particular tradition in the LGBT movement, as the first gay pride march occurred one year after the riots in order to celebrate their anniversary. “The first marches were both serious and fun, and served to inspire the widening activist movement; they were repeated in the following years, and more and more annual marches started up in other cities throughout the world. In New York and Atlanta the marches were called Gay Liberation Marches, and the day of celebration was called ‘Gay Liberation Day;’ in San Francisco and Los Angeles they became known as Gay Freedom Marches and the day was called ‘Gay Freedom Day.’ As more towns and cities began holding their own celebrations, these names spread.” (Stolen straight from Wikipedia.org.)

Last Friday, several members of UWF’s Gay-Straight Alliance embarked on a pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., to participate in the National Equality March. Some of these members rode on a bus for over 24 hours, traveling all over Florida to pick up students from other Universities before heading on a course to the nation’s capitol. Unfortunately, yours truly was having her own fun at a leadership retreat and could not participate in the LGBT festivities, but I’ve heard all sorts of magnificent stories. Those in attendance at the National Equality March got to hear from speakers such as Judy Shepard and Lady Gaga… those speakers alone would have made it worth the trip, in my opinion. There was lots of cheering, lots of flag-waving, over 300,000 LGBT individuals and their allies, and best of all… a ton of pride and demands for equality. Words cannot express how very proud I am of my friends and fellow GSA members for participating in this monumental event.

Check out these fabulous videos from the National Equality March!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=national+equality+march&search_type=&aq=f