National Equality March Blog

Times have changed, and so have we.

AJ Kruth — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:37:22 +0000

I’ve been married three times in 16 years. To the same man every time. While the first two didn’t stick, my husband and I were one of the lucky couples — out of 18,000 — whose marriages were affirmed by the CA Supreme Court in late May this year. While the third time was the charm for us, it brings with it a huge responsibility. And not just the responsibility that comes from being married to another human being. We have another responsibility: a responsibility to those who want to be married but aren’t able — and to those who will want to be married someday.

Like most in our community, we were crushed when Prop 8 passed in California last year. And, at first, our disappointment, our despair and our anger revolved almost exclusively around the issue of marriage. But as time has passed, we’ve begun to lose patience with our status as “less than.” Not just in our relationships, but in our schools, our jobs, our communities. Seen as “less than” by neighbors or churches or coworkers is one thing. Having our government attach its distaste for our lives by denying full equal rights to its LGBT citizens is more than we’re willing to accept. Not now. Not anymore.

The election of Barack Obama was supposed to look much different for our community. Like the CA Supreme Court’s decision to mandate same-sex marriages in 2008, Obama’s election raised expectations for many Americans, and specifically for LGBT Americans. And just like the passage of Prop 8, Obama’s actions, and maybe more, his inactions, have brought many of those expectations crashing down. While we’ve expected President Obama to lead on our issues, he instead has raised barriers to our equality more resembling a fierce opponent.

My husband and I have experienced many successes and challenges in our years together, and we’ve learned that our relationship has gotten stronger when we find the upside to those challenges. The challenges we face as a community to repeal DOMA and DADT, to get Hate Crimes, the American Families United Act and marriage equality into law are steep. But the upside to these challenges, to the disappointment of Prop 8’s passage and the betrayal of President Obama’s promises, has been the grassroots organizing and activism — not truly seen in our movement since the late ’80s and early 90s. When President Clinton was elected in 1992, many in our community breathed a huge sigh of relief. Expectations were high, but results were non-existent.

President Obama may have “over-learned” the lessons from President Clinton’s first term and has decided to go very slow fulfilling his promises to his LGBT supporters. But if that’s the case, he’s living in the past and times have changed. And so have we.

The energy, passion and determination of grassroots activists around the country is boiling over. Now is the time to take our future into our own hands. We’re not waiting for President Obama. We’re not waiting for the courts. Locally and nationally we must demand full equality. The March on Washington in October will bring together activists from every congressional district in the US. While many see the March as a “national” event, we view it as an extension of the local activism we need to fuel our equality movement. The images from the March may be the visuals sent to President Obama and Congress, but the training, networking, strategizing and enthusiasm generated by the participants will be the tools used to deliver our message to Washington.

We have aleady booked our cross-country flight for the March. We will be there to demand full federal equality for America’s LGBT citizens. We will be there for our voices to be heard. We will be there to learn how to lobby our representatives. We will be there to try to live up to our responsibility. We’re not “less than.” We’re not 2nd class. We’re not going away. And most of all, we’re not willing to accept our government’s denial of full equal rights. Not now. Not anymore.

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My children deserve more.

Jennifer Rinkenberger — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:26:33 +0000

What turns a stay-at-home-mom into an activist? DOMA, or rather, the Department of Justice’s brief defending–no–exalting DOMA, was the last straw for this mom. We can quibble over how obligated the administration is to defend existing law, debate whether the brief was over-argued, or how appropriate the semantics of the brief were–but there is no denying one thing: citing case law on interfamilial marriage and child marriage as precedent in a brief that defends the exclusion of same sex couples from the institution of marriage is simply unacceptable. It isn’t so hard to understand how the schoolyard verbal abuse of LGBT youth, with taunts of ‘faggot’ or worse persists, when the Department of Justice can legally equivocate incestuous relationships with my twelve-year monogamous relationship without so much as a whimper from the White House.

“I’m tired of the silence from the White House. Jimmy Carter, you talked about human rights a lot…in fact, you want to be the world’s leader for human rights. Well, damn it, LEAD!!! There are some fifteen to twenty million lesbians and gay men in this nation listening and listening very carefully. Jimmy Carter, when are you going to talk about their rights?!” –Harvey Milk, speaking at the Gay Freedom Day Parade, June 25, 1978

Substitute the name and update the population in that quote and you could easily be tricked into thinking that the LGBT community has made no progress in thirty years. Of course that isn’t true, we have made extraordinary progress. I used to be a history teacher and I have the deepest sense of respect and appreciation for the elders in our community who have fought for decades, under far worse circumstances, so that I can stand here today and say without hesitation that I am absolutely unwilling to wait any longer for immediate, comprehensive, and unequivocal action by the federal government in providing full equality to its LGBT citizens. I want it all — marriage equality, the repeal of DOMA, the end of DADT and all forms of discrimination against LGBT servicemen and women, passage of ENDA, Hate Crimes legislation, and aggressive HIV/AIDs research and treatment funding.

I want it all, and I want it now.

The legacy of Harvey Milk reminds us that we will never simply be given power, we have to take it. We do not need to ask for our equality, we need to demand it — in each and every one of the 435 Congressional district offices in this country, then the White House itself. So I will march in Washington, DC, this October 10-11. I will not be satisfied with crumbs anymore, I deserve more — but more importantly — my children deserve more.

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March with us.

Lt. Dan Choi — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:01:28 +0000

I learned the principles of duty and honor, service and integrity as a cadet at West Point. With a degree in Arabic Language I knew that my skills could play an important role in a mission much greater than myself. As an infantry officer in the US Army, I have served my country in Iraq where we placed the mission before our own personal agendas. We do not run and hide from our responsibilities, from our duty. In the face of danger, we stand up. Together. We lace up our boots and march. Together. We fight. Together.

served with my unit on an extended tour of duty where we taught our Iraqi friends that they should never divide their country based on their identities. We warned the Iraqis against stripping rights away from one minority to appease another minority. We demanded their unity for the sake of their families, for the sake of their country, for the sake of their values. When I returned home from Iraq, I found myself in a love relationship for the first time in my life. I could not accept that my own country would strip my rights to this love, this support, this family. I stood and volunteered to fight for my country, for our freedom to gather, speak, practice faith, and share our love. But the moment I spoke honestly of myself, and of my love, I was fired. I was fired but I do not stop fighting. I am putting my boots on once again to march for everything our country stands for: equality, freedom, love.

The “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy is immoral. It forces our soldiers to lie and hide for fear of getting fired. It infects our families, communities, churches, teams and units with the poison of half-truths, deception, fear and terror. No soldier serving our country in harm’s way deserves this crippling poison. Our country and its values are compromised every day this law stays on our books. Stand against it. March against it. Fight against it. Not for yourselves but for the soldiers who are not free to speak up.

I’m calling on all veterans, all our military members, past and present, all Americans, young and old, black or white, gay or straight: March with us. You answered the call to serve your country before, but the war is not over. Answer the call again and march against the injustice of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Answer the call and march with us against discrimination, against lying, against hiding, against fear, against deception and terror. March with us.

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