Word: march
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...told him they could make things right by getting gay people to demand - Harvey Milk-style - precisely what they wanted, without compromise: equal rights in all matters covered by every public law, state or federal. That sentiment, born of regret and anger, eventually became the motto of Sunday's march, one featured on almost every mailing sent by its organizers: "Equal protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states...
Meanwhile, mid-career gay activists who run the day-to-day gay movement from the East Coast - men and women in their late 30s to early 50s who slogged away at gay causes during the Bush interregnum - were rather dumbstruck at the idea that young gays wanted to march on Washington. "Pointless," one seasoned gay activist told me. "If Cleve and David Mixner have really inspired so many kids to work on our behalf - finally, by the way, because I think these kids spent the early part of this decade playing Nintendo or something - why don't they tell them...
...that city's politics. Milk was famous for convening human billboards - long stretches of young gay guys holding signs along busy streets. Coming together in Washington, Jones thought, might spark the same kind of fellowship. Young friends convinced him that Facebook could shorten the organizing time for a national march dramatically. The site played another role: young gays who had connected on Facebook even as uncertain high school students now wanted to meet face-to-face. The march would provide a way to do that - and see Lady Gaga at the same time...
...march itself was predictable. It was a farrago of left-wing rhetoric (anticorporate, proimmigrant, etc.) and respectfully anti-Obama rhetoric. "Easter egg rolls on the White House lawn are nice, but enactment of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act are more important," thundered New York City union official Stuart Appelbaum, who was referring to Obama's invitation earlier this year to at least one lesbian couple to bring their kids to the White House's Easter event...
...Will the march have a lasting effect? The previous gay march on Washington, in 2000, ended in fiasco when money was stolen from march organizers and little follow-up occurred after the attendees left Washington. The organizers this year were determined to avoid those problems. The march was staged for just over $200,000 - about a quarter of the cost of the 2000 event - and Jones and other principals repeatedly gave out a number that they wanted marchers to text, which would automatically sign them up on a mailing list the organizers hope will be useful in all congressional districts...