Opn: March on Washgton paved way for gay rights too | CNN

gay rights march on washington 2013

From the Whe Hoe and the Supreme Court on down, gay rights advot have won a strg of victori this year. Many Amerins rema opposed to same-sex marriage, but support for gays and gay marriage has been risg — particularly among young people.

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MARCH ON WASHGTON PAVED WAY FOR GAY RIGHTS TOO

The strategist behd the 1963 march will posthumoly receive the Printial Medal of Freedom this year. As a gay man, his posn the movement was qutned. But now he is nsired "an amazg role mol" for activists of lor who are also gay, lbian, bisexual or transgenr. * gay rights march on washington 2013 *

Gay pneer Jack Nichols stated, “We had marched wh Mart Luther Kg, seven of om the Mattache Society of Washgton 1963, and om that time on, we’d always had our dream about a (gay) march of siar proportns.

From 1979 to 1993, a seri of natnal march on Washgton for lbian and gay rights drew, at first, tens of thoands and later hundreds of thoands of people – culmatg the April 1993 March on Washgton for Lbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberatn that attracted an timated 1 ln monstrators.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CIVIL RIGHTS THE UNED STAT: NATNAL MARCH ON WASHGTON FOR LBIAN AND GAY RIGHTS

Organizers are turng the 50th anniversary celebratn of the March on Washgton to far more than a history lson — vowg to e the memoratn to ph for votg rights, immigratn reform and gay rights, and unrsrg jt how much the civil rights movement has transformed. * gay rights march on washington 2013 *

We rolled our ey at the few anizg mtee members gog on and on about electronic bullet boards and somethg ll Ameri, sudnly, a guy om Arkansas named Bill Clton began to surge the polls, and he ed the word "gay, " and he said he'd get rid of the ary ban, and a bunch of other thgs that spired hope. Here are the primary mands, followed by the full platform:"We mand passage of a lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr civil rights bill and an end to discrimatn by state and feral ernments cludg the ary; repeal of all sodomy laws and other laws that crimalize private sexual exprsn between nsentg adults.

""We mand legislatn to prevent discrimatn agast lbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenr people the areas of fay diversy, ctody, adoptn and foster re and that the fn of fay clus the full diversy of all fay stctur. "Full Platform of the 1993 March on Washgton for Lbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and LiberatnActn Statement Preamble to the PlatformThe Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr movement regniz that our qut for social jtice fundamentally lks to the stggl agast racism and sexism, class bias, enomic jtice and relig tolerance. We mand passage of a Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr civil rights bill and an end to discrimatn by state and feral ernments cludg the ary; repeal of all sodomy laws and other laws that crimalize private sexual exprsn between nsentg adults.

We mand legislatn to prevent discrimatn agast Lbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenred people the areas of fay diversy, ctody, adoptn and foster re and that the fn of fay clus the full diversy of all fay regnn and legal protectn of the whole range of fay end to abe and exploatn of and discrimatn agast end to abe and exploatn of and discrimatn agast olr/old implementatn of the remendatns ntaed the report of the Health and Human Servic Task Force on Youth Suici. Organizers are turng the 50th anniversary celebratn of the March on Washgton to far more than a history lson — vowg to e the memoratn to ph for votg rights, immigratn reform and gay rights, and unrsrg jt how much the civil rights movement has transformed.

ADVOT FOR GAY, IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MARCH FOOTSTEPS OF BLACKS

* gay rights march on washington 2013 *

Groups such as the NAACP have embraced the multifaceted msage ahead of ftivi, argug that solidary is required to prevent sid discrimatn and that cultural shifts have given a platform to women’s rights issu and equal treatment for gays. The Senate iated bate on the natn’s “broken” immigratn system by passg a bill June that offers undocumented people a path to cizenship, more stat are approvg gay-marriage laws and the Supreme Court recently stck down a 1996 law that prevented legally married same-sex upl om obtag feral benefs tied to marriage.

Obama has been the "gays' LBJ, " says Jonathan Rch, a rint scholar at the Brookgs Instutn, parg the current print to Lyndon Johnson, who signed to law the Civil Rights and Votg Rights Acts of the 1960s.

HOW 2013 BEME THE GREATT YEAR IN GAY RIGHTS HISTORY

The gay rights movement the Uned Stat began the 1920s and saw huge progrs the 2000s, wh laws prohibg homosexual activy stck down and a Supreme Court lg legalizg same-sex marriage. * gay rights march on washington 2013 *

This year's Supreme Court cisns on gay marriage might well have turned out differently if the ernment still had an active tert argug for discrimatn, says Aaron Belk, director of the Palm Center at San Francis State Universy, which studi transgenr ary service.

MARCH ON WASHGTON LBIAN/GAY RIGHTS

"Our journey is not plete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else unr the law, " he said, "for if we are tly created equal, then surely the love we m to one another mt be equal as well. A five-pot platform for the march lled for passage by Congrs of a “prehensive” lbian and gay civil rights bill; a printial executive orr banng discrimatn based on sexual orientatn the feral workforce, the ary, ferally ntracted private employers; repeal of all anti-gay/lbian laws; an end to discrimatn child ctody disput for gay and lbian parents; and protectns for gay and lbian youth agast discrimatn at home or schools.

Items add to the platform beyond those clud for the 1979 march clud a ll for legal regnn of lbian and gay relatnships; repeal of sodomy laws applyg to nsentg adults; an end to discrimatn agast people wh HIV/AIDS; reproductive eedom for women; and an end to racism the U.

GAY RIGHTS

While march anizers were generally optimistic over a Clton Whe Hoe, some exprsed ncern that the new print appeared to be backg down om his promise to lift the ban on gays the ary followg opposn to the proposal by many Congrs.

GAY AND LBIAN MARCH ON WASHGTON

Another vol msage livered at the march was strong opposn to Colorado’s Amendment 2, a ballot measure passed by voters that banned ci and unti the state om adoptg anti-discrimatn laws protectg gays and lbians. In a break om the first three ‘gay’ Washgton march, which were iated by dividual activists, the Millennium March was iated by the Human Rights Campaign, the natn’s largt LGBT civil rights group, and the Rev. Rather than seek put om grassroots activists and lol LGBT groups, HRC and Perry formed a march mtee on their own and hired lbian edian and events producer Rob Tyler, who had been llg for another gay march, as the march’s executive producer.

CHILEAN LAWMAKERS REJECT PLAT AGAST GAY TN MISTER

In a prs release announcg the march, the mtee boasted that rporate sponsors were beg led up to help fance the march and a long list of celebri, most of whom were gay or lbian, would be performg at a ncert durg the weekend of the planned march. Longtime gay rights advote David Mixner is creded wh iatg the march an effort to build on the groundswell of LGBT activism on social media generated by the approval by California voters of Proposn 8, a ballot measure that overturned the state’s same-sex marriage law.

THREE MEN ARRTED DURG GAY SNA RAID VENEZUELA RELEASED OM JAIL

San Francis gay rights lear Cleve Jon, founr of the Nam Project that created the AIDS Memorial Quilt, beme volved as one of the lead anizers along wh lbian activist Rob McGehee and gay activist Kip Williams. From 1981 to 1985, I had been a mostly straight stunt at Wleyan Universy Connecticut, where I had participated abortn rights, anti-apartheid, antiracist, antiwar, femist, gay/lbian, and stunt activism.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY RIGHTS MARCH ON WASHINGTON 2013

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