By 365gay Newswire
09.30.2009 4:19pm EDT
Bond likens the
National Equality March to the Civil Rights March of 1963. “We had
a dream and marched on Washington to demand our rights; I am proud to stand
with the LGBT community as they march for theirs,” he said. The march will be the
first step toward a larger goal of creating a national movement – the 50 State
Legislative Outreach Campaign — in all 435 congressional districts to demand of
elected representatives full equality under the law. “The march is just the
beginning,” said McGehee. “We are not expecting to wake up on Monday morning
with a federal bill on the presidents desk to sign.”
More than 30 speakers, representing the diversity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender community and its straight allies, will take the stage at a
rally following the march on the west lawn of the Capitol.
“We are coming to Washington with new messages and new strategies to build our
national movement,” said Mixner. “We will have one demand in Washington: full
and equal and equal protection for LGBT people in all matters governed by civil
law in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.”
Joining Mixner on the stage will be the national co-chairs of the march, Cleve
Jones, Lt. Dan Choi, and Nicole-Murray Ramirez. Co-directors of the
march, Kip Williams and Robin McGehee, also will be speaking.
Civil rights leader Julian Bond, will be one of the featured
speakers. Bond was a founder Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee and today serves as Board Chairman of the NAACP, the country’s oldest
and largest civil rights organization.
St. Olaf college student Richard Aviles will be speaking on behalf of student
activists from across the country, who have organized for the march and are
descending on Washington.
Also speaking will be Judy Shepard, who lost her son Matthew to a murder
motivated by anti-gay hate and who founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation in
his memory. The Foundation is dedicated to working toward the causes championed
by Matthew during his life: social justice, diversity awareness and education,
and equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Following is a complete listing of speakers to date.
Stuart Applebaum
Richard Aviles
Jarret Barrios
Dustin Lance Black
Julian Bond
Marsha Botzer
Staceyann Chin
Lt. Dan Choi
Tanner Efinger
Hawaii Board of Education Member Kim Coco Iwamoto
Cleve Jones
Michelle Lopez
Robin McGehee
David Mixner
Nicole-Murray Ramirez
Chloe Noble
Tobias Packer
Reverend Troy Perry
New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn
Los Angeles Council Member Bill Rosendahl
Babs Siperstein
Judy Shepard
Maxim Thorn
Urvashi Vaid
Derek Washington
Falls Church City Council Member Lawrence Webb
Kit Yan
Kip Williams
Sherry Wolf
“We will no longer be told to wait. This march is our chance to demand full
equal protection under the law, and it will help us realize the dream of
Equality Across America: a committed group of grassroots activists in all 435
Congressional Districts,” added Williams.