National Equality March
Voicepost excerpt from Lt Dan Choi's speech
There was a group of 25 Wellesley students taking the bus Saturday night from Boston to DC, some with Wellesley for Equality and some not. We bonded over dinner at Prudential Center's CPK, which was fairly decent pizza, and then walked over to Boston Public Library where a big group of college and high school students as well as adults were gathered. It was a cold Boston night, but the energy level was high and we were already getting pumped up with a couple of warm up chants (Gay, straight, black, white, same struggle, same fight; What do we want? Equality! When do we want it? Now!). It felt very hippy, complete with guitar playing and cars honking at us, like something out of the 1960s civil rights movement, only now and today, the civil rights movement 2.0 with today's youth. It felt powerful.
Wellesley was on the Rosie the Riveter bus. The 10 hour bus ride down was terrible. I could not sleep at all due to the constant movement and 2 rest stops, ended up getting maybe 3 hours of sleep in 30 min incruments. We arrived at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Silver Springs, Maryland at 6am and almost immediately hit the ground running with sign making. We made a huge WELLESLEY sign with white block letters on blue posterboard spanning at least 9ft wide (and foldable as well) that we planned to carry as a group while individuals made signs for ourselves. Mine had the words "All you need is love".
The waiting to get marching was terrible, especially on so little sleep, but finally we set off at 8:30am marching and chanting from Silver Springs hotel to the metro station with the rest of the Bostson students. Though this was not my first LGBT event, it was my first march and many thoughts and feelings were running through. What if we ran into resistence? What if we got arrested? How much do I have to lose for this? With everyone comparing it to the 1960s civil rights movement, I couldn't help but also remember the violence that came along with those peaceful non-resistence marches. But at the same time, I felt the bravery and companionship of my Wellesley sisters and the strength of all of us banding together for the larger cause. It kept me going.
We did hit a man waving a Bible while we were getting metro tickets. I could not hear what he said because all of a sudden everyone was yelling, "Bigot, go home" and "Homophobia's got to go". The Wellesley group felt that the response was handed inappropriately given that yelling matches don't actually accomplish much. One of our group waited until the yelling stopped and then went up to the man to start talking to him, trying to figure out his opinion. I admired her patience and conflict mediation skills.
The Metro was crowded as more and more people got on for the march. We marched and chanted all the way from the Metro Center station to the Ellipse, a patch of lawn near the White House, where the student contingent was meeting. The National Equality March was organized largely by students and grassroots efforts, so it would be the students that were leading the front of the march and we wanted to be as close to the front as possible. It was incredibly exciting to see so many young people gathering. Just reading the signs themselves was inspiring - "This is not a white flag", "We volunteer and vote, just like you", "Let's vote on your rights", "An unjust law is itself an act of violence".
After some circles and a lot of waiting, the student contingent moved from the Ellipse to McPherson Square where the other marchers were meeting. There were so many people there, so many rainbow flags, so many different T-shirt slogans for the same cause. We arrived at 10:30am and the march was not to start until noon, but I was already starting to feel tired having walked the entire morning. Lunch was skipped because there was absolutely no way to get in and out of the crowd, I essentially survived the better part of the day on a box of chocolate graham snacks and two apples. Even finding a bathroom was a challenge. We kept losing people in the crowd, so we used the huge W sign as our calling for the Wellesley students in the crowd, including the ones who had driven down to DC themselves.
Finally, finally after what felt like hours, the march started and chants were heard everywhere. The youth carried much of the energy and spirit with them to parts of the march that were more silent. On the way to the Capitol Building, we saw a rainbow in the sky. It was magic almost. The Wellesley group stuck together for the entire 2 hour march. We unfolded the WELLESLEY sign and carried it for the majority of the way, attracting much attention from the other marchers. It gave a great sense of unity for the event that I would have missed otherwise if I had gone on my own and for that I am grateful. No words can really describe the energy, the passion and the power from a group of 300,000+ people marching together in one place for one cause.
The march ended in front of the Capitol Building. The Wellesley group managed to get a spot on the lawn about 50 ft away from the stage where musicians were performing before the 2pm rally. The speakers at the rally were amazing. I particularly liked the first speech by the reverends, who called on the spirits of past civil rights leaders, gay rights activists, and those who were killed in the struggles from violence or AIDS. Lt Dan Choi spoke about freedom and love, love being worth the struggle. Other speakers spoke about equality not just being about marriage, but about respect and the ability to be who you are without fear. Some praised the youth for the commitment to the cause and being the forefront of this generation's civil rights movement. I felt inspired being a part of something real and larger than myself. If there is any time to do something like this, there is no better time than now, especially when we are in college, young enough to dream and idealize, old enough to go out and do it.
Quotes from speakers:
"Look me in the eye and tell me I am less of a person than you are. Look me in the eye and tell me my family is worth less than yours. Look me in the eye and tell me I am not an American. Well you know what, not one person in any of those places can do that, not one of them." - Christine Quinn, the first openly lesbian speaker of the New York City Council
"Obama, I know you are listening. Are you listening? We will continue to push you and your administration to bring your words of promise to a reality" - Lady Gaga
"We are gathered here today from all over the U.S., and back home many of us are deeply embroiled in the particular local battles that we are fighting, but today is a national rally and when we walk away from here tonight, we need to walk away with a common national resolve." - Cynthia Nixon
"Love is worth it" - Lt Dan Choi
"I'm here today because I lost my son to hate. ... No one has the rightto tell my son whether or not he can work anywhere. Whether or not hecan live wherever he wants to live and whether or not he can be withthe one person he loves -- no one has that right. We are all Americans. We are all equal Americans, gay,straight or whatever." - Judy Shepard, mother to Mattew Shepard (killed 1998)
---------
I split after Lady Gaga spoke and went on the Metro to see Kim at Foggy Bottom/GWU. She only had an hour to spare because of all the deadlines and exams she had (completely nuts she is to try and graduate with two degrees in five years, especially one of them being engineering), but it was refreshing to get together and just talk. There was so much I wanted to say to make up for two years of not seeing each other, email and letters just don't cut it sometimes, but alas. What we did get to say was good and I'm glad to have gotten that hour anyway. We shared a mooncake and it was wonderful.
I met up with the Wellesley group back at the hotel and we all crashed for an hour before the bus left. We felt so tired after the march and rally. I was smart the second time for the 10 hour bus ride and took a motion sickness pill which made me drowsy enough to fall asleep on the bus. And I slept the entire bus ride back. We arrived in Boston at 5:30am and everyone was dead, but we had done it.
----
http://www.afterellen.com/blog/trishbendix/adventures-of-nat-and-meg-video-blog-47
I've been hoping to see theWellesley banner in a picture/video of the march, and finally found it!
If you forward this video to 8:20, you'll see us :-)
There was a group of 25 Wellesley students taking the bus Saturday night from Boston to DC, some with Wellesley for Equality and some not. We bonded over dinner at Prudential Center's CPK, which was fairly decent pizza, and then walked over to Boston Public Library where a big group of college and high school students as well as adults were gathered. It was a cold Boston night, but the energy level was high and we were already getting pumped up with a couple of warm up chants (Gay, straight, black, white, same struggle, same fight; What do we want? Equality! When do we want it? Now!). It felt very hippy, complete with guitar playing and cars honking at us, like something out of the 1960s civil rights movement, only now and today, the civil rights movement 2.0 with today's youth. It felt powerful.
Wellesley was on the Rosie the Riveter bus. The 10 hour bus ride down was terrible. I could not sleep at all due to the constant movement and 2 rest stops, ended up getting maybe 3 hours of sleep in 30 min incruments. We arrived at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Silver Springs, Maryland at 6am and almost immediately hit the ground running with sign making. We made a huge WELLESLEY sign with white block letters on blue posterboard spanning at least 9ft wide (and foldable as well) that we planned to carry as a group while individuals made signs for ourselves. Mine had the words "All you need is love".
The waiting to get marching was terrible, especially on so little sleep, but finally we set off at 8:30am marching and chanting from Silver Springs hotel to the metro station with the rest of the Bostson students. Though this was not my first LGBT event, it was my first march and many thoughts and feelings were running through. What if we ran into resistence? What if we got arrested? How much do I have to lose for this? With everyone comparing it to the 1960s civil rights movement, I couldn't help but also remember the violence that came along with those peaceful non-resistence marches. But at the same time, I felt the bravery and companionship of my Wellesley sisters and the strength of all of us banding together for the larger cause. It kept me going.
We did hit a man waving a Bible while we were getting metro tickets. I could not hear what he said because all of a sudden everyone was yelling, "Bigot, go home" and "Homophobia's got to go". The Wellesley group felt that the response was handed inappropriately given that yelling matches don't actually accomplish much. One of our group waited until the yelling stopped and then went up to the man to start talking to him, trying to figure out his opinion. I admired her patience and conflict mediation skills.
The Metro was crowded as more and more people got on for the march. We marched and chanted all the way from the Metro Center station to the Ellipse, a patch of lawn near the White House, where the student contingent was meeting. The National Equality March was organized largely by students and grassroots efforts, so it would be the students that were leading the front of the march and we wanted to be as close to the front as possible. It was incredibly exciting to see so many young people gathering. Just reading the signs themselves was inspiring - "This is not a white flag", "We volunteer and vote, just like you", "Let's vote on your rights", "An unjust law is itself an act of violence".
After some circles and a lot of waiting, the student contingent moved from the Ellipse to McPherson Square where the other marchers were meeting. There were so many people there, so many rainbow flags, so many different T-shirt slogans for the same cause. We arrived at 10:30am and the march was not to start until noon, but I was already starting to feel tired having walked the entire morning. Lunch was skipped because there was absolutely no way to get in and out of the crowd, I essentially survived the better part of the day on a box of chocolate graham snacks and two apples. Even finding a bathroom was a challenge. We kept losing people in the crowd, so we used the huge W sign as our calling for the Wellesley students in the crowd, including the ones who had driven down to DC themselves.
Finally, finally after what felt like hours, the march started and chants were heard everywhere. The youth carried much of the energy and spirit with them to parts of the march that were more silent. On the way to the Capitol Building, we saw a rainbow in the sky. It was magic almost. The Wellesley group stuck together for the entire 2 hour march. We unfolded the WELLESLEY sign and carried it for the majority of the way, attracting much attention from the other marchers. It gave a great sense of unity for the event that I would have missed otherwise if I had gone on my own and for that I am grateful. No words can really describe the energy, the passion and the power from a group of 300,000+ people marching together in one place for one cause.
The march ended in front of the Capitol Building. The Wellesley group managed to get a spot on the lawn about 50 ft away from the stage where musicians were performing before the 2pm rally. The speakers at the rally were amazing. I particularly liked the first speech by the reverends, who called on the spirits of past civil rights leaders, gay rights activists, and those who were killed in the struggles from violence or AIDS. Lt Dan Choi spoke about freedom and love, love being worth the struggle. Other speakers spoke about equality not just being about marriage, but about respect and the ability to be who you are without fear. Some praised the youth for the commitment to the cause and being the forefront of this generation's civil rights movement. I felt inspired being a part of something real and larger than myself. If there is any time to do something like this, there is no better time than now, especially when we are in college, young enough to dream and idealize, old enough to go out and do it.
Quotes from speakers:
"Look me in the eye and tell me I am less of a person than you are. Look me in the eye and tell me my family is worth less than yours. Look me in the eye and tell me I am not an American. Well you know what, not one person in any of those places can do that, not one of them." - Christine Quinn, the first openly lesbian speaker of the New York City Council
"Obama, I know you are listening. Are you listening? We will continue to push you and your administration to bring your words of promise to a reality" - Lady Gaga
"We are gathered here today from all over the U.S., and back home many of us are deeply embroiled in the particular local battles that we are fighting, but today is a national rally and when we walk away from here tonight, we need to walk away with a common national resolve." - Cynthia Nixon
"Love is worth it" - Lt Dan Choi
"I'm here today because I lost my son to hate. ... No one has the rightto tell my son whether or not he can work anywhere. Whether or not hecan live wherever he wants to live and whether or not he can be withthe one person he loves -- no one has that right. We are all Americans. We are all equal Americans, gay,straight or whatever." - Judy Shepard, mother to Mattew Shepard (killed 1998)
---------
I split after Lady Gaga spoke and went on the Metro to see Kim at Foggy Bottom/GWU. She only had an hour to spare because of all the deadlines and exams she had (completely nuts she is to try and graduate with two degrees in five years, especially one of them being engineering), but it was refreshing to get together and just talk. There was so much I wanted to say to make up for two years of not seeing each other, email and letters just don't cut it sometimes, but alas. What we did get to say was good and I'm glad to have gotten that hour anyway. We shared a mooncake and it was wonderful.
I met up with the Wellesley group back at the hotel and we all crashed for an hour before the bus left. We felt so tired after the march and rally. I was smart the second time for the 10 hour bus ride and took a motion sickness pill which made me drowsy enough to fall asleep on the bus. And I slept the entire bus ride back. We arrived in Boston at 5:30am and everyone was dead, but we had done it.
----
http://www.afterellen.com/blog/trishbendix/adventures-of-nat-and-meg-video-blog-47
I've been hoping to see theWellesley banner in a picture/video of the march, and finally found it!
If you forward this video to 8:20, you'll see us :-)