Activists protest to push the Obama Administration and Congress to live up to promises made to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to advance civil rights in Washington on Oct. 11, 2009
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The march itself was a predictable farrago of left-wing rhetoric and respectful criticism of Barack Obama. The President had pledged to end the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military--"But when?" Jones thundered from the podium. Lady Gaga drew the biggest cheers of the day when she said, "Obama, I know you're listening." After a beat, she screamed at the top of her lungs, "Are you listening?" The producers of the Broadway musical Hair shuttered their New York production for the weekend so that the cast could sing toward the end of the march, leading tens of thousands of people in a sweet, rousing chorus of "Let the Sunshine In."
At that moment, I remembered something Ting told me: he hadn't known that in 1993, march coordinator Mixner--a gay activist and friend of Bill Clinton's--was arrested outside the White House while protesting "Don't ask, don't tell." "A lot of us were 9 or 10 years old in 1993," he said. I wondered, in the gloaming, if today's 9- and 10-year-old gays and lesbians would remember this march--and what kind of work Ting and his friends have ahead of them to see that they do.
Global Dispatch
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