Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The National Equality March in Washington DC is just five weeks away and only in the last few days have some details trickled out. From an announcement posted to Facebook on Friday:
The Equality March for Unity and Pride named a diverse group of leaders with years of advocacy and community mobilization in LGBTQ+ liberation movements across the country and the world as 12 of its national co-chairs. The co-chairs will be responsible for guiding the ongoing development of the march, which will take place on June 11 in Washington, DC.
“This is the most diverse national executive committee of any of the past five LGBTQ+ marches in Washington” said San Diego City Commissioner and National Co-Chair Nicole Murray Ramirez, who has served on the national organizing committees of all five past Marches in Washington.
“From queer youth, Two-Spirit members, Transgender, Black Lives Matter activists, Undocumented, Immigrant, to HRC, AmFar, and various organizations. The Equality March and the rally stage will indeed truly represent the changing faces of the U.S. and of our LGBTQ+ movement.”
Inspired by the queer liberation movement’s history of diverse, inclusive, and politically resonant public demonstrations, the Equality March for Unity and Pride will elevate and mobilize LGBTQ+ communities by highlighting those who, historically, have been actively silenced and neglected in the fight for full liberation, so that we may find unity and strength through diversity.
The march is centered on the principle that in order to heal from the decades of neglect and erasure of marginalized people in the community, we must center transgender and gender expansive communities, and people of color. The co-chairs demand the inclusion of those left behind by social justice movements, including Black, Latinx, Bisexual, and differently-abled individuals.
The co-chairs firmly believe that the community finds strength in diversity, and that the current political and social movement demands not just solidarity, but work towards intentional equity, representation, and protection of the most vulnerable. Equality March planners are working in coordination with the National Parks Service. Further details on the logistics of the march will be released in the coming weeks.
About the event logo seen above, they write: “The theme of it is ‘intersectionality.’ The eight colors in ‘equality’ are the original 8 colors of the rainbow flag in honor of its creator, the late Gilbert Baker.”
I’ll be there with a group of close friends including our own Father Tony. When we get more logistical details, we can figure out a meeting place for JMG readers who want to join us. If you won’t be in DC, sister marches are reportedly being planned in about 25 cities, but details, again, seem scant at this writing.