Contrary to the fears of critics who cast the National Equality March as competing with state and local efforts, the diverse group of LGBT Atlantans who made the trek to Washington, D.C., said they return home more committed than ever to advancing rights here.
“The message I took home was that of the need to push pressure on our congressmen and congresswomen and remind them that we are not just a vote in the fall election — we are people with life stories that mirror theirs and all we are asking for is the right to be treated as an equal,†said Patch Foster, 48.
Foster, who attended with his husband and other local members of the Human Rights Campaign, isn’t sure what form his activism will take — just that he is determined to make it happen.
“I have not given thought yet as to how to continue the good feelings I felt walking down Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House and on to the Capitol, but it did make me realize how important it is to continue to show my friends, family, co-workers and neighbors that my life with my husband is just as important, just as productive and just as ‘normal’ as theirs,†he said.
Other Atlantans have more specific plans for how to channel their energy from the national march. Georgia State University students Jesús Pulido and Lauren Masters organized a caravan of seven mini-vans that brought 50 Georgians to the march. Most were Georgia State students, but the caravan was open to anyone, and participants came from Macon, Gainesville and Lawrenceville, as well as Atlanta.
Pulido, 19, said he plans to push for LGBT rights in Georgia’s public colleges and universities.
“Organizing a group of Georgia students to attend the [march] has definitely motivated me to continue to stay active here in Atlanta,†he said. “Some of the people that I attended the march with have shown interest in pressuring the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to acknowledge its LGBT employees. We would like the USG to extend to same-sex couples the same rights and privileges that it gives to its heterosexual couples — sharing health insurance, for example.â€
At age 24, Jeff Schade is already becoming a familiar face in Atlanta activism, helping organize rallies in the last year to protest the passage of California’s Prop. 8 and the police raid on the Atlanta Eagle, among other issues.
“I’ve been so involved in local activism the message I’m bringing home is just to keep on fighting,†he said. “To me, marches like this don’t have an immediate effect. It isn’t as if President Obama was going to come out and suddenly declare DOMA and DADT to end, but rather I think that it brings the message of unity back to the local fight.â€
Diverse participants
Like Pulido, some Atlantans who attended Sunday’s event were in middle school the last time LGBT people marched en masse in the nation’s capital.
But while the march was widely perceived as fueled by young people using social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, it also made a major impression on older attendees — both those attending their first march on Washington, and those who are veterans of the last two gay rights marches, held in 1993 and 2000.
Ebonee Bradford, 43, is already very involved in gay rights activism, including serving as co-chair of Atlanta’s HRC Dinner this year. In addition to the National Equality March, her trip to Washington included training for her new role on the HRC Board of Governors and attending HRC’s National Dinner.
But asked why she attend Sunday’s march, her first national gay rights march, Bradford cited experiences much more personal than these official roles.
“Number one is that I lost custody of my children due to the fact that I am same gender-loving and my kids were completely out of my life for 15 years,†she said.“I struggled as a mother for the love of my kids to deal with this.â€
Jim Taflinger and Durwood Pepper were also motivated to attend by personal experiences.
The two, who have been together eight years, wed Oct. 3, 2008, in San Francisco. They flew to New York a few days before the march and took a train down to D.C. where they carried a sign that said “Honor our Marriage,†which included a photocopy of their marriage license.
“The march is about our rights and about equality, and if we’re not here, we can’t bitch,†Taflinger said.
