Drawing inspiration from last weekend’s Women’s March on Washington, a gay activist in New York City has announced plans for the National Pride March, a “mass” LGBT protest at the nation’s capital on June 11.
David Bruinooge, 42, of Brooklyn, N.Y., announced the plan on Facebook and created an event page for those interested in keeping up with the protest’s progress.
“We urge all supporters, friends, and family to descend on DC for the Pride 2017 weekend (June 8-11th) to make sure our voices are heard,” part of the post reads.
The march will coincide with Capital Pride, D.C.’s annual pride celebration, and organizers hope to draw big numbers to send a clear message to Washington’s powered elite that LGBTQ rights are not to be threatened.
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“I was watching the events [of the Women’s March] unfold on TV and I was very proud and inspired by all the women, the strong women in our country who were kind of taking this to the street and getting their voices heard,” Bruinooge told the Washington Blade. “And in the back of my mind as an openly gay man I thought the gay community should be doing something like this to follow up on the momentum,” he added.
Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance, has been in touch with Bruinooge and is expected to work to bring the march into the fold of official Capital Pride events.
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Bos has already made one smart call, urging Bruinooge to change the name of the event, originally “Gays on the Mall,” to the inclusive “National Pride March.”
“This will be an ALL-inclusive and peaceful event,” reads the announcement on Facebook.
We will be following this story as it develops, and if the fates allow, you’ll know where to find us on June 11.
The last major LGBT protest in D.C. was the National Equality March in 2009, which called for full equality for LGBTQ people in all matters of civil law, in all 50 states. At that time, only five states had legal same-sex marriage. It drew participants in the hundreds of thousands.
JakeGG
I know of the 1993 LGBT march that had like a million people at it. I also recall 2009 National Equality March, less than a year after Prop 8, which had about 200,000 people at it. Wikipedia says:
“Many groups joined by also organizing other events for the weekend, which coincided with National Coming Out Day on October 11 and marked eleven years since the beating and murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, which prompted national attention and action to expand hate crime laws.”
“Outcome Matthew Shepard Act signed into law (October 22);
US President Barack Obama committed to end “Don’t ask, don’t tell”, the US military policy forbidding gays, bisexuals, and lesbians to serve openly”
I wonder what the explicit goals of this LGBT march would be? Would it be support for the Equality Act, ending the gay/bi blood ban, more protections & support for the most vulnerable parts of the LGBT community, getting more LGBT folks to run for office, preventing the Trump administration from rolling back protections or passing new anti-LGBT laws? I’m all for a march if we have some clear goals in mind.
lkeels
Apparently, everyone, including “When We Rise” forgot about the Millenium March on Washington.
brian_sullivan
Make this entire march about the Trump administration. These assholes want to gut the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department. It’s on the confirmed list of agencies to eliminate in 2017 along with the Violence Against Women’s one too.
Shocking when Trump’s choice for Attorney general (Jeff Sessions) couldn’t convince himself to support the Hate Crimes legislation. Why? Because he didn’t believe women & LGBT face discrimination. The same man voted against the Violence against Women’s bill, every piece of positive LGBT legislation, & is the most hostile person against voting rights period.
And make sure it’s an added point- that people vote in 2017 (NJ/VA residents) & vote in 2018 midterms. There is only 1 male republican in congress openly supporting gay marriage in 2017. That’s Charlie Dent- PA. He reps outer Philly burbs & already voted with the Dems on the ACA. He’s a rare breed in our new world.
almiller16
I couldn’t agree more. The Women’s March had a lot of “in-fighting” that was made very public, which was unfortunate, since it was a grass-roots effort, and about as spontaneous as you can get. I agree the whole march should be against the policies of the Trump administration (either in process or planned), and to get people out voting at the midterms. Pence is a homophobe (RFRA in Indiana, believes gay men can be “cured” through aversion therapy, etc.). I’d like to think that a march like this could really cohere around the Trump agenda, leaving plenty of room for marchers to express their own particular concerns while not criticizing organizers for what they did or didn’t do. We need to come together, all of us.
Imyoyo
@pam_tritto hahahahahahahaha thats awesome
MarionPaige
could I get a list of all the gay activists?
skilos
That qestion makes you look/sound like a Trumpette.
Andwyn
Seriously? You’re trolling, right?
https://www.facebook.com/MicMedia/videos/1372690622753724/
Hussain-TheCanadian
The soon to be announced appointment of John Gore to the civil rights wing of the justice department isn’t exactly good news, its a message by the Trump administration on how EXACTLY they view the gay community.
A march is indeed needed.
trish_johnson
Taken right out of the Milo Yiannopoulos Playbook of lies and distortion. Misogynist much asshole?
mordantmonkey
Why don’t you realize that no one is taking anything away from you? my husband is not threatened by feminists, or the LGBTQ community, or people that practice a different religion.
So who is the real sissy? You sir. Perhaps you should be thinking long and hard about why you think the way you do. Your insecurity issues don’t belong to anyone but you. You feeling emasculated sounds like a you problem.
notcisjustmale
My guess is that what ever they call it the “march” will be about everything *but* gay and lesbian. White gay men will get the same snarky treatment that white women got at the Everything but Woman’s March.
dwes09
Right! because your alt-right imagination is SO in tune with reality!
matt_clarence
Based on your username I’m gonna guess that this is a shot at the trans community…and apparently also queer people of color? I’m gonna go ahead and guess you aren’t a part of our community (particularly cause you completely ignored about 1/4 of the acronym..actually never mind. I know lots of LGBTQ folks who do that.)
More to the point. I’m a white cis-gendered gay man, who will be attending. If someone gets snarky with me, I plan to respond by first understanding that this “snarkiness” is likely related to a lifetime of experiences with people like me. So I’ll assume its my responsibility to show them that I am trans-affirming both personally and professionally (I work in a mental health field) and that I have a clear understanding of goals and desires of the people of color in my community as well as the ways in which their experience with both the world at large and being queer are different from my own.
But hey, maybe I’m just crazy trying to be compassionate and understand distinct points of view from multiple parts of my community in the context of unifying march.
Alan down in Florida
Or someone desperate for a date.
Arconcyyon
Our is inspiratuid the sigle the famele girls famele girls pride day pride Trump is Trump my the you ups she madonna end the reality top cine film drag is drag show .
wmca_goodguys
“…a “mass” LGBT protest …” Protesting what exactly? Maybe by June there’ll be something to “protest”, but saying now there is something to protest? Some people might think we’re not to be taken seriously.. I mean, .seriously.
Mick406
SERIOUSLY! You are so right. Why in the hell do they need to go public like that? That’s all we need to show all the American people such ‘wholesomeness’! NOT! Scantily clad people, weird-ass haircuts and tattoos, wearing dildos, carrying nasty worded placards, strutting and yelling obscenities . . . yeah, that will really help your cause. Wait until someone takes away your so-called rights before you start complaining. Trump hasn’t done a damned thing to you and I suspect he never will. You are just like all those warped women from last week. Bitching just to be bitching.
dwes09
Exactly why does a heterosexual alt-right delusional man come here to discharge his pathological anger about lgbt people?
And what concern are the personal fashion choices to someone who is not clearly mentally ill?
There are many reasons to “bitch”, not the least of which is blue nosed-tight-ass people like you who think stupidly that you are the arbiter of what is right for others.
matt_clarence
Clearly you know not a damn thing about us. So try this. Tell all your friends, family, coworkers, landlord, health care professionals etc. that you are gay (you can take it back in a week). Don’t bother to “gay it up” or change literally anything about how you present yourself. Just try seeing what it’s like to be seen as a gay man in all aspects of life for one week. If there is no change to your daily life, then congratulations! You’re totally right. Our experience of being Americans is identical to yours. We’re just being whiners.
However, as someone whose lived as a gay man for my entire life, I really doubt that will be your experience. I also doubt that you’d have the balls to actually try that experiment. In my experience people who respond to other people with “stop being a whiner” generally have very weak egos and little tolerance for social stress.
justatxguy
I just hope the participants represent themselves in a positive manner. Slutty clothes, sexual innuendos, shirtless ken dolls, etc are NOT how most of us want to be represented. We’ve achieved a lot of progress in recent years, people are just starting to notice that gay marriage really hasn’t negatively affected their lives…..so don’t go and remind folks why they thought they hated us in the first place.
dwes09
Then be there to represent who you are, and don’t denigrate who others are. Leave that to the people we are opposing. Straight men go about shirtless all the time these days, in the media especially, straight women and men “dress slutty” all the time as well. Sexual innuendos are all over the mass media and social media. Why exactly are you being so disingenuous..are you even gay? And why should gay people have to beg for acceptance and adop[t a penitential position before hetero’s who are, objectively, no better as humans than we are?
justatxguy
I just hope the participants represent themselves in a positive manner. Slutty clothes, sexual innuendos, shirtless ken dolls, etc are NOT how most of us want to be represented. We’ve achieved a lot of progress in recent years, people are just starting to notice that gay marriage really hasn’t negatively affected their lives so don’t go and remind folks why they thought they hated us in the first place.
batesmotel
Unfortunately, those are the gays that march and protest, so it’s all that the media and the Trump administration see, which is also why there is no respect and there definitely will be no respect for gays after this one.
dwes09
Gay men are very happy about being men, and almost all of them have a good grasp of reality. you should try reality some time, if you are able.
batesmotel
Oh brother! Count me out! Such whining babies unhappy and unable to function or move on because the President you didn’t want is in the White House. It’s one thing if Donald Trump took away Marriage Equality, then there is a reason to march/protest, but he hasn’t done anything that has taken away any kind of gay rights. All this does is make the gays as a whole look bad, and look like whiny spoiled brats hurt that Donald Trump is the President of the United States. I didn’t like Bush, but I didn’t let it ruin my life. Speaking of life, anyone into these ridiculous pointless protests that do absolutely nothing in the way of positive change should try getting a life.
matt_clarence
Hey.
1. Trump went to speak at a conference run by people who want to criminalize sodomy. http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/09/donald-trump-hang-homophobes-support-laws-gays/
2. More importantly Trump also has pledged to sign this super fun bill.
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/09/donald-trump-pledges-sign-anti-lgbtq-first-amendment-defense-act/
You don’t seem very caught up on actual policy so let me break that second one down for you. There are a couple ways in which the Government uses laws to attempt to prevent discrimination. One is ways in which discrimination is prevented is with anti-discrimination laws which prevent organizations proven to discriminate against certain groups from having access to federal money in their work. This includes grants, benefits programs, loans and even tax deductions. Another major way is through legal proceedings (i.e. suing someone for discrimination). The second option has a number of barriers to it. Obviously not everyone can afford a Lawyer and in order for a suit to go through there have to be existing laws that define the action as discrimination.
This law however prevents the government from with holding any federal money from a person who chooses not to serve someone as long as the reason for not serving that person is either the belief that “Marriage should exist between one man and one woman” or that “sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage”. It also allows this belief to be used as a legitimate legal defense if judicial hearings (i.e. the courts).
What this means for you, is that if a doctor doesn’t want to treat you, your land lord doesn’t want to rent to you, your job doesn’t want to employ you or a business doesn’t want to serve you they can do that. Once this bill is signed if any of these people do this and say it is because you either got married or had sex, then you have no legal recourse.
So….do you want to be single and celibate for the next four years, or can we count you in?
Daniel-Reader
There should be a giant LGBT and Allied youth conference. For guests, invite all the kids and grandkids of politicians around the country (especially if the politicians have failed to uphold the human rights of other Americans) to attend to talk about the importance of human rights for everyone. It seems like the kids and grandkids of politicians are being left out of the discussion of very important topics for everyone. That should be corrected by always including their families of politicians in discussions about human rights, equality, and justice for all.
Kris
I’m there with bells on !!!
edensasp
June 11??? Why wait so long??? Just gives the trump administration ample time to further develop policies that would prohibit and penalize participants of this, or any other future event.
perleyj_thibodeau
I hope they try to wear some clothes to look respectable. If not, then it’s a lost cause.
Bare assed marchers won’t get any favorable reactions from Republican politicians, or their followers!
Hogie
I assume this is no longer a thing.