I went first to the Lesbian/Gay/Bi-sexual/Transgender (LGBT) contingent meeting, which I was disappointed to discover was composed overwhelmingly by white people. It’s great that white LGBT people turned out for the march and chose to stand with the contingent, but it would have been nice if the black LGBT community had also been present in larger numbers. The contingent marched to the location of the Bayard Rustin Commemorative Rally, which was held in one of the teach-in tents beside the reflecting pool. The rally focused on the legacy of Bayard Rustin, a gay man who was a key leader in the civil rights movement and main organizer of the 1963 event. At times, Rustin was hindered from playing a key public role in the movement, but by his persistence and the support for his excellent leadership skills, he eventually overcame some of this prejudice. Today, the message of the rally targeted the need to build an inclusive movement for social justice.

“‘The truth that one truly believes is in his action,’” quoted Clarence Folker of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition, using Rustin’s words to urge the audience members to reflect on their beliefs and to take action.

I excerpt here a part of the speech by Maura Keisling of the National Center on Transgender Equality because of how it touched me and because of the extraordinary level of violence against transgender people in DC in the past week.

“My parents told me there were angels, angels who were taken from us and angels who must stay and fight, fight for dignity, fight for equal rights, and fight for our lives. Today we are humbled by the angels among us and by those we can no longer see. Martin Luther King Jr. stood here, Bayard Rustin stood here, this is where they taught us from. Now today for the first time transgender people have been asked to speak and to teach. Today I want to speak with clear voice, with voice that is clear and strong for transgender people who cannot be here today, because they have left us or because they are not safe here. Being out, simply being transgender can cost us our jobs, our families, our very lives.

“Today I want to speak about truth, and about the angels among us, and the angels we have lost, and about how we can make it better. I want to speak about we need to help all of our oppressed brothers and sisters, about how we need each other’s help so desperately. I want to tell America that not only are transgender people not a threat to you, but we are you. We are from the same towns, the same schools, the same synagogues and mosques and churches, and the same families. We are you. I want to say that transgender people are extraordinary people, who more than others must examine who we are, who we need to be, and what we need to do, knowing that we may lose everything just to be who we are.

“[Mahatma Gandhi said] ‘First they ignore us, then they laugh at us, then they fight us, and then we win.’ We know that our victory will be hard, but we know to that it is certain. On this ground we can feel the presence of those who we lost long ago, of Bayard Rustin and others, and we can feel the presence of those we lost recently, of all the beautiful transgender women who have been murdered in Washington DC this past year: Ukea Davis, Stephanie Thomas, Mimi Young, Bella Evangalista, Immani Spalding, and of Kunana Walker, who as we speak lays in a hospital room just miles from here recovering from a viscious attack, hanging onto life as transgender people too often must…. My parents told me there were angels.”



Many speakers at the main rally echoed the same themes of inclusion at the rally and the responsibility of rally attendees to become more active in the struggle for justice in the aftermath of the march.

“The Southern Christian Leadership Conference didn’t organize the 1963 march,” stated Martin Luther King III. “Organized labor did that because working people were in trouble. Today, 40 years later, those same people are in trouble…. We’re here to create a revolution at the ballot box…true electoral reform must begin by increasing voter turnout.”

Damu Smith of Black Voices for Peace garnered large amounts of applause for with a strong anti-Bush message, saying “It’s my opinion that we are now in one of the most dangerous periods of history and it is because we have in office one of the most dangerous presidents in American history.” Smith also issued a call for unity in the struggle against the right wing, saying “We cannot segregate out [peace, civil rights, gay rights, and women’s rights] because the people who oppose us are united in their issues so we have to be united in our issues.”

Coretta Scott King reminded the audience that most of Dr. King’s famous 1963 speech was not about interracial brotherhood but about justice. Dr. King spoke about justice using the metaphor of a bounced check.

“We are here today to cash the check for justice and to bring that check to the struggle for world peace,” said Coretta Scott King, including an anti-war message in her much-anticipated speech. “There can be no peace without justice and no justice without peace…nonviolence must be the basis of America’s foreign policy.”