Obama gay rights vow sparks march

THOUSANDS of gay and lesbian activists converged yesterday for a march from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that President Barack Obama keep his promise to push for civil rights protections from the federal government.

Rainbow flags and homemade signs dotted the crowds as people chanted “Hey, Obama, let mama marry mama” and “We’re out, we’re proud, we won’t back down”.

Many children were also among the protesters.

Some participants in the National Equality March woke up energised by Obama’s blunt pledge to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military during a speech to the nation’s largest gay rights group on Saturday night. The president also said he would work to ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and give same-sex couples the same civil rights as their straight peers.

“I’m here with you in that fight,” Obama said. He acknowledged some had grown impatient that he wasn’t pushing for changes faster but urged advocates to continue pressing him and congress to act.

Obama’s political energies have been focused on two wars, the economic crisis and healthcare reform, though he pledged “unwavering” commitment even as he wrestled with those problems.

March organiser Cleve Jones, creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and a protege of gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, said he had initially discouraged a rally earlier in the year. But he and others began to worry Obama was backing away from his campaign promises.

“Since we’ve seen that so many times before, I didn’t want it to happen again,” he said. “We’re not settling. There’s no such thing as a fraction of equality.”

Jones noted that the debate over how to achieve progress has at times been bitter, but said people should look to the civil rights debates of 1963.

“There should be heat. There should be controversy because ... we’re trying to change the strategy” to pursue full equality rather than a piecemeal approach, he said.

Organisers were expecting at least 75 busloads of people for the march at noon near the White House. Unlike the first march in 1979 and others in 1987, 1993 and 2000 that included celebrity performances and drew as many as 500,000 people, yesterday’s event was driven by grassroots efforts and was expected to be more low-key.