March on Washington rally to feature prominent LGBTQ speakers
Lou Chibbaro Jr.Lou Chibbaro Jr. has reported on the LGBT civil rights movement and the LGBT community for more than 30 years, beginning as a freelance writer and later as a staff reporter and currently as Senior News Reporter for the Washington Blade. He has chronicled LGBT-related developments as they have touched on a wide range of social, religious, and governmental institutions, including the White House, Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, the military, local and national law enforcement agencies and the Catholic Church. Chibbaro has reported on LGBT issues and LGBT participation in local and national elections since 1976. He has covered the AIDS epidemic since it first surfaced in the early 1980s. <a href="https://plus.google.com/104443114287231532340?rel=author">Follow Lou</a> <!-- Place this tag where you want the badge to render. --> <div class="g-plus" data-height="69" data-href="//plus.google.com/104443114287231532340?rel=author" data-rel="me"></div> <!-- Place this tag after the last badge tag. --> <script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[ (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); // ]]></script>Local
U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), who this year became the nation’s first openly gay African-American member of Congress, and Randi Weingarten, the out lesbian president of the American Federation of Teachers, will be among the speakers at a rally associated with one of two separate marches on Washington scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 28.
Organizers say both marches, which are scheduled to begin Saturday morning in separate locations, were called to build support for voting rights at a time when Republican-controlled state legislatures were passing laws to restrict voting and for D.C. statehood.
The two marches and their associated rallies were expected to draw as many as 150,000 people, according to information organizers submitted to the National Park Service to obtain permits for the events.
Jones and Weingarten were scheduled to speak from a stage on the National Mall near 7th Street that’s associated with March On For Washington and Voting Rights, one of the two marches whose lead organizer is civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton.
That march was scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m. Saturday at McPherson Square Park in downtown D.C. following a pre-march gathering at the park at 8 a.m. The march was to proceed past Black Lives Matter Plaza at 16th and H Streets, N.W., and pass in front of the White House before traveling to the National Mall to the site where the rally and speeches are to be held.
The second march, called Dream March on Washington for D.C. Statehood, Green Earth, and Justice for All, was scheduled to begin with an 8:30 a.m. rally at Freedom Plaza, also in downtown D.C., where D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was expected to be one of several speakers.
Organizers say that march is set to kick off at Freedom Plaza at 10 a.m. and proceed to the Lincoln Memorial, where a “Make Good Trouble” rally was scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. Organizers named the rally after a slogan coined by the late civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
The Lincoln Memorial rally was also planned as a celebration of the 58th anniversary of the Aug. 28, 1963, March on Washington organized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which was also held at the site of the Lincoln Memorial.
Organizers of the Lincoln Memorial rally were also calling on participants to attend a candlelight vigil hosted by the group Veterans United for D.C. Statehood. The vigil was scheduled for 7-8 p.m. that same day near the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool at 3rd Street, S.W.
The Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s LGBTQ Democratic club, announced its members and supporters would be joining the March On For Washington and Voting Rights set to begin at McPherson Square Park and travel to the National Mall at 7th Street.
In addition to Rep. Mondaire Jones and Randi Weingarten, others scheduled to speak at the March On For Washington and Voting Rights rally include Martin Luther King III, and King family members Andrea Waters King, Yolanda Renee King; Rev. Al Sharpton; and U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), and Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio). Mayor Bowser was also among those on the speakers list for that rally.
It couldn’t immediately be determined whether any LGBTQ speakers would appear at the Freedom Plaza or Lincoln Memorial rallies associated with the Dream March on Washington. In addition to Bowser, a preliminary list of speakers released by organizers for the Freedom Plaza rally included D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), former D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly, D.C. Shadow Rep. Oye Owolewa (D-DC); D.C. Shadow Sen. Michael D. Brown (D-D.C.), and D.C. statehood activists Hector Rodriquez and Anise Jenkins.