The Equality Federation has announced that it will not be supporting Cleve Jones’s National Equality March.  With the March less than six weeks away, Federation Director Toni Broaddus penned an August 21st op-ed in The Washington Blade titled “Stop talking to buildings, start talking to people” in which she explained the non-endorsement writing,

“…[A]t our recent annual meeting of state leaders, the overwhelming sentiment surrounding the proposed march was frustration that our movement would divert any of its precious resources — especially volunteers and money — to converge on Washington without a specific goal and when most members of Congress will actually be in their home districts.”

Equality Federation is the national alliance of state based equality groups, consisting of 39 LGBT advocacy organizations in 30 states.  Member organizations include Equality California, Empire State Pride Agenda, Garden State Equality, Equality Maryland, and others.  Broaddus’s op-ed has drawn criticism from some activists, exposing tensions between individuals and organizations committed to direct action and lobbying organizations.

The Equality Federation’s non-endorsement comes as some movement insiders as well as ordinary people are starting to openly express growing concern about the event.  People who want to attend the march have been finding a lack of organization.  Those who expected march organizers and LGBT organizations to subsidize chartered buses to Washington, D.C. are finding that they will have to arrange their own transportation.  While some people plan to attend no matter what, others will not go unless the ride is free.

David Mixner, who called for the march earlier this year, seemed to confirm these concerns when he wrote on his blog last week, ”You will have to make your own signs, chartered [sic] your own buses, organize your own groups, find your own housing, get your own list of endorsers, etc. There are no paid organizers for this event so you have to stop waiting for your engraved invititation and start organizing.”  He seemed to confirm concerns voiced in private by a number of experienced organizers and political professionals that march attendance could be relatively low when he wrote, “Can’t promise you if there will be 20,000 at this March or 200,000.”  At the same time, he wrote that, “Whatever the total number of people, it is better than not being seen at all.”

Tags: Cleve Jones, David Mixner, Equality Federation, LGBT, National Equality March, Toni Broaddus

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under National Equality March, Polls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.