Standing on the Side of Love Joins the National Equality March on Washington
Over 100,000 people flooded the streets of Washington DC yesterday, marching for full equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans.
Arriving by bus, car, train, metro, bike, foot, and airplane, the marchers expressed exhilaration and commitment. Many wore bright yellow t-shirts that identified them as “Standing on the Side of Love.” Large yellow banners and hand held placards made Standing on the Side of Love a very visible component of the march and rally. The slogan was mentioned in national coverage of the march in the media.
As thousands of marchers made their way onto the west lawn of the US Capitol, founder and head of the Metropolitan Community Church Rev. Troy Perry started the rally by invoking the names of early leaders in the movement for LGBT equality. After reading a letter of support from Bishop Desmond Tutu, Perry recognized other religious leaders on stage for the invocation.
Yet, unlike past marches for equality for LGBT rights, this one was not an all-out push for people to travel to the nation’s capital. The national march was connected to many simultaneous local and state-based efforts for Coming Out Day. Over 50 events were registered on the Standing on the Side of Love website.
In Denver, several Unitarian Universalist congregations held their worship service on the steps of the state Capitol, standing on the side of love for marriage equality. In St. Paul, an interfaith coalition held an event for marriage equality. In San Francisco, people of faith marched across the Golden Gate Bridge carrying a Standing on the Side of Love banner.
Meg Riley, Campaign Director for Standing on the Side of Love, reported, “This was a day of celebration, a time when we could come together and store up strength for the much lonelier, less visible, daily work that makes real change possible. At All Souls Unitarian Church on Sunday morning, the opening choral piece had just one word, repeated hundreds of times: ‘Grateful.’ That sums it up!”
Four UU ministers were among the many ministers on stage during the Invocation, ncluding the Rev. Peter Morales, the Rev. Ann Marie Alderman , the Rev. Fred Hammond and the Rev. Jennifer Ryu.