Cleve Jones Has Permits - National March for Equality Is on For October 10-11

Cleve Jones confirmed Friday that he has obtained the permits necessary for the National March for Equality on Washington DC, a march also being titled, "Meet on the Mall for Equality."

Cleve told Joe.My.God. "This will not be a three day mulit-media spectacular" he said. "Most of the hundreds of protests I've organized cost nothing. We will have a minimal stage, a sound system, and enough port-a-potties for the crowd. That's it. We won't be flying in celebrities and putting them up in fancy hotels. This will be a two hour march, then a two hour rally, and then sending everybody home to their congressional districts to organize for 2010."

Cleve went on to say that many of the naysayers against the march were those who support repealing Prop 8 in 2010 because they wanted to keep the focus on the local struggles, including an impending Main referendum.

"It's just an endless state by state, city by city, county by county battle could go on for decades at enormous cost," Cleve told Joe.My.God. "But if we could shift our focus and seize this historic moment and get federal legislation, get SCOTUS [on our side], we could end it all at the federal level. People in leadership seem so invested in an incredibly long, local level, deeply impermanent struggle."

"We should be saying, 'Enough of this, we demand full equality under civil law.' We should be marching, engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience every day. We have a window, but it's already starting to close. If you think you're going to get anything out of Obama in the second half of his term, you don't know anything about political history. In a year, he'll be in full re-election mode."



Do you believe Cleve is right? After Obama and the Defense of Justice's brief defending DOMA, do you feel this is the time now to speak up for federal rights? Should it be done with a march? Is the state by state strategy too costly, too timely and shifting our focus in the wrong direction?