Michelangelo Signorile Endorses National Equality March; David Mixner Says More Endorsements To Come

In an exclusive commentary with the Advocate, Michelangelo Signorile, host of XM/Sirius radio show The Gist, endorsed the National Equality March.

The time is now for an LGBT march on Washington, and every one of us should be heading to D.C. for the National Equality March planned for October 10–11. Let me explain why, first by reviewing recent events. Then we’ll look back a little in history.

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A lot of people are saying we need to think big -- real big -- and that we need to stop denigrating ourselves by settling for crumbs, which we never get anyway. Perhaps we need an omnibus LGBT rights bill that covers everything -- go for it all, and leave it at the feet of Congress. Maybe we should amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include us. What about going for the most urgent things rather than the easiest—like pushing hard for the president to issue a moratorium on “don’t ask, don’t tell” -- something he has disingenuously said he can’t do and that gay groups more or less have given him a pass on -- rather than sitting idly by and watching careers be destroyed while we continue to investigate options for overturning the policy?

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It’s not that I was ever really opposed to the idea of a march. To the contrary, as listeners to my Sirius/XM radio show know, I’ve been talking about marching on Washington ever since the morning after Election Day. For me, it’s been a matter of historical precedent: The black civil rights movement wisely took advantage of a window of opportunity in 1963, when Democrats controlled both the White House and Congress. Republicans could no longer be blamed for the lack of civil rights protections, and marchers knew that media attention would put pressure on the Democrats and shame them into action.

We have that same window of opportunity today.

David Mixner wrote on his blog that he has "been collecting an amazing number of leading endorsements" which will be announced in September.

"Can't promise you if there will be 20,000 at this March or 200,000," Mixner wrote. "What I do know is that a lot of very special people are coming. We have become invisible in this administration and so far have received almost nothing. And with that in mind, the community is geared to take a stand."

ACTION: Want to help spread the word about the march? Go here for National Equality March promotional tools!