National gay-rights march impresses Valley participant

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

WASHINGTON — A Mahoning Valley contingent marched among tens of thousands of gay rights supporters in the nation’s capital today to demand President Barack Obama keep his promises on gay rights.

Donald Rowinsky, 51, of Youngstown’s South side, attended the National Equality March and said it was a sight unlike any he’d seen before.

“It went really well,” he said. “The weather was good, there were lots of people there, and everyone seemed to be enjoying it.”

Rowinsky, president of the Mahoning Valley Stonewall Democrats, and his group arrived in Maryland Saturday and drove to Washington for the noon march and 3 p.m. rally. He said he was surprised to see as many people as he did.

“I don’t know how to judge that big of a crowd, but the march went down and filled the highway for miles.”

More inspiring than the number of people in attendance was the message associated with the turnout, he said.

“It gave me a feeling that the time must have finally come to make a change,” he said. “If there’s that many people willing to come march in the street, the time must be here.”

Rowinsky said he hopes the magnitude of the crowd and the march will persuade the president to make what Rowinsky feels are the right decisions.

“There was an awful lot of perspective that we can’t keep waiting like this with just promises. [President] Obama is a good person and he just needs to make this happen.”

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.