Tens of thousands march in D.C., seek fast action on gay initiatives

Mahoning Valley Stonewall Democrats participate

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

WASHINGTON — A Mahoning Valley contingent was among the tens of thousands of gay-rights supporters who marched Sunday from the White House to the Capitol. They demanded that President Barack Obama keep his promises to allow gays to serve openly in the military and work to end discrimination against gays.

Rainbow flags and homemade signs dotted the crowds filling Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House as people chanted “Hey, Obama, let mama marry mama” and “We’re out, we’re proud, we won’t back down.” Many children were also among the protesters. A few counter-protesters had also joined the crowd, which stretched several blocks by the afternoon.

Donald Rowinsky, 51, of Youngstown, attended the 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 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.”

Jason Yanowitz, a 37-year-old computer programmer from Chicago, held his daughter, 5-year-old Amira, on his shoulders. His partner, Annie, had their 2-year-old son, Isiah, in a stroller. Yanowitz said more straight people were turning out to show their support for gay rights.

“For all I know, she’s gay or he’s gay,” he added, pointing to his children.

Keynote speaker Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, firmly linked the gay rights struggle to the Civil Rights movement, saying gays and lesbians should be free from discrimination.

“Black people of all people should not oppose equality, and that is what marriage is all about,” he said. “We have a lot of real and serious problems in this country, and same-sex marriage is not one of them. Good things don’t come to those who wait, but they come to those who agitate.”

Some participants in the National Equality March woke up energized by Obama’s blunt pledge to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military during a speech to the nation’s largest gay rights group Saturday night.

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that Congress will need to muster the resolve to change the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” — a change that the military may be ready for.

“I think it has to be done in the right way, which is to get a buy-in from the military, which I think is now possible,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

Obama’s political energies have been focused on two wars, the economic crisis and health care reform, though he pledged “unwavering” commitment even as he wrestled with those problems.

March organizer Cleve Jones, creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and a protege of gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, said he had initially discouraged a rally earlier in the year. But he began to worry Obama was backing away from his promises.