National Equality March Washington DC October 11, 2009

by: Shelley Osterberger

While marching past the White House yesterday on the way to our nations capitol, it was clear that this was an historic moment. According to Time magazine, almost 200,000 people came together in Washington DC for the National Equality March. I began talking to people as we marched and started to realize that people from all over the country had made the trip to support the movement. I talked to a group from Western Kentucky University who had driven 15 hours and would be making the drive back overnight in order to get to class on time today. There were people from Mississippi, West Virginia, Indiana, and of course New York and California, just for starters. I was so moved because while I had simply given up my Sunday for this cause, these people had traveled hundreds of miles just to march and be heard. And Barney Frank said that no one would show up.

The fact that more than the grass felt the pressure yesterday, that so many mothers and fathers and straight people marched for their friends and daughters and sons, shows the government that the time is now to make a change. This is not a small group of people. We are many, and we are in all parts of this great nation.

I do have the right to be married, and I believe it is a great injustice that we do not offer the same rights to all citizens of this country. A civil union falls short of some of the benefits that come with a marriage. Separate but equal is an old and tired idea. There is no reason that there should not be equal rights for all humans.
And that is why I marched for equality yesterday. Because my friends and family deserve the same rights that I already have. No one is trying to take any rights away from anyone else. We just want equality. Love is not a sin, and all American citizens have the right to love whomever they choose.

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