Students ready to march
describes what students have been doing to mobilize for the National Equality March on October 11.
FOR THE last six weeks, National Equality March Students has been organizing students across the country to mobilize for the National Equality March on October 11.
While the main demands around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights are issues that millions support right now, the level of support among young people is off the charts.
According to a national poll by the Pew Research Center, more than 85 percent of young people aged 15 to 25 support equal protection in housing and employment, and protection from hate crimes for LGBT people. Almost 60 percent of young people support equal marriage rights for LGBT people. So it's no surprise that students from campuses around the country are planning to attend the march.
In late August, dozens of students representing different campuses signed onto a "Call to Action" that read in part:
The United States must end its system of inhumane segregation that continues to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans, denying equal opportunity to serve one's country, denying the equal right to marry and denying equal access to over 1,000 rights, benefits and protections granted to all American citizens.
As student leaders, we refuse to remain silent in the face of what we know is the greatest civil rights movement of our generation. We must speak out and be among those who express outrage at the hatred and discrimination that is inflicted upon our fellow citizens. To remain silent is to endorse hatred.
Student body presidents from Princeton University and Georgetown University to Iowa State University and the University of Cincinnati signed onto the call.
In early September, students representing more than 70 campuses participated in a conference call aimed at generating ideas and strategies for publicizing the march on their campuses.
Now that the march is here, student organizers are calling on all students to march together as a contingent at the National Equality March. This will make it possible for student activists from across the country to meet up with on another and potentially develop a network that can stay in touch when the march ends.
March organizers have been very focused on the message that this march is the beginning, and not the end for a whole new wave of activism aimed at winning equal rights for LGBT people--so the need to network and stay in touch after the march is crucial.
NEM Students will meet at 10 a.m. before the march on October 11 at the Ellipse in Washington. We will then proceed to where the National Equality March will begin and march as a contingent.
March organizers have indicated that they want student and youth contingents to march at the front of the march--so we're gathering early so that we can be one of the lead contingents. Students from everywhere should join us.
