Attendees at Washington, D.C.‘s LGBT pride festival last weekend talk about what issues are most important to them.
By Emily Rutherford
June 15, 2009
The Gay Pride Festival in Washington, D.C. (Flickr/DoctorWho)
On June 14, 2009, Washington, DC’s Capital Pride held its annual street festival. Armed with a video camera, Campus Progress went to ask folks what they believe to be the most important issues facing LGBT Americans today.
Pride is usually a time for non-political celebration, so many festival-goers weren’t very interested in talking about political issues. Those who did, however, offered a range of answers that reflected the diversity of the LGBT community as a whole. While many interviewees offered marriage equality as the issue most important to them, a roughly equal number emphasized that their top issue was not marriage—instead, they suggested Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, youth issues, HIV/AIDS, or rights such as partner health care benefits or immigration benefits outside of the marriage framework.
Such a lack of agreement from members of and allies with a minority group that many believe must present a unified front to achieve equal civil rights — but that wasn’t my reaction at Pride itself. Pride developed out of LGBT activists’ efforts to gain the simple right to exist; it is a celebration of diversity and an opportunity to assert difference defiantly. It was exciting to see that the folks attending Pride last weekend represented diversity within the LGBT and allied community as much as Pride-goers have always brought diversity to American society at large.
Emily Rutherford is an intern and staff writer at Campus Progress.
The Gay Pride Festival in Washington, D.C. (Flickr/DoctorWho)
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