The National Equality March on 10/11/2009

[lh]

While I was happy to see so many of the overall LBGT community at the March, I wondered where were the minorities of the community? Could it be that underlining shame that so of our queer brothers and sisters get instilled in them for being gay/lesbian? Or could it be something else? If you were there and thought the opposite, state your opinion

[Angelica Johnson]

I attended the Marriage Equality march this past Sunday too. I expressed the same sentiment to a couple of my friends. I was apart of the Chicago Impact contingent and I was one of five black faces there-may be more than what you saw though. Unfortunately, there were more white folk at that march than there were people of color. I think this has a lot to do with racism within the mainstream predominately white LGBT community along with the homophobia that exists in the black community, especially in the black church.

Funny thing, while we were chanting Marriage Equality is a Civil Rights issue, one of the white protests came over to me with a microphone. I felt like a tokenized black person at that moment. I did not know what to think. I do believe that marriage equality is a civil rights issue since people are denied basic citizen rights because of the blurred lines between the separation of church and state. I had to represent though as one of the few black folk represent within that contingent.