Gay-rights activist calls for D.C. march

One-time Harvey Milk intern and internationally recognized activist Cleve Jones led the annual Pride Parade past thousands of spectators lining the streets of downtown Salt Lake Sunday morning — an apt prelude to his call later in the day for a national march on Washington, D.C., this fall to demand equal rights for homosexual Americans.

Bursts of torrential rain did little to dampen the spirits of those gathered to cheer Jones, who served as the parade's grand marshal; local political figures; and the dozens of floats that made up this year's procession — a highlight of the three-day Utah Pride Festival at Washington Square that drew more than 20,000 attendees. After the parade, Jones told a festival crowd that it is time to reprise a 1979 march for gay rights on the nation's capital and demand full equality. He said the march, planned for Oct. 11, will coincide with National Coming Out Day.

"We seek nothing more and nothing less than equal protection under the law in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states," Jones said. "It is time to march again."

"I've got a message for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," he said. "Thank you. Thank you for uniting us. Thank you for galvanizing us," he said, referring to the efforts of the church and its members to win passage last year of California's Proposition 8, which overturned a court ruling legalizing gay marriage.

Jones told the Deseret News after his talk that the patchwork of inequality reflected by wildly varying state laws offering some, little or no protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans has led to a new chapter in the fight — one that requires a move at the federal level.

"Our community has many, many leaders, but we have not yet forged a national movement, and that's what many of us are trying to accomplish right now," Jones said. "More and more of our rank-and-file activists are beginning to understand that it's time to shift our focus to Washington, D.C."

The new strategy, Jones said, draws from lessons apparent in the civil rights movement that recognized that "Southern states and many others would never really extend equal protection to African Americans." Jones said the fight for equal rights for members of the GLBT community is now facing similar circumstances and needs to take a similar tack.