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Six delegates were elected to the National Steering Committee.
Speakers at the march included Audre Lorde, Allen Ginsberg, Flo Kennedy, Steve Ault, and Kate Millett. LGBT Community Center National History Archive.
National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights (1979) Records, 14. One foot of mailing labels along with duplicates and clippings from major newspapers were discarded.
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National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights (1979) Records, 14.
It was transferred to the archive in 1990. The challenges we face today are part of a long continuum of struggle—just as LGBTQ+ activists in 1979 fought for visibility and protection, so too must we continue the fight for the most vulnerable members of our community.
One of the most significant evolutions in our movement since 1979 has been a greater awareness of the intersections between race, gender, and sexuality–among other identity characteristics.
While we’ve made significant strides in securing legal protections and social acceptance, the fight for LGBTQ+ equality is far from over. More recently, in October 2020, thousands of people once again gathered in Washington, D.C., for the National Trans Visibility March, a powerful demonstration that highlighted the ongoing fight for transgender rights and the urgent need to address violence against trans individuals, particularly Black trans women.
Terminally ill victims of Aids are pushed in wheelchairs as they participate in the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Oct.
11, 1987. LGBTQ+ people of color, particularly Black trans women, face disproportionately high rates of violence, poverty, and discrimination.
Forty-five years ago, on October 14, 1979, tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals and allies came together for the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
Their fight for visibility, equality, and dignity was, and is, our fight, too. For many who marched, this was their first time stepping out of the shadows to publicly declare their identity. The courage required to do so in 1979, when public displays of LGBTQ+ pride were met with hostility, is a reminder of the resilience and bravery that has always fueled our movement.
The 1979 March on Washington laid the groundwork for much of the progress we’ve seen over the last four decades.
The challenges we face today may be different in form, but they are rooted in the same struggle for equality and justice. (AP)
The 2020 march underscored many of the same themes as the 1979 march—visibility, resilience, and the fight for legal protection. Just as the LGBTQ+ community faced backlash then, we see similar hostility now.
The lessons of 1979—of unity, visibility, and persistent advocacy—are just as relevant today as we continue the struggle for full equality as they were almost 45 years ago.
The Stonewall Uprisings happened roughly 10 years earlier and in 1979, the LGBTQ+ community continued to fight for basic recognition and dignity in a society that largely sought to ignore or suppress our existence.
LGBT Community Center National History Archive. With a multifaceted background in nonprofit leadership, higher education administration, strategic communications & marketing, development/fundraising, venture capital, and social impact.
Filed Under: Advocacy, Director's Corner, Queerstory
Among other purposes, marches on Washington, D.C.
show communities acting on their right to peaceful protest, make visible the commitment and volume of support behind a movement, and mobilize and nationalize otherwise more fractured local efforts to organize. Since the original march on October 14, 1979, the LGBTQ community and its allies have marched on the nation's capital on numerous occasions. Subsequent marches took place in 1987, 1993, 2000, and 2009.
The organizers of the original march identified the following Five Demands:
Marks Ridinger, ed., Speaking for Our Lives: Historic Speeches and Rhetoric for Gay and Lesbian Rights (1892-2000), available as an eBook (2012) through Howard University Libraries
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Collection
Identifier: 14
Organizational records, financial records, flyers, correspondence, press clippings, and press releases related to the 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
On October 14, 1979 approximately 100,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., to demand "an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of Lesbians and Gay people." Organizing began in earnest in February 1979--in the wake of Harvey Milk's assassination and ahead of the tenth anniversary of the Stonewall riots--when 300 people representing over 200 lesbian, gay, feminist, and Third World organizations met in Philadelphia.
Four committees were formed: Media, Logistics & Travel, Fundraising, and Transportation.
The LGBTQ+ rights movement is no longer just about fighting for legal recognition or protection—it is about addressing the broader systemic inequalities that affect marginalized people within our community. Today, we see echoes of those same demands in the ongoing push for the Equality Act, efforts to safeguard marriage equality, and the urgent fight against laws targeting transgender individuals.
The march was more than a gathering; it was a declaration that LGBTQ+ people would not be invisible or silent.
It was a watershed moment in the LGBTQ+ rights movement, not just for its scale, but for the message it sent: that our community was united, determined, and ready to demand change.
As we consider this moment in history, we also confront the reality that many of the same challenges persist today.