The March!

Yesterday I marched.

In Washington, DC.

Past the White House, the Capitol, The Washington Monument, Cynthia Nixon.

It was so cool.

Around 5AM yesterday I got up, in a hazy fog from a couple hours of not great "oh crap I have to be up in a few hours" kind of sleep. It was pitch black outside. The streets were weirdly populated. Not crazy full but populated nonetheless. There were your usual drunks stumbling about, attempting to find their ways home to outer boroughs.... junkies, hookers, people with new puppies.... the hard edged New York that comes alive after dark.... but more than anything there were nicely showered, neatly dressed, back pack toting guys and girls with a huge glow of excitement on their faces. It was bizarre. Each block I passed I saw these people heading in the same direction clinging to giant coffees, to 50th Street. At 50th Street, there were a couple different buses lined up.... from East to West.... some on 8th, some on 11th, on 10th, scattering their ways across midtown. One by one all these early morning risers boarded these buses and before long this band of buses took off, out of New York City to do something we all believed in. It was THRILLING.

I was on a bus hosted by Ars Nova. As usual Ars Nova turned it out with awesome snacks, their wonderfully fun and positive staff members, and just that unique spirit that Ars Nova seems to have that makes one feel a part of a family. I love them so much.

The march was exciting. While I don't enjoy crowds, I don't really enjoy marching, and I don't really enjoy carrying signs, it wasn't hard to become intoxicated off the the energy of yesterday.... every where I looked I felt inspired, filled with hope, joy, and excitement. It wasn't just a bunch of LGBT people wandering around with witty signs.... it was friends, parents, grandparents, kids, colleagues, neighbors, bosses..... standing up and saying it is time for equality.

Wanna get married or not, this day was about SO MUCH more.

The entire day felt intensely surreal. I continued to think about how lucky I am that my life has brought me here to DC via New York, with these friends, to 2009, to witness this. Fifteen years ago, I don't think I ever would have imagined marching by the White House and seeing an enormous sea of rainbows in the crowd below, seeing the determination on every one's faces, hearing the cheers, feeling like a part of an important community, feeling this hopeful. Its not hard to consider what it must be like to be a twelve year old boy or girl in Rome, Georgia right now.... doubting who they are and feeling immense worry and fear for whats to come all because of who they were born to be.... then turning on the TV, or the computer, or Newspaper, or whatever.... and seeing that.... yesterday.... I hope, honestly I think, it will leave them thinking.... its going to be okay.

Thank you to every single person who organized yesterday. You all rock.

PS- I Twittered throughout the whole day yesterday with pictures and some videos.... check it out