National Equality March: LGBT Socialists Storm Washington

Earlier this week, prominent gay rights activist Charles Merrill denounced the communist infiltration of today's National Equality March. See, "Protesting Socialist Ties, Merrill Calls for Cancellation of National Equality March":

Merrill's plea to the LGBT community to cancel the National Equality March altogether stems from what he sees as a disturbing -- and ultimately damaging -- association between LGBT activists and Marxist march organizers Cleve Jones and Sherry Wolf.

Merrill, a Democrat and a capitalist who has long worked to secure equal rights for LGBT people, believes Wolf and Jones are using the march as a platform to further their own socialist agenda. The overwhelming majority of LGBTs are Democrats who support the free enterprise system, not socialists or Marxists, and Merrill fears all gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons could end up portrayed as socialists as a result of participating in the National Equality March -- and if that happens, President Obama is likely to further distance himself from the LGBT community.

And the folks at the Socialist Worker -- who joined with International ANSWER for last week's Afghanistan protests -- have pumped up the National Equality March as a spearhead for the larger revolutionary struggle:

SOME MIGHT conclude that LGBT activism and the march have taken off because of special circumstances--mainly, that the right has focused on attacking LGBT people as the last respectable bigotry, and that the Prop 8 issue spurred people into action.

But a closer look shows that the new LGBT movement has been produced by the same hard times--and hopes--shared by the working-class majority in this country ....

In fact, class issues and solidarity have been central to the new LGBT activism. In Chicago, for instance, activists demonstrating for equal marriage joined protests in support of the Republic Windows & Doors factory occupation in December, and striking workers from SK Hand Tools attended a Cleve Jones speech in Chicago to ask for support.

Far from being a special case on the left, the LGBT movement is shaped by both the economic crisis and the widespread hope for political change following the disaster of the Bush years. What sets the activists apart is only the fact that small groups of people started organizing ...

Also from the Socialist Worker, "Roots of the LGBT Struggle" (on the impact of Stonewall):

As Sherry Wolf, author of Sexuality and Socialism, put it:

By the time the riots subsided, activists began distributing leaflets that read, "Do You Think Homosexuals Are Revolting? You Bet Your Sweet Ass We Are," and announced a meeting at a Village leftist venue known as Alternative U. What began as an ad hoc committee of Mattachine-New York to organize a march in commemoration of the riots evolved into a full-blown organization, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF).

In conscious tribute to the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front then fighting the U.S. government in Southeast Asia, these activists wanted to confront not just the stifling homophobia of U.S. society, but the entire oppressive and exploitative imperial edifice...almost all the newly radicalizing activists agreed that the old guard's approach needed to be upended.

And the news today out of Washington finds key gay activists forging alliances with Marxists during parties and planning. Ameriqueer of the Bilerico Project writes, "Going to Meet Cleve Jones" :

What do you want me to say to Cleve Jones, Michelangelo Signorile or Lane Hudson when I see them at Bil Browning's birthday tonight?

And here's this Ameriqueer tweet:

And this one, from Michael Crawford:

The crowd size looks impressive, via Bilerico, "Live from Washington: Coverage of the National Equality March":

See also, the Los Angeles Times, "Gays, Lesbians March on Washington, Calling for Full Equality." And, "Obama Renews Pledge to Gays to End 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'." (Via Memeorandum.)

Related: Charles Winecoff, "Love, War – and Gay Marriage":

Eight years after 9/11, the LGBT community gets its activism fix by indulging in nostalgic, anti-establishment indignation over petty domestic slights. Ganging up on an annoying little old lady carrying a cross at a Prop 8 rally satisfies the itch between workouts and White Parties. But wouldn’t it be genuinely awe inspiring to see masses of musclebound gay men taking on, say, a congregation of homophobic Islamic “thinkers” (who, BTW, love the idea of pushing gay men off cliffs to their death)?

Plus, some on the scene are saying the crowd's estimated at "between 100000 and 250000." When will the media investigate the crowd size numbers? Boy, the crowd estimates were extremely important on September 12, remember?

Additional Related: Dan Riehl, "Obama's Problems."