The Next Generation of Activists Steps Out

The sun literally shone down upon the LGBT movement Saturday as a crowd of roughly 200,000, many of them young and attending their first march, flooded onto the Capitol lawn on a warm afternoon and demanded that the U.S. government take notice of their message of equality.

“I told you they would come,” said longtime LGBT activist David Mixner, who originally floated the idea of the National Equality March this spring. As he eyed the throng of marchers filing into place, he said, “Never underestimate the power of people who want their freedom.”

Robin McGehee, codirector of the march, marveled at the sight as well.

“As a person who studied and watched the civil rights movement growing up in the South in Mississippi, and hearing the stories about 1963 and seeing the busloads of people that would just continue to come even though you thought they were supposed to stop ­-- that’s exactly how I feel, they just won't stop,” McGehee said.

Asked if she expected this many marchers, McGehee did not hesitate. “Absolutely not,” she blurted out. “With no budget, no advertising, all on Facebook and Twitter -- it really was a viral effort and it was people who came on board and said, 'We’re going to do whatever we can to help promote these efforts.’”