Approximately 30 Dartmouth students joined an estimated 750,000 person crowd in a march to the National Mall in Washington D.C. yesterday for one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in recent history.
The students participated in the Millennium March on Washington for Equality in support of civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
"I've never seen anything like it," Randy Brown '02 said of the demonstration.
"The march was absolutely amazing," Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance executive board member Angelina Stelmach '02 said.
Brown, Stelmach and other students arrived at the Washington Monument at 9:30 a.m. yesterday and joined a contingent of marchers from New Hampshire.
The group began marching between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. and continued for about an hour until arriving at the post-march rally on the Mall, according to Brian Jacobs '02, co-chair and co-founder of Dartmouth's Gay Straight Alliance.
The rally featured speeches from actresses Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneres, comedian Margaret Cho and a performance by musician Melissa Etheridge, among other celebrity appearances.
All of the students who spoke with The Dartmouth praised the overwhelming support of all of the people involved with the march.
"The best thing about the march was that there was a lot of love and empowerment and unity," Stelmach said.
On the march, the students wore Dartmouth clothing and carried a Dartmouth banner announcing their affiliation with the College, a message that was noticed by other marchers.
"People who knew Dartmouth's [conservative] reputation were surprised to see us, and happy, I think, too," DRA member Eric Ogden '01 said.
Ogden said the group met several alumni of the College, including a '98 Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity brother, alumni from the 1970s and 1980s and Beth Robinson '86, a lawyer who spoke in front of the Vermont Supreme Court during the recent civil unions hearings.
Jon Hollander '03, co-chair of GSA, said this march was "somehow more intense and more purposeful" than previous marches in which he has participated, noting that the march's purpose was not only for gay pride but, more specifically, for equal rights.
Hollander also said a youth rally held on Saturday was particularly meaningful to him.
"It was really inspiring to see people who have done so much at a young age," he said.
He said one speaker he enjoyed was Corey Johnson, a Boston-area teenager who was co-captain of his high school football team when he announced that he was gay.
Hollander said hearing that Johnson was supported by his coach and teammates when he came out was a pleasant and inspiring surprise.
The march was not all perfect, though, according to GSA co-chair Amanda Gilliam, who helped to organize the Dartmouth trip.
Gilliam, an African-American, said she was disappointed with what she saw as a lack of diversity represented at the march in a community that is generally known as inclusive.
"As an individual, I was clearly not represented," she said. She noted the high cost of accommodations and entertainment in Washington, including some events that accompanied the march, and a "highly corporate" organization of the weekend.
"In a movement as diverse as this, it was still very white," Gilliam said.
Stelmach echoed Gilliam's statement: "If I had to have one complaint, it would be that there was not enough diversity."
Gilliam said she was not the first to notice that the march was geared toward middle to upper-class white GLBT community members. It has been a concern of many supporters during the past 18 months of the Millennium March's planning.
William K. Dobbs of the Ad Hoc Committee for an Open Process told the Associated Press that many felt left out of the planning because local grassroots organizations were not involved as in previous marches.
"This march has opened up a rift over who speaks for the movement and how decisions are made," Dobbs told the AP. "The way it's been done is to use a lot of Hollywood celebrities and newspaper advertising, no local organizing committees."
In addition to Heche, DeGeneres, Cho and Etheridge, former tennis star Martina Navratilova spoke to the rally crowd. President Bill Clinton also reportedly spoke via video transmission.
Though the AP reported yesterday that law enforcement officials said there were no anti-gay protesters, students told The Dartmouth that picketers were present.
Jacobs said there were protesters right outside the Mall but that it "was such a small part" of the experience.
"We definitely outnumbered them," he said.
Jacobs said he and others responded to protesters carrying signs saying "God Hates Fags" by chanting, "God doesn't hate."
Ogden said the Dartmouth group was "one of the most vocal groups" in its area of the March. Other Dartmouth chants included, "We're here, we're queer," and "Our parents think we're studying," which received cheers and laughter from crowds of supporters that lined the marchers' route, according to Stelmach.
Stelmach said the "studying" chant was inspired by Dartmouth drama professor and DRA advisor Framji Minwalla who chanted it while a student participating in a gay pride march in 1993.
Stelmach said the best poster she saw was one proclaiming, "If God hates queers, then why isn't it raining?" in recognition of what she said was "gorgeous" weather.
