Solidarity at the National Equality March

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FLASH MOB AT UNION STATION FOR GLBTQ EQUALITY

Jessi Carrier, member of Peaceful Uprising, joined the Youth Impact summit at the National Equality March in Washington DC this weekend and helped organize a flash mob at Union Station.  Part of a full day of conferences, trainings, rallies, and marches, the flash mob was a chance for GLBTQ youth to express themselves through creative and non-traditional direct action.   

Over three hundred people crowded the main gallery of Union Station, and froze in poses that conveyed an image of what equal rights would look like to them.  There were couples locked in embraces, some people kissing and a tableau of a woman proposing to her partner.  From a restaurant balcony above the gallery, a banner dropped reading "This is What Equality Looks Like."

The mob was met with curiousity, confusion and admiration from the tourists trying to make their way through the station. Cameras flashed, and videographers panned the frozen crowd.  After several minutes, the mob ended with applause from participants and bystanders alike, and people moved outside.  There was an electric energy coursing between people, and it was expertly channeled into a chanting, bustling, traveling mass.  Hoisting the banner, Jessi and Laura Wadden, main organizer for the Youth Impact events, lead the crowd to the capitol lawn.  Police stopped traffic along the way, and tolerated a short demonstration on the lawn. 

For some participants it was their first demonstration.  A young woman described listening to the chants, and at first could not find the voice to join in.  Quietly, she began forming the words, and as she said them, her voice became louder and louder, until she was shouting in chorus with everyone else.  Something took hold of her and she could not stop. 

Stuff like this happens everyday in Washington.  The cold, stone walls of the formidable administraton buildings are well worn to the sound of dissent and dissatisfaction.  But to a a young  activist, a spontaneous uprising in the nation's capitol stokes the embers of a smoldering fire. 

Tomorrow youth will take the lead in the National Equality March, representing a new generation of passionate activists ready to bring this movement to its fruition. 

Peaceful Uprising is committed to the struggle for equal rights in all 50 states, and was honored to participate in such a stellar direct action.