National march on washington for lesbian and gay rights

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Four committees were formed: Media, Logistics & Travel, Fundraising, and Transportation. The challenges we face today may be different in form, but they are rooted in the same struggle for equality and justice. In April, a group numbering about one hundred began to organize a New York contingent. With a multifaceted background in nonprofit leadership, higher education administration, strategic communications & marketing, development/fundraising, venture capital, and social impact.

Filed Under: Advocacy, Director's Corner, Queerstory

National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights (1979) Records

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 Collection

Identifier: 14

Scope and Content

Organizational records, financial records, flyers, correspondence, press clippings, and press releases related to the 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

Dates

  • Creation: 1979
  • Processed: April 1992; March 2004

Biographical / Historical

On October 14, 1979 approximately 100,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., to demand "an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of Lesbians and Gay people." Organizing began in earnest in February 1979--in the wake of Harvey Milk's assassination and ahead of the tenth anniversary of the Stonewall riots--when 300 people representing over 200 lesbian, gay, feminist, and Third World organizations met in Philadelphia.

Today, we see echoes of those same demands in the ongoing push for the Equality Act, efforts to safeguard marriage equality, and the urgent fight against laws targeting transgender individuals.

The march was more than a gathering; it was a declaration that LGBTQ+ people would not be invisible or silent. https://archives.gaycenter.org/repositories/2/resources/80 Accessed December 29, 2025.

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These are the intersections that demand our attention if we are to achieve true equality.

The 1979 march focused on the LGBTQ+ community’s legal rights, but today we recognize that legal victories alone are not enough.

LGBTQ+ people of color, particularly Black trans women, face disproportionately high rates of violence, poverty, and discrimination. The lessons of 1979—of unity, visibility, and persistent advocacy—are just as relevant today as we continue the struggle for full equality as they were almost 45 years ago.

The Stonewall Uprisings happened roughly 10 years earlier and in 1979, the LGBTQ+ community continued to fight for basic recognition and dignity in a society that largely sought to ignore or suppress our existence.

national march on washington for lesbian and gay rights

While we’ve made significant strides in securing legal protections and social acceptance, the fight for LGBTQ+ equality is far from over.

The Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights took place in 1987, and the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation in 1993.

Full Extent

5.5 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Provenance

This collection was found in a closet at The LGBT Center; it is not clear how it got there.

Their fight for visibility, equality, and dignity was, and is, our fight, too. Like in 1979, participants in the 2020 march demanded an end to violence, discrimination, and invisibility, particularly for the most marginalized within the LGBTQ+ community. National and local LGBTQ+ organizations grew in size and influence, and subsequent marches in 1987 and 1993 expanded the movement’s focus to include the fight against AIDS and the push for transgender rights.

The 1979 march had five core demands—comprehensive civil rights protections, the repeal of discriminatory laws, equal parenting rights, freedom from workplace discrimination, and an end to anti-LGBTQ+ immigration policies—were bold and radical at the time. One foot of mailing labels along with duplicates and clippings from major newspapers were discarded.

Subject

  • Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights (New York City) (Organization)
  • Committee for the Protection of Family Life (Organization)
  • Dignity (Organization)
  • District Council 37 (Organization)
  • Lesbian Feminist Liberation, Inc.

    (Organization)

  • National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) (Organization)
  • National Lawyers Guild (Organization)
  • National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights (Organization)
  • National Organization for Women (Organization)
  • Sexual Identity Center (Organization)
  • Walt Whitman Democratic Club (Organization)
  • War Resisters League (Organization)
  • National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights (1979) (Organization)
  • Askew, Rubin (Person)
  • Ault, Steven (Person)
  • Brown, Steven (Person)
  • Buckley, William F., Jr.

    (Person)

  • Deviers, Brenda (Person)
  • Kemper, Ruth (Person)
  • Near, Holly (Person)
  • Powledge, Polly (Person)
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights (1979) Records, 14.

LGBT Community Center National History Archive. As we celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month, we recognize the activists who paved the way by challenging us to make our movement as inclusive and intersectional as possible.

The march of 1979 was a bold, visible act of defiance in a hostile social environment, and the bravery of those activists resonates with today’s movement.

It was a watershed moment in the LGBTQ+ rights movement, not just for its scale, but for the message it sent: that our community was united, determined, and ready to demand change.

As we consider this moment in history, we also confront the reality that many of the same challenges persist today. The backlash we face is not new, but neither is our determination.