March On Washington – The Gays Take DC
The anaomy of a magical day:
4:29 AM – Wake-up.
- It was one of those mornings when you’re anticipating the day so much, your body wakes up with no prompting.
4:30 AM – Alarm goes off.
- It was still jarring, I wasn’t quite awake yet.
- I had laid everything out the evening before so only need a short time to get ready. I didn’t make coffee, ’cause I figured it was going to keep me awake and well, wouldn’t it be better to try to catch a nap…
4:50 AM – Leave apartment.
- The first 123 bus of the morning is at 6:10 AM and since I needed to be at 48th (10th & 11th) at 5:45 it was going to be the short walk to viaduct. I wasn’t even sure what would be coming my way, it’s been some time since I’ve needed to head into the city that early in the morning.
- Funny note – I ran into a friend of mine just getting home as I was on my way in. Ah, youth! Remember getting in at 5 AM?
5:15 AM – Arrive Port Authority.
- I’ve got 30 minutes to walk eight blocks so I decide to stop and get a breakfast sandwich at the new deli that took over the old Ben & Jerry’s on 8th Ave. No Point.
- After getting before mentioned breakfast sandwich – egg white, bacon and cheese on a sourdough roll – I ran into a friend also getting on the bus. we walked up to our respective locations together, separated as he headed to the Audry MacDonald and I went over to the Marissa Jaret Winokur.
5:45 AM – Meet up with Tom 2i’s 2e’s and Brian. The three Bruces – together again, on another adventure.
5:46 AM – Arrive at bus meeting space.
5:55 AM – Check-in.
6:00 AM – Get on bus.
- The buses were sponsored by Sutton Foster, Gavin Creel, David Stone, Audra McDonald, Broadway.com, The Broadway Company of Memphis, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, John Ellison Conlee, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jonathan Groff, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Neil Patrick Harris, Chris Sieber and others through the all volunteer group Broadway Impact.
- The kickoff went flawlessly.
6:00 AM – 11:00 AM – Ride to D.C.
- During check-in we made our way to the front of the line to get the best pick of the seats. We headed to the center of the bus and settled in for the 5 hour ride.
- Aside from the three of us, there were a few others our age – the median age on the bus was, I’d say, 23, which made me feel rather proud – and we all seemed to settle in around each other.
- On a side note, I thought it was really funny that all the youngsters fell asleep ten minutes into the trip when all the “old-timers stayed awake and chatted up a storm. It made me wonder if we were there only ones who got a good night sleep?
- Being on the bus with like-minded people heading to what is sure to be a historical event filled me with an energy that could ignite is I stood to close to an open flame.
- The conversations and stories told spanned from the inane to the absurd; connections were made.
11:00 AM – Arrive D.C.
11:10 AM – Starbucks!
11:20 AM – Metro to staging area.
- In Washington D.C., they call the subway “the Metro” it’s so cute.
- They don’t allow food or drinks on the Metro, the cars actually has carpeting – and it was clean!
- Bruce, Bruce and I hooked up with another group of like-minded gays we’d met on the bus, Well, we met one of their boys on the bus. It took all of about five minutes before three out of three Bruces agreed that, I’ll call him Schiffly, would be a great addition to the day.
11:30 AM – Staging area.
- We meet up Bruce’s friends, took a gander at Judy Gold & Cynthia Nixon and watched as the staging area filled up with people.
- Broadway Impact brought a lot of people down from NYC. The all volunteer staff did an amazing job. I don’t event them the task – there were 25 busloads of gays and gay supporters.
- We were right at the beginning of the march and to feel the masses of people filling in behind us was electrifying. You could feel the energy.
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM – The March.
- We marched right past the White House on our way to Capitol Hill. It was empowering to know that while he may not’ve been there, Obama couldn’t ignore us any longer…
- I ran into so many people from the community I chose to be a part of – there really are no people like show people.
- I was really quite surprised to see that there were hardly any protesters there. I guess, the gays can organize faster then the haters can. Along the route I saw only two – a really badly decorated mini-van and I single older man spouting scripture.
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM – The Rally.
- While the rally was going on, Singers from Hair, the Washington Gay Men’s Chorus, Cynthia Nixon, Judy Shepard, Lady GaGa – all spoke inspiring word, but I spent my time talking to Patrick.
- Patrick was 61. He came out three years ago. He’d traveled up from Miami for the march he came alone because he wanted “to be a part of something bigger” hen himself. He told me his story, he’d divorced years earlier and fought for custody of his daughter. He raised her alone, and “did the best a single father could.” After retiring and moving across the country from her, he decided it was time to finally be himself. He grew up in a different time, “boys were expected to act like boys” and he did what he needed to do to make his family proud and stifle all the feelings he felt. “The past three years,” he said “have been the best years of his life.” His greatest fear, that his daughter would reject him, never came to pass – though he did lose his brother, which he mentioned, “…wasn’t so bad a trade off.”
- I too felt like I was a part of something bigger then myself. I heard there were just over 300,000 people gathered on Capitol Hill, I was proud to be one of them.
4:00 PM – The search for food begins.
- I don’t think Washington D.C. was expecting as many gays to show up. While it was a Sunday, of a Holiday weekend, I would thing all the street sellers would’ve set-up, they would’ve made a fortune. There were no, I repeat, no food vendors at all. To be fair, we did pass one hot dog cart and one ice cream truck – but come on, there were 300,000 hungry gays there!
4:30 PM – Lunch.
- Chicken Teriyaki – yum!
5:30 PM – Sightseeing.
- As a group, we took in the sights of D.C. before heading back to bus. It was a day full of riding, marching and walking.
7:00 PM – On the bus.
8:00 PM – Leave D.C.
- I’m saving the “on the bus” story for another day… you’ll have to keep coming back to find out exactly what happened between Schiffly and I… have I whet you appetite gentle reader? Are you waiting for more?
12:00 AM – Manhattan.
12:30 AM – Home in NJ.
- Exhausted and elated, one of the most magical days of my life!
- To view pictures of the day click on the cock, oops, cake, cake, that’s c-A-k-e - above.
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