SAG marches on D.C. for LGBT equality

Oct 11, 2009 by Ian Evans

Screen Actors Guild members, SAG’s National LGBT Actors Committee, and SAG staff marched with thousands of activists from around the U.S.in Washington D.C. as part of the National Equality March, which coincided with National Coming Out Day.

“Screen Actors Guild has been a leader in advocating for equality for all of our members and today we are on the right side of history,” said SAG Deputy National Executive Director and General Counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who attended the march. “Members of both the Guild and our staff were part of a huge step in this long march to equality, and today SAG reaffirms its ongoing commitment to achieving equal treatment under the law for our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members.”

SAG members Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City) and Michelle Clunie (Queer as Folk) were among the speakers who addressed the assembled masses. “This movement is not just about our ability to get married,” said Nixon, an out actor. “It is about demanding equal rights, equal responsibilities, equal opportunities, equal treatment and equal protection under the law.”

“This is no longer a gay rights movement,” straight ally Clunie told the crowd. “This is a civil rights movement. This is a human rights movement.”