“Since we’ve seen that so many times before, I didn’t want it to happen again,” he said. “We’re not settling. There’s no such thing as a fraction of equality.”
Pop singer Lady Gaga got the biggest cheers on stage. She didn’t perform but pledged to reject homophobia in the music industry for her “most beautiful gay fans in the world.”
Unlike the first march in 1979 and others in 1987, 1993 and 2000 that included celebrity performances and drew as many as 500,000 people, Sunday’s event was driven by grassroots efforts and was expected to be more low-key. Washington authorities don’t disclose crowd estimates at rallies, though at least several thousand appeared to be in attendance.