LGBTQ Advocates Call for a Movement Devoted to #MoreThanMarriage

WASHINGTON DC - April 29, 2015 -- Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on four marriage equality cases -- an important step in the movement toward winning full LGBTQ equality under the law. For many LGBTQ individuals, however, the day was complicated by the painful reminder of the ongoing fight to end police brutality and state-imposed violence as people took to the streets of Baltimore just 40 miles north of DC.

Yesterday highlighted the stark inequity bred by systemic racism, transphobia, and classism -- and the uprising that happens when those conditions are ignored at the expense of communities not just in Baltimore, but across the country.

Yet even as marriage equality has come within reach, we have seen how LGBTQ people face incredible obstacles beyond their right to marry -- with the deepest impact of oppression and discrimination experienced by black transgender women, as well as people of color and trans people more broadly. We have seen how the issues of unjust detention and deportation have affected the lives of queer and trans immigrants like Nicoll Hernandez-Polanco, and how racist policing and criminalization of black people has led to the incarceration of Ky Peterson and Ashley Diamond. We have also seen the ramifications of a system deeply unconcerned with the lives of trans women of color, as at least six trans women of color were murdered in the first three months of 2015 alone. While marriage equality is an important step for the LGBTQ community, it is not the end of the fight for equality -- it's just the beginning.

This is why GetEQUAL demands not only more than marriage, but full federal equality for all LGBTQ people. GetEQUAL is calling on those LGBTQ advocates and organizations that have worked hard to make federal marriage equality a reality to work just as hard for all LGBTQ people living their lives at the intersections of multiple identities, whose rights are just as fundamental to the strength of the movement.

GetEQUAL's specific agenda is reflected in the recently-launched LGBTQ Bill of Rights -- a document produced over a year's worth of conversations with LGBTQ people on the ground across the country. The LGBTQ Bill of Rights (found at www.NoAsterisks.org) outlines the many ways in which LGBTQ people need more than simply marriage equality -- from an end to religious discrimination to full access to healthcare to freedom from police brutality, deportation, and detention. As we move forward, potentially into a moment where marriage equality is a reality, we still must grapple with the oppression and discrimination that affects LGBTQ people. LGBTQ people deserve a movement that fights for the entire community -- no exceptions, and no caveats.

"Yesterday's rally on the steps of the Supreme Court was a beautiful example of the diversity of stories, experiences, and identities within the LGBTQ community -- and it was also a deeply troubling reminder of how far we must go and how hard we must work to ensure that marriage is not the end of our movement's road," said Heather Cronk, co-director of GetEQUAL. "While we hold signs and raise banners demanding a freedom of harassment from the government outside the Supreme Court, we must also take that demand to police departments and city halls and detention centers across the country. We are not free until every one of us is free -- and we will continue to take to the streets until we are all able to taste freedom."

GetEQUAL is a national grassroots social justice organization whose mission is to empower the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community and allies to take bold action to demand full legal and social equality, and to hold accountable those who stand in the way. For more information, go to www.getequal.org. You can also follow GetEQUAL on Facebook at www.facebook.com/getequal or on Twitter at @GetEQUAL.