1987. Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights
Given that the first National March on Washington had occured only months before Ronald Reagan was elected US President, it was little surprise that the demands of those marchers had not been met by the time of the Second March.
But the failure to meet the original demands was only one of the triggers for the Second National March. For one thing, the AIDS crisis had begun to unfold in 1981. And for another, its impact had been greatly intensified by Reagan’s intransigence on the issue. As if to add fuel to these flames, in 1986 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Georgia’s anti-sodomy law.

Marchers passing the White House. Photo: By Elvert Barnes from Baltimore, Maryland, USA – 09a.LGBT.MOW.25April1993, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58384870
And so it was that, on 11th October 1987, hundreds of thousands of queer people hit the streets of Washington to demonstrate their anger and frustration. As with any large protest, the exact number of participants varied depending on who the estimate came from. Thus, the New York Times reported 200,000. Police – rather surprisingly, given their tendency to downplay numbers – estimated the number at nearer 750,000.
The marchers had seven primary demands:
- The legal recognition of lesbian and gay relationships.
- The repeal of all laws that make sodomy between consenting adults a crime.
- A presidential order banning discrimination by the federal government.
- Passage of the Congressional lesbian and gay civil rights bill.
- An end to discrimination against people with AIDS, ARC, HIV-positive status or those perceived to have AIDS. Massive increases in funding for AIDS education, research and patient care. Money for AIDS, not war.
- Reproductive freedom, the right to control our own bodies, and an end to sexist oppression.
- An end to racism in this country and apartheid in South Africa.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt, demonstrating just some of the impact of the disease in the USA. Source: National Institutes of Health.
The march was only one of a number of events in the days leading up to, and following, 11th October. The most impactful was the first display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which at that time, was made up of 1,920 individual panels from around the country. It was a powerful statement about both the impact of the disease and the Reagan administration’s failure to address it.
Other events included a mass wedding in front of the Inland Revenue Service on October 10th and a civil disobedience action around the Supreme Court building on the 12th.

Schedule of March Events. Photo: With kind permission and courtesy of Lambda Archives of San Diego https://lambdaarchives.org/
Given that Reagan remained in office until 1989 and was succeeded by another arch-conservative, George H.W. Bush, it’s pretty obvious that reform was not quick in coming. And both of these Presidents have the avoidable impact of AIDS as part of their legacies. But persistence pays off and, during the terms of the more enlightened Presidents we did see some commitment to those demands voiced in 1987.
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