With freezing rain smearing their signs and winds whipping their banners, between 300-400 protesters braved the elements Saturday night for the second annual March Against Anti-Gay Hate in Lakeview.
"I think it says something that people came out in the cold and the rain in response to hate crimespeople won't sit idly by," said Andy Thayer of the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network, sponsor of the event. "People know that struggles happen in good weather and they happen in bad weather."
Thayer said estimates put the crowd at between 300 and 400 people.
Marchers met at Halsted and Roscoe for a pre-walk rally beginning at 8 p.m. Speakers discussed their experiences with hate crimes and police brutality, drawing chants of "Shame! Shame!" from the crowd. Anti-transgendered violence was also addressed. Many participants held placards with the pictures of hate crime victims including Matthew Shepard and Arthur Warren, the African-American youth killed in West Virginia.
Taking cues from the Civil Rights Movement, organizers had local activist Richard Streetman sing the spiritual "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" before the march stepped off. As they departed, the song's last line echoed across the intersection: "Let us march on until victory is won."
The march took participants from Halsted and Roscoe south to Belmont, then east to Broadway, north to Cornelia, west to Halsted, then back to Roscoe for a keynote speech by Roanoke, Va., defense attorney Sam Garrison.
"On this chilly night I want to bring you warm greetings from your brothers and sisters in Roanoke, Virginia," Garrison said.
Much of his speech focused on the strides Roanoke and Virginia have made since the gay bar shooting there in late September that killed Danny Lee Overstreet and wounded six others.
"Danny Lee Overstreet shall not have died in vain," Garrison said. "From his martyrdom and the violation of the six others, our people have gained a new sense of purpose. This has propelled our city toward full social acceptance for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people."
Garrison and his husband came to Saturday's rally at the invitation of CABN, a request Garrison said he never hesitated to accept. He told WCT after the rally that he knew one of the shooting victims and that he felt it was important to link the struggles against violence in Roanoke with the struggles in other places such as Chicago.
He noted that one detail missing from most media coverage of the shooting is the relatively gay-friendly nature of Roanoke.
"Roanoke is not a particularly difficult place for gays. It's not the best, but far from the worst," he said, as his husband nodded his agreement.
"It's almost more distressing that it would happen in a place that is generally so nice."
The post-march rally also featured an appearance by Frederick Mason, the African-American man who has accused Chicago police of a racist, anti-gay attack against him.
Most of the marchers Saturday seemed undaunted by the cold.
A fur-clad Ifti Nasim, founder of the South Asian GLBT organization Sangat, said protests like Saturday's were unheard of when he came to Chicago in the 1970s. "Police were non-chalant about ( anti-gay ) violence then," he said. "I'm trying to get the maximum freedomI came to this country for freedom."
Some marchers were focused on their counterparts who didn't make it to the event.
"We're very concerned about people who didn't support us todaythere's a time for partying, and there's a time to express our voice," said Jose, who asked that his last name not be used. He urged people: "Don't go to therapy go here and fight the pain."