“Milk” screenwriter Dustin Lance Black speaks to crowd at National Equality March in Washington DC

I caught more of the National Equality March rally on C-Span this morning and it was so great to see Dustin Lance Black’s speech which was very inspiring. It laid out what LGBT citizens should be fighting for: full equality ion a federal level.

It’s so convenient for just about every single politicians running for office – certainly Democratic candidates – to avoid taking a position on same-sex marriage by saying: “I believe we should leave it up to the states.”

Lance, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk, points out that we should not have a checkerboard nation where some are free and some are not. He remarked that partial equality is not what Harvey Milk gave his life for more than 30 years ago.

Lance wants to send out a message to all young people “that we are fighting for their full equality, from sea to sea and not equality in some places and not others and not equality in some distant future.”

Here is his speech in which he called for “a message of love over hate, of acceptance over condemnation and of unity over division. ”