CPC Watch endorses the National March for Equality, 10/10 in Washington DC!!!

And why wouldn't we??

CPC Watch operates under a platform of reproductive justice, the idea that all women and girls ought to have complete physical, spiritual, and economic control over their bodies, their sexualities, and their reproductive lives. The concept of reproductive justice takes into account issues of race, class, physical ability, and sexual orientation, as different demographics obviously have different obstacles achieving reproductive freedom and sexual autonomy.

In our research on crisis pregnancy centers, we've found many troubling trends that extend far beyond a mere anti-abortion agenda. Most CPCs work solely with adoption agencies that adopt out to heterosexual married couples, often discriminating against non-white or interracial couples as well as non-Christian households. In addition to their unrealistic "abstinence before marriage" version of sex "education," many also preach that being gay or bisexual is a sin and can be reversed with adequate prayer and "anti-gay" counseling. Our understanding of crisis pregnancy centers is that they are not only a threat to abortion rights, they are a threat to choice and nearly all reproductive and family options that don't fit within a narrow, heteronormative mold.

Today, a grassroots movement is brewing nationwide in response to the recent stripping of marriage equality in the state of California. While citizens of states such as Iowa, Maine, and New Hampshire celebrate recent victories in securing equal marriage rights, advocates from all over the country are fed up with the United States' refusal to provide equal rights to all couples regardless of sex or gender identity and the sustained second-class status of LGBT citizens overall.

For these reasons, CPC Watch officially endorses the October 10, 2009 National March for Equality. This march is being scheduled around the 30th anniversary of the October 14, 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, the historic march that drew 100,000 to demand equal rights for the LGBT community.

We believe the LGBT community desereves full equality in all matters governmental, including health care, employment-related discrimination, hate crime legislation, the right to parent, and of course marriage equality. While several of our coordinators have different views about how governmental the term "marriage" should be for any couple, we believe that the LGBT community has every right to enter into this institution, regardless of the partners' sex or gender identity.

We wish to add our concerns with the high rate of homelessness among queer youth, the additional obstacles LGBT people of color face in their communities, and poor or non-existent components of LGBT issues in school sex-education curriculum.

Please visit one of the below websites for further details regarding the march, or email our outreach coordinator for help finding or organizing a bus or caravan to D.C. as we get closer to the date! Also consider a donation to one of the many grassroots organizing groups behind the march. These organizations are most likely run completely by unpaid volunteers, and any support would be very much appreciated.

In Solidarity,

Lauren Guy McAlpin
Project Coordinator


To volunteer, donate, or otherwise get involved:
National March for Equality
National Equality March