With banners, rainbow flags and homemade signs, an exuberant crowd marched through Chicago's Wrigleyville and Boystown neighborhoods June 26, after favorable decisions on equal marriage came down from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nearly 500 attended the rally and march, which started and ended at Roscoe and Halsted.

The evening, organized to celebrate the effective end of the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Prop. 8 against equal marriage, was bittersweet for many as the Illinois House adjourned from spring session in May without voting on equal marriage.

The march was the largest LGBT demonstration in the Chicago area in recent months as Illinois struggles to pass the legislation.

Andy Thayer, co-founder of Gay Liberation Network, called on attendees to show up at future demonstrations for equal marriage in Illinois, most notably a massive march outside the Illinois Capitol Building in Springfield on Oct. 22. Another march downtown is scheduled for July 13 at Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway.

"We are going to flood Springfield this fall," Thayer shouted.

Thayer took House Speaker Michael Madigan to task for the spring shortfall on the bill, stating that the speaker could have muscled support to pass the bill.

"It's not like we're asking him to do something unpopular or crooked as so many things in this state are," said Thayer.

Rick Garcia, policy director of The Civil Rights Agenda, echoed Thayer's call for LGBTs to apply major pressure to Illinois lawmakers.

"If we want it, we've got to do it," Garcia said. "If you want it, you've got to do it. You've got to hold their feet to the fire. We don't need friends in the General Assembly; we need fighters in the General Assembly."

The March snaked through Boystown and into a stunned Wrigleyville, where business owners and bar patrons ran outside to take photos and cheer.

"Hey Obama, we won't wait, nationwide not state by state!" demonstrators chanted.

Overwhelmingly, the mood was joyous. Passing cars blared their horns, and Lakeview residents cheered from their windows above. From a window above Roscoe's, one group showered the march in confetti.

The rally attracted LGBT leaders from the Illinois Unites for Marriage Coalition, which is pushing for the equal marriage bill, as well as leaders from the Metropolitan Community Church, scheduled host its general conference in Chicago the first week of July.

A number of Boystown bars chipped in money for a sound and stage setup just hours before the rally. Those businesses included Roscoe's, Scarlet, D.S. Tequila, Steamworks and Minibar.

The march concluded without incident.

Videos by Kate Sosin: Rev. Elder Darlene Garner of the Metropolitan Community Church in Maryland speaks and video of the March.





