From the early days of Harvey Milk’s activism (as portrayed by Emile Hirsch in the Oscar-winning movie Milk), to the founding of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and today’s struggle for equal marriage, veteran activist Cleve Jones has been at the center of the LGBT rights movement for the last thirty years.

Now, as the promise from the Obama administration to be a “fierce advocate” for equality for gays and lesbians continues to go unfulfilled—with both the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell upheld since the administration took office—Jones and other activists from across the country are planning a National Equality March as a show of mass support for LGBT rights.

Listen in as Join The Impact Chicago, a grassroots organization leading the local planning for the Equality March, hosts Cleve Jones to discuss the history and current state of the movement for equal rights in the run up to the national demonstration. In collaboration with Young Chicago Authors and local progressive publisher Haymarket Books, the evening included performance pieces from Young Chicago Authors on the theme of LGBT rights, including the Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Teen Poetry Festival winning poem, “The Pink Triangle,” and served as a fundraiser to provide buses from Chicago to the upcoming National Equality March to take place in Washington, DC October 10-11th, 2009.

Recorded Saturday, August 29, 2009 at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater.