Cleve Jones At NYC LGBT Center

National Equality March founder Cleve Jones spoke long and passionately to an enthusiastic overflow crowd at NYC's LGBT Center last night. Numerous well-known activists were in attendance, including Brendan Fay, Gilbert Baker, Lt. Dan Choi, Brandon Brock, and Jeff Campagna, but the only real dissent came from Gay City News' Andy Humm (pictured above on the right, Father Tony on the left). Humm demanded to know what the concrete goals of the March were, leading Jones to repeat his earlier call for "full civil equality in all 50 states."

Mentioning complaints about the March's short lead time, Jones criticized earlier March On Washington events (which had many notable problems), prompting the organizer of the 1987 MOW to lengthily defend its tactics. Jones responded by citing Facebook and other tools of the digital age as obviating the need for yearlong planning. Father Tony provides the video clip below of Jones opening his speech.

UPDATE: Here's World Of Wonder's Wayne Anderson's report from the evening.