On October 11, tens of thousands of Americans marched through the streets of Washington, DC demanding equal protection under law for gay and lesbian people and for same-sex couples. The National Equality March clearly succeeded in attracting media attention, as wire services and newspapers and television cameras recorded and reported on the event. But the news media were not the ultimate target of the National Equality March. The original selling point of the National Equality March (unfortunately neglected by organizer Cleve Jones) was to pair the march with prior in-district citizen lobbying of members of Congress.

Even though the in-district organizing never took place, perhaps the attention given to issues of LGBT equality had a legislative impact as members of Congress indirectly absorbed pro-LGBT messages. If there was any place in which such an impact would be seen, it would be in the House LGBT Equality Caucus, which has a general mission to “promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality” and a specific slate of 16 bills that it advocates as means to that end.

Have caucus members stepped up their activity? Between September 12 (the last day we reported on the activities of the LGBT Equality Caucus) and today, the following actions have been made by the LGBT Equality Caucus and their members:

* 2 new members of the LGBT Equality Caucus — Reps. Michael Doyle and George Miller — were publicly recognized.

* 1 new bill to repeal the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act was introduced in the House of Representatives by caucus member Jared Polis.

* That bill was blocked from entrance onto the slate of the LGBT Equality Caucus by co-chair Barney Frank, who remarked that the introduction of such a bill was useless because it could never win passage anyway.

* The bill went on to gain 101 cosponsors.

* Members Raul Grijalva, David Wu, Sheila Jackson-Lee and Shelly Berkley added their cosponsorship to slate bill H.R. 2625, a bill to extend the tax benefit of deducting health care costs to include the health care costs of same-sex partners.

* Members Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren and Nita Lowey added their cosponsorship to slate bill H.R. 2262, which would provide grants for anti-bullying educational programs.

* Members Sheila Jackson-Lee cosponsored slate bill H.R. 2517, a bill to grant same-sex domestic partners of federal workers the same benefits package as spouses of federal workers.

* Members David Wu added their cosponsorship to slate bill H.R. 3001, a bill to outlaw discrimination in public health care provision, to create federal tax equity for same-sex couples receiving health plan benefits, and to ensure that same-sex domestic partners of federal employees receive access to a variety of employee benefits to the same extent as married partners.

* Members Nydia Velazquez, Ed Towns, Xavier Becerra and Betty Sutton added their cosponsorship to slate bill H.R. 3017, a bill to to outlaw discrimination in hiring on the basis of sexual orientation.

* None of the bills on the LGBT Equality Caucus slate were passed into law.

In short, there have been some positive changes in the direction of LGBT equality happening in the Congress around the time of the National Equality March. The changes are not, however, revolutionary.

See a full report on the activities of the LGBT Equality Caucus in the 111th Congress here.