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ACLU of Florida’s Field Coordinator Nikki Fisher is attending the 50th Anniversary March on Washington. She will be blogging her experiences for ACLUFL.org This past weekend, I traveled to Washington DC to commemorate the 50th Anniversary on the March on Washington. Friends and colleagues have been asking me how I would describe the trip. The best explanation: I have been on cloud nine since Saturday. The energy, inspiration, and enthusiasm of the crowd were indescribable. The diversity of messages, of people, of generations, and sex, race, religion and everything else all involved in thefight for justice in the United States was inspiring. Seeing the continued struggle of all Americans coming together on Washington is something I will never forget.

The world got a glimpse this week into how the United States treats those we lock in solitary confinement, when the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights heard ACLU testimonies on how our treatment of vulnerable prisoners violates international human rights norms. The short story: we should be ashamed.

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It should be obvious to everyone that America is in the midst of a fast-moving revolution in the way that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals are perceived and treated by the law. Only 27 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ugly decision in Bowers v. Hardwick upholding Georgia’s law criminalizing consensual sex between gay people. It took ten years after that before the legal environment started to change -- and the pace of change has been increasing ever since.