Another benchmark in civil rights progress in America was set on Sunday as Binghamton University freshman Sam Sussman delivered a speech that reached the ears of Americans desperate for social change.

As a reward for winning the “Equality Across America” contest, Sussman spoke at Washington, D.C. as part of a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rally.

Sussman said it was time for civil changes in America. He rallied along with advocates who lobbied for “unequivocal equality for the LGBT rights, the rights to adopt children, rights for marriage.”

Among the many disparities for which Sussman called for reform, he highlighted healthcare, military employment and marriage as pressing issues.

“Marriage is a gateway right,” he said. “The Defense of Marriage Act … says that even if individual states allow LGBT couples to marry, the federal government does not allow them to marry. It is both a federal and a state issue.”

According to Sussman, marriage is a federal issue because of the 14th Amendment and it is also a state issue because most of the action is going on at the state level. The end goal is a comprehensive civil rights bill at the federal level.

Andrew Mensi, an undeclared freshman at BU, believed the rally was successful. Though he was not an attendee, he said, “It definitely got some attention, and it definitely raised awareness because during the weekend of the march I could not turn on any news station without hearing something about it.”

Sussman believes that the rally is only a benchmark in obtaining equal rights for LGBT couples.

“We were marching to organize. The next step from here is to organize young people from across the nation in support of equal treatment for the LGBT community,” he said. “There is a national campaign called ‘The Right Side of History.’ The idea is to get young people involved in … the civil rights struggle of our generation. [The plan is to compose a] comprehensive civil rights bill that will repeal Defense of Marriage Act … [and] provide absolute unequivocal equality for LGBT Americans.”

Sean G. Massey, an associate professor of human development, agreed.

“We need to be very vigorous in our legislating, equality for LGBT folks,” he said. “We need to have marriage equality, we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.”

As a professor of two courses — Exploring Queer Lives and Adolescent Development, Special Population — that deal with the LGBT population, Massey believes that the education and awareness about LGBT people is necessary for equality.

“What I believe would be more important is if all our courses throughout the semester focus on diversity around race and gender and sexuality,” he said. “We basically say we’re going to study all the normal people most of the time, and then we are going to bring these exotic others one day of the week during the semester … we need to focus on the fact that our societies are diverse, and that people have many identities at once.”

LGBT marriage has been a hot political topic during the past year. Six months ago, New York State had a debate on whether or not gay marriage should be legalized as civil unions or marriages, or declared invalid.

“There are people who want to be married — they don’t want to be civil unioned,” Sussman said. “Originally, the tradition of marriage involved the sale of women, it was the exchange of women. Then the definition of marriage changed and it came to be the union of two members of the same race … we’ve had shifts in what marriage means traditionally. Now we need a shift again.”

Sussman seemed unfazed by the large audience he addressed.

“It was incredibly inspiring to take a message I have so much conviction in and bring it to such a large audience … and the response … was incredibly inspiring,” he said.

Streaming broadcasts of Sussman’s speech can be found on YouTube at youtube.com/watch?v=zUeyfT671UE.