 In a city and county that had already seen more than a decade of multiple pioneering successful openly lesbian and gay candidates for local office, the marches also had a marked positive political effect, including boosting efforts at the level of Madison Council and Dane County Board to pass legislation providing some measure of domestic partner benefits.In general, the successful organizing efforts that surrounded these initial marches also provided a positive example of what greater Madison's LGBT community members could accomplish working together—laying the groundwork for the political mobilization and coalition-building work that would eventually lead to the election, from Madison, of the nation's first openly lesbian Congresswoman.The first march's rally featured a variety of distinguished speakers, including Madison Alderperson Ricardo Gonzalez (the nation's first openly gay Latino-American elected official), State Rep. David Clarenbach (principal author of Wisconsin's 1982 first-in-the-nation LGBT rights law), and then Dane County Supervisor Tammy Baldwin.