GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE APRIL 16, 1993

At 11th hour, hour, Park Service opens Mall to the March

After two months of negotiations, organizers of the National March on Washington have obtained permission to hold the event on the Mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. Permission to use the space had initially been denied by the National Park Service, after the Mall was reseeded following Inaugural festivities in January.

March organizers met in early April with nearly forty representatives from various governmental agencies, among them the National Park Service, the Secret Service, the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan D.C. Police. At the meeting the March was informed that the Mall would be available for the April 25 event.

The eleventh hour-approval of the Mall permit was due in large part to the intervention of Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass., and his

staff. After Studds became aware of the situation, he arranged a series of meetings with the Park Service and personally raised the issue with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in a private meeting.

An anonymous donor also pledged to cover the Park Service's estimated $300,000 cost of reseeding and repairing the mall a second time after the March.

The initial permit applications were submitted nearly a year ago, on April 27, 1992. The Park Service did not respond to the applications until February of this year, at which time organizers were.given a verbal denial and told that the snow fences had already been put up for the repairs from the Inaugural. The Park Service confirmed its denial of the permits in writing on February 19.

March co-chair Billy Hileman, who led

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the negotiations, commented: "We consider this quite a victory for the March. As far as we know, no other event of this nature has ever been able to overturn a categorical denial of a permit by the Park Service. For symbolic, logistical and safety reasons, opening the Mall for this event was critical. I am extremely grateful to Studds for his assistance; without him this agreement might have never occurred."

Hileman continued: "During the negotiations we issued strong protest that repairing the Mall for summertime events meant that those events were being given priority over our civil rights demonstration, even though it was impossible for anyone to have a permit in before ours. This brings in the issue of fairness in the Park Service review policies."

On the issue of the financial guarantee for the Mall restoration, Hileman commented that he does not want this to become a precedent for free speech gatherings in public areas. "This was a special situation because of the existing damage caused by the Inaugural festivities. In no way does the March support the implementation of permit review standards which would hinder groups with limited financial access from conducting rallies or demonstrations in public areas."

March organizers expect massive numbers of people from around the country, and believe the April 25 event will be the largest civil rights demonstration in American history. Hotel rooms inside the Beltway are virtually impossible to acquire, according to the March's official hotel agency, D.C. Accommodations. All flights into National Airport are sold out on both April 23 and 24; flights, on April 21 and 22 are already at more than 50 percent capacity. Additionally, more than 1,000 buses have been chartered around the nation to bring people to the March and--since Washington is within a day's drive from several large East Coast population centers~more than half the participants may drive into the city that day.

Nadine Smith, another of the four national co-chairs, points out that "All this seems to point to the conclusion that we have reached a pivotal moment in the completion of our unfinished civil rights agenda. We are seeing coalitions being established between civil rights organizations and leaders who in the past would have never worked with each other. People want change--we saw that last November in the elections--and I believe that is going to draw the largest crowd we've ever seen into this city on April 25."

Gay 'pre-marchers' arrested before St. Patrick's parade

New York--The nation's oldest St. Patrick's Day celebration was fragmented by the exclusion of a gay delegation from the 232nd parade. The cardinal celebrated at the cathedral, the mayor at home, the gay protesters at Manhattan Central Booking. Everyone else got wet.

Police arrested 228 protesters Wednesday after they ignored a judge's order and walked up Fifth Avenue six abreast behind the green and white banner of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, more than an hour before the main parade's 11 a.m.

start.

Organizer John Voelcker used a megaphone borrowed from police to remind the several hundred marchers that "Violence is not what we are trying to achieve. If there's violence, the other side... will have won."

Chanting "Hey-hey, ho-ho, homophobia has got to go!" the protesters stepped off in a chilly drizzle. After two blocks, they ran into a line of police.

Then, according to a plan worked out earlier in a huddle outside the Public Library, they knelt or squatted as police cuffed them and moved them into vans and buses. A few refused to walk and were carried away on stretchers.

Among the arrested was openly-gay City Councilman Thomas Duane, who was cheered loudly as he stepped into a police wagon. "Our tax dollars at work," laughed one protester.

Toledo

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conference. "These are groups whose risk of infection is very high." All of the grants were awarded to community-based groups and health departments to fund studies of the spread of the deadly disease.

Other cities receiving awards included Boston; New York; Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; Annandale, Va.; Plainfield, N.J.; Raleigh, N.C.; San Bernardino, Calif.; and San Juan, P.R. Only the Milwaukee grant exceeded the amount awarded to Lucas County.

"The Conference is entering its tenth year of work on the AIDS and HIV threat," Cochran stated. "Over the years, using funding from the federal Centers for Disease Control, the Conference has made grants of well over $5 million to support

Mayor David Dinkins boycotted the parade; instead, he gave a breakfast at Gracie Mansion and told his guests that "a few small-minded individuals have soured this celebration with attitudes of intolerance and exclusion."

Dinkins, who had tried to get the gay delegation into the parade, was referring to members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the parade's traditional sponsor. The city had taken away the Hibernians' parade permit, but a federal judge gave it back, citing the Hibernians' right to freedom of speech, religion and association.

As usual, Cardinal John O'Connor reviewed the parade from the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral, smiling and waving from beneath a canopy. Asked about Dinkins, Gov. Mario Cuomo and other officials who skipped the parade, he said, "Politicians make their own judgments. Thank God I'm not one."

Nearly 4,500 police officers were assigned to the official parade, about 700 to 800 more than normal.

Organizers said about 120,000 people marched, tens of thousands less than usual. The rain and slush held down attendance; spectators along Fifth Ave. were rarely more than three deep.

In Ireland, a gay organization entered a float in the Dublin parade with no appreciable controversy. Last year, a gay group entered a float in the Cork parade, and won a prize.

AIDS education and prevention in communities throughout the U.S."

The director went on to note in his welcoming remarks, "It is a particular point of pride for us that the Conference's Task Force on AIDS was created back in 1983, back when cities were seeing the first warning signs of the AIDS threat. Mayors sounded an early warning which, unfortunately, did not get a response here in Washington for some time. The first leader of our task force was San Francisco Mayor--now California Senator--Dianne Feinstein."

As he was about to introduce the award recipients, Cochran said, "The grants we announce today are designed to support innovative strategies in the battle against AIDS. And beyond this, they are designed to encourage and strengthen collaboration between the community groups and the local health departments which are allied in this battle."