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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE MAY 14, 1993
D.C. agenda: Visibility, having fun, ending bias and AIDS
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crimination that gay men and lesbians continue to face.
The demands of the March, originally 55, later reduced to 7, can perhaps be summarized further as: ensure unencumbered equal rights for everyone, cure AIDS now, and stop legislating people's private sexual lives. The March's awkward official name, created from the angst of a committee trying to represent an entire subculture, suggests the real purpose, and ultimate success, of the event. For the first time, what everyone has informally known as the "gay community" came together and showed that we are at the same time very similar and very diverse. March organizers did achieve an unpublished goal: those who marched were overwhelmingly middle class and middle of the road.
Most of the campy gay culture that passes for mainstream in the minds of some straights was limited to performances on the rally stage Sunday evening. Though they were there, it was much harder to find crossdressers and "dykes on bikes"-the symbols of the fringe-along the march route or on the Mall.
"For the first time there was a much more representative sampling of who this community is," said Torie Osborn, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "The media in general showed our real diversity. There was not an attempt to marginalize this march."
It is impossible in a news article to describe all of the different people who arrived in support of the March, because every aspect of society was there. All religions, all professions, all political leanings, all races and ethnicities, all genders, all ages, all abilities, and yes, all sexual orientations.
Yet with all this diversity, we could see the need and the urgency to come together and make this one statement on this one day. There was a purpose to our being in Washington, and regardless of personal agendas or differences, everyone there recognized
the commonality of the cause and the need to be counted.
Seeing the thousands of gay men and lesbians in every
store, on every street, in every
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Defense and Education Fund, the Campaign for Military Service, all held strategy meetings or "lobby days" to instruct individuals on how to visit their Congressional representatives and urge a pro-gay stance.
AIDS activists used the opportunity to stage protests and demand better and faster response to the epidemic. The March on Washington Committee held volunteertraining and, in cooperation with other groups, staged fundraising concerts and dances throughout the weekend.
Art exhibits, movie screenings, stage productions throughout the city all catered to the huge gay audience that started arriving
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hotel, on every Metro was not just empowering. It was overwhelming. Imagine an African American journeying to Africa, or an Asian American visiting Asia, and suddenly finding that they are no longer a minority. But it was even more powerful than that because there was no reverse discrimination when we got there: everyone in Washington was in exuberant spirits; nowhere did we find an incident reported of bad attitude, impatience, or hate, despite the crushing crowds. And it was more powerful because gay people have no "homeland" to journey back to. In Washington that weekend we created our homeland, our Camelot, our Brigadoon, our Oz. But the energy level was so high that even when we left we took it with us.
The events
Like any great convergence, events leading up to and following it took on lives of their own. In the week preceding the March, many gay and lesbian groups held national conferences or arranged receptions. The major gay political lobbying groups: the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, Lambda Legal
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mid-week. Social groups, activist groups, religious groups, and support groups all created their own events that built to a crescendo by the weekend. If you know someone who doesn't understand gay people and thinks only of sexual de-
pravity, the
ciation to demand faster development and lower cost of AIDS drugs. Police struggled with demonstrators who were trying to raise a ladder and hang a sign on the building but there were no arrests.
At 3 pm there was a sing-along at the Capitol of "Together Proud and Strong," the commissioned anthem of the March. The Campaign for Military Service, which had launched a six-week, 24-state "Tour of Duty" bus tour calling for a lift in the ban on gays in the military, held a "welcome home” rally downtown.
The United States Holocaust Museum, which was dedicated before the March weekend and opened to the public on Monday, April 26, served as a focal point of interest to gay men and lesbians. The museum staff had been able to find material and document evidence about the 10,000 gays who were sent to concentration camps by the Nazis. A memorial ceremony was held outside the building on Friday evening featuring Barrett Brick of the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Organizations. A number of Marchers were able to see the museum before they left on Monday.
Those arriving on Friday evening could take part in receptions, dances, concerts and a growing sense of excitement.
The weekend
Saturday started with organizational meetings, veteran memorial services, power breakfasts, and sporting events, including a "Fun Run" and a soccer game.
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best remedy may be to hand them a copy of the events list for that weekend, to see gay people in every realm of society.
ACT UP members were busy during the week, protesting President Clinton's inaction on AIDS issues and drug company policies. On Thursday, several hundred activists marched from Dupont Circle to the White House. Then on Friday morning, ACT UP staged a demonstration at the Health and Human Services building. Later that day more than 1,000 staged a march to the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Asso-
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Gay and lesbian veterans, some in
military uniform, gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial to remember fallen comrades and protest the ban on gays in the armed services.
"If all the gays in the military walked out, there would be no military," said Cliff Anchor, 57, a former California National Guard reserve specialist. "We're everywhere. We're the invisible minority."
PHOTO BY BRIAN DEWITT
Although organizers of the ceremony complained that they had been denied a permit to gather in Arlington National Cemetery, dozens of the protesters quietly walked across the Memorial Bridge to the cemetery for an impromptu memorial observance.
The Chronicle reporting staff managed to squeeze in with hundreds of other gay journalists and schmooze at the breakfast hosted by the Washington Blade.
The Names Project "started" the AIDS Quilt at 10 am: this time instead of displaying completed sections, memorial folk art was created on the spot as people brought new panels to be fastened into the framework and signature panels on the Mall at 14th Street. This was where its modest 2,000 panels had first been displayed during the 1987 March. The full Quilt had last been seen in Washington in October, 1992, covering over 15 acres with more than 21,000 panels. For this display, the Names Project anticipated 2,000 new memorials during the weekend hours.
At 11 am the Wedding took place outside the IRS Building. This was an interfaith union performed by the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church. Thousands of couples, clad in clothes ranging from jeans and leather to tuxedos and cream-colored dresses, jammed the middle of blocked-off Constitution Avenue, clasping hands, to be formally united. They repeated after Perry, "We proclaim together our rights as couples." When he said, "Couples you may kiss," they all followed his instructions. The Wedding March blared from loudspeakers, and handfuls of rice
flew in the air. Later, they drew chalk hearts with their names on the pavement. Those who went on to the reception at Tracks nightclub found an enormous wedding cake waiting; each corner of each tier accented with a miniature same-sex couple.
At noon, ACT UP staged their major rally, "Hands Around the Capitol" which conservatively attracted 30,000. Demonstrators followed an 8,000 foot red ribbon around the outer walkway so that the entire Capitol grounds were surrounded. The organization of it was a little rough, but the point was made. In many places the line was three or four deep. A rally followed the encircling which again was a logistical disaster but, for those who stayed, was inspiring, despite a brief rain shower. A number of speakers, including the cantankerous Larry Kramer, preached to the converted.
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