JULY 8, 1994

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 13

COMMUNITY GROUPS

Partying while the storm clouds gather

by Joe Carroccio

Back from the Stonewall celebration in New York City. The birth city of our struggle for civil rights. A city decimated by the AIDS plague, where half of all gay men are dying of AIDS. A city with an openly hostile mayor who wanted to do away with the AIDS support unit even though it is the epicenter of the epidemic.

And the organizers of the Stonewall march, the International Gay and Lesbian Alliance, based

Being allowed to fight in the military? We lost that one after we spent millions on the issue, and what do we do to show our outrage? We throw a party on the Intrepid and get dressed up in military uniforms that we are denied in the real world, as a flimsy excuse for an AIDS benefit. Hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters are dead from government genocide, and AIDS is not the main issue? Fag bashing is at an all time high, states and

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in Belgium, decided first that AIDS should not be the main issue, and second, that it was okay with them to be relegated to having our Pride march go up an isolated side street of Manhattan simply because the city government says so? What happened to the spirit of Stonewall? Where is your rage? Why does the gay community allow itself to be kicked in the teeth over and over, and we say, "Okay, we'll march up a side street. We'll do whatever you want." Bullshit. ACT UP took Fifth Avenue and did not succumb to fear and pressure from the city. We did what we had to do in the spirit of the original Stonewall uprising.

It was not okay that an international gay organization that is not even based in the U.S. was allowed to organize this event. This was just laziness on the part of the Stonewall organization. It was not okay that these same people did not feel AIDS should be the issue. It's the only issue, stupid.

And what are we celebrating anyway?

passing ordinances

against us, and we cel-

ebrate? The religious right is grabbing a major political party with the sole intention of destroying us, and we celebrate? We are relegated to a side street to be kept out of the way, an organization from a country that is much more tolerant of gays says that's okay, and we celebrate?

Our community should be taking up arms and getting ready for a revolution in which we will have to kill or be killed. We should be strategizing and organizing, and identifying our enemy and getting prepared for the confrontation that is sure to come.

While the "mainstream" gay organizations celebrate the crumbs that are thrown to them, and say, "Isn't it wonderful that we are finally gaining acceptance," ACT UP will be watching and waiting and fighting the real fight. In the end there are no "mainstream" gay organizations. We are hated all the same. And in the end we'll be condemned all the same, regardless of who was "mainstrean" and who was not.

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