PAGE 14 HIGH GEAR
Reports and reactions
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HIGH GEAR PAGE 15
The National March On Washington For Lesbian & Gay Rights...October 14, 1979
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"You should be reminded that the last stragglers of the March were tear-gassed by persons unknown. I do not want another gay person tear-gassed at a peaceful demonstration in the rest of history."
Ray Hill
"The issue is not crotch politics...this is not a movement from the waist down. We are talking about our right to choose. We are demanding our civil rights. Today is the beginning of a new era for us." Robin Tyler
"We're 20-million strong and we're not going to ask any more, we're demanding America, that you deal with us!"
Arlie Scott
"We must transform the experience of people viewing others as objects to be manipulated mastered, and consumed, to subjects like him/her self, to be respected and cherished."
Harry Hay
"And freedom shall ring in this country. We demand that it ring for all Americans, regardless of their sexual orientation. Or else it will continue to ring false, and in time it will not ring at all for anyone." Betty Santoro
Finding common bonds
by Richard Fung
I feel like a fortune cookie in a tray of cheese Danishes... I can't grow a moustache, I don't make a convincing cowboy. I'm stuck with the costume I was born with. It's a costume because I have been to Asia only on holidays and I don't speak any Asian language. Yet someone can tell me seriously that he "really gets off on orientals."
Gay society in North America, organized and commercial, is framed around the young middle-class white male. He is its customer and its product. Blacks, Asians and Latin Americans are the oysters in this meat
market. At best we're a quaint speciality for exotic tastes. Native people aren't even on the shelves.
To make our voices heard, non-white lesbians and gay men have organized. "When Will the Ignorance End?" was the theme of the first National Third World Gay Conference held in Washington DC, October 12 to 15. Sponsored by the National
Constituent Lobby Day
WASHINGTON, D.C.---With over 500 people participating in the first National Lesbian/Gay Constituent Lobby Day on the Monday After the March on Washington, the Gay Rights National Lobby described it as a major advance for the on-going national lobbying effort. Over 50 Senators' offices and 150 Congresspersons' offices were lobbied during the day. In addition to the fact that it marked the first time that substantial numbers of gay constituents have met with their Senators and Congresspeople, it actually resulted in additional co-sponsors for the gay rights legislation in both Houses.
The Constituent Lobby Day was coordinated by a committee of the March on Washington, The Gay Rights National Lobby
worked in cooperation with the March Committee and was responsible for the training session in the morning to provide background on pending legislation and the debriefing after the Congressional visits.
Among the new co-sponsors resulting from the day are Representatives Leon Panetta (DCalifornia) and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-New York). Panetta, who had previously declined to co-sponsor, indicated that the constituent delegation (of over 15 people) convinced him that there is adequate support in the district.
Senator Moynihan, who met with the New York delegation, agreed to co-sponsor Senator Tsongas' soon-to-be-introduced fair employment bill. This ful-
filled his pledge to the late Bob Livingston, who was a former aide and prominent activist. Moynihan's co-sponsorship is considered extremely important because he is one of the leading spokespersons of the more conservative wing of the Democratic Party.
Kerry Woodward, who coordinated the Gay Rights National Lobby's efforts on the Constituent Lobby Day, said, "Constituent Lobby Day proved the importance of individual and local involvement in lobbying their U.S. Senators and Representatives. Lobbyists came back excited and confident of their impact on Congress. This kind of pressure must now be continued by constituents in all parts of the country."
Coalition of Black Gays, it and women to talk, sing, dance. brought together over 500 men to discover our history, to learn and to organize.
The homophobia of our "ethnic" communities and the subtle racism of the gay community combine to isolate us and produce a kind of cultural schizophrenia. But in Washington for the first time I was both gay and nonwhite and in the majority. The experience was energizing.
An Asian caucus was formed by lesbians and gay men with Japanese, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, Malaysian and Phillipino backgrounds from North America, Asia and the
Caribbean.
Although our different roots had led to different experiences in North American gay social life, we were able to find a common bond in the context of the Third World Movement and solidarity with our black, hispanic and native brothers and sisters. And if for many of us it was the first time we had spoken with other Asian
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gays, we immediately recognized each others' stories.
When we marched from the conference site through the black community and Chinatown to join with the First National Gay Rights March, many of us were showing gay pride to our communities for the first time. I remember the smiles and waves of two old black women as we passed their bus stop, the veiled curiosity of early risers in Chinatown and the speech by a Japanese-American lesbian mother who told the giant National rally that America and the American gay movement must deal with its racism.
When will the ignorance end? When there are so many Latin, Native, Asian and Black gay men and lesbians organized and out, that no amount of white-washing or straight lacing can keep us hidden.
Washington was just the beginning.
-courtesy of The Body Politic, 11/79
Don't Tread on Me
At the March
The National March
On Was on For Lesb
Never were we as strong
By Peter Dorian "Listen America, you know us, you know us America, we're your neighbors, teachers, and friends. We're in your churches, classrooms, and, I dare say, in your White House, America. We're some of your closest relatives. Your mothers and fathers. Listen America for we're some of your daughters and sons. We are everywhere. We're lesbian and gay men, and we're not in the closet any longer."
Washington, D.C. here we are, over 100,000 of us right on your door step. Hello, America!
That was part of the reality on October 14, 1979, at the first lesbian and gay March on Washington. With over 100 Christians praying that gay people would repent their sins, united lesbian and gay people became one of the largest and most peaceful demonstrations held in Washington, D.C.
October 14, was a date within the week of October 10 thru the 17, 1979, officially declared Gay Observance Week by Mayor Berry.
Numbers attending the March varied with almost every newspaper in the country with figures ranging from 25,000 to 250,000, and rumor had it that we possibly out-polled the attendance of the Pope. Never were we as strong, however. Challenged by only a few spectators' frowns, three or four hecklers complete with antigays signs, and an inconsistent D.C. sky gave us all a few added chills now and then. Whatever number of us there were, we displayed to the world just how many colors and flavors of lifestyles we come in. From the drag queens through the boys next door, right to and including the levi-leathers, (Incidently, hand cuffs are considered legal weapons in Washington, boys!) with third world feminists and lesbians in vast numbers too, not only representing our United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, but 23 foreign countries
as well. I was also proud to see our physically-challenged brothers and sisters present in large numbers as well. In seeing them, I could not help wonder why so many more people could not be there.
A Los Angeles marching band began the march at 12:00 P.M., down (or up) the two-mile stretch, passing many points of interest including the White House. (President Carter was not
to be seen) past mounds of mounted police, to the rally in the shadows of the Washington Monument. We were also the first demonstration to be simultaneously broadcast over the Pacifica Radio waves.
Over all, having shown a powerful display to America and people around the world in our first attempts on a national level of fighting back, it shouldn't be difficult to see that someone very much like Anita Bryant was probably the first person some 2000 years ago to cry out, "Crucify Him!" Thank you to whomever attended in helping us begin to pull out the nails on yet another persecution.
One final note, although Cleveland had one of the better crowd turn outs, as two bus loads of Clevelanders passed one of the more popular discos in Cleveland on the way to D.C., I couldn't help wishing that all the cars parked in the lot were going to Washington and two bus loads of people left in the bars. I might also add, that Donna Summer and The Village People did not show any support towards our cause in any way. (I wonder if the Village People are really Ready For The Eighties?) We did receive telegrams from Joan Baez and Jane Fonda. Thank God for old faithfuls! I presume when the number of cars parked in bars' lots around the country turn into the number of people going to march, then we'll be able to say that we REALLY made America listen. Let's hope for the future.
BOSTON, MA -The March on Washington Media Committee has assembled news clippings from over 45 daily and weekly newspapers from the mainstream media. Eric Rofes, Media Consultant for the March, told GCN, "This information has been photocopied and is available for anyone interested in seeing how the mainstream media throughout the nation covered the March. While certain newspapers like the Globe and the Los Angeles Times were irresponsible in their coverage, many newspapers, particularly in rural areas, gave impressive coverage to the march. This packet gives people throughout the country something to compare their local paper's coverage with."
People are asked to send a $5 donation to cover costs in putting together the book to Eric
Rofes, March on Washington, 45 Garden St. #6, Boston, MA 02114. Anyone having news clippings on the March should send them to the above address.
SOON
I will march I will fight
Not today, not tomorrow But I will.
Today I listen, learn Stockpile, categorize But that will end. And I too will one day be able to stand strong. firm to fight with and for us.
I will become visibly and audibly -me.
10 YEARS O AFTER WE ARE OUR NET
BEHR PA THAN LATEN
--Jenner
photos by Carl Hammond and Jerry McCoy
March Memories
by D.W. --having American Airlines unwittingly give me a lavender baggage tag for my backpack, to indicate their refusal to be responsible for any damage it might receive.
--the conspiritorial pleasure of identifying myself as Gay to the two lesbians who sat down in front of me, enroute to Washington.
--the glee of then being joined in our conspiracy, by the young lady next to me, who'd just figured out why we were giggling and then felt safe in identifying herself to us as a lesbian. --Robin Tyler's suggested theme for the March -"Ready or not, here we come!"
--a magnificently coiffed. dressed and demeanored blonde lady, straight out of a TV commercial, who carried a sign for the Orange County Parents of Gays, which read, "I'm proud of my Gay son." --the joy of women present whe-
never lesbian songs were sung. --the many references to the appropriateness of and/or dis-
may at holding such an assembly
at the base of the nation's largest phallic symbol.
the joy of that crowd, a joy that amply demonstrated the validity and appropriateness of the term "Gay."
the widely bought and proudly worn buttons from Dade County which read, "You have just been patronized by a GAY AMERICAN."
--and the magnificent doubletake I got from the stewardess in Dallas, where I changed planes returning from the March.
--the two guys who worked their way forward through the march on roller skates carrying their cowboy boots.
--the Rally-expressed suggestion that if homosexuality is a disease, why don't we all call in sick tomorrow?
--the modified lesbian song lyrics that ran, "We're a gentle. angry people."
--seeing nearly a fifth of the crowd join in, when one of the performers asked us to do the next verse of her song in American Sign Language
--the bubbles that drifted up from the crowd as we all sang together "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."
--the repeated facial expressions of amazement by persons in front of me who were hoisted up onto the shoulders of their companions to look back and see the true size of the crowd, as it stretched all the way from 17th Street to the base of the Washington Monument.
--the crush of happy humanity at every Gay bar, bath and ghetto 1 visited in D.C.
--the ability to identify almost any Gay watering hole in town by the lines out front of all of them. --"Culture Shock's" question whether it's true that straights reproduce because they can't recruit?
-Kate Millet's observation that "we are the only minority in the world that a person can join overnight... and sometimes with just the twinkling of an eye. and Harvey Milk --courtesy of Arizona Gay News, 11/2/79