HIGH GEAR PAGE 15

Lesbian & Gay Rights...October 14, 1979

The National March On Was Son For

Lesb

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.

---Jenner

At the March

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 les bian 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.

10 YEAS 9 AFTER WE ARE OR NS

BEHR PAN THAN LATENT

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 whenever 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'ail 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 jojn overnight... and sometimes with just the twinkling of an eye and Harvey Milk

--courtesy of Arizona Gay News, 11/2/79