Gay-Rights March to Get a Salute on Farecards
:from The Washington Post    lifted without permission
 
 
     The month's planned gay-rights march will receive a $20.000
promotional boost next week when 2 million Metrorail Farecards go
on sale with a special message advertising the April 25 event.
     The usual Farecard instructions that appear on the back of
Metro tickets will be gone, replaced by the greeting, "Welcome to
the '93 Gay and Lesbian March on D.C."
     Overlooked Opinions Inc., which does market research and
surveys for gay clients, paid Metro $20,000 for the advertising
space and will include information about the company-owned
CommunitySpirit, a long-distance telephone service that donates 2
percent of its profits to gay organizations. 
     Jeffrey J. Vitale, president of Overlooked Opinions, said he
was in Washington for the 1987 gay-rights march and bought a
Metrorail ticket with a similar greeting that was sold during that
event.
     "I said,'Wow! That is a very powerful message,'" Vitale said
yesterday. "I was one of the few to get one back then. I thought
someday I might get to purchase a message for all the tickets." 
     The April 25 march is officially known as the 1993 March on
Washington for Gay, Lesbian and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.
     Patricia Lambe, a Metro spokes-woman, said ads on Farecards
have been sold since 1984, with a minimum order of 1 million
tickets required. She said most companies that buy the space are
fast-food restaurants.
     Lambe said Vitale's company requested that the tickets be
available throughout the Metrorail system, not just the stations
where marcher would probably buy tickets. 
     "I wouldn't be surprised if we get some calls from people who
don't like it," she said.  "We get calls on everything. But we are
not anticipating a major negative response."