Subject: FWD: BARBARA SMITH LETTER-CRITICISM OF MILLENIUM RALLY GROWS
From: HRTF FL <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 16:14:37 EDT

AUTHOR/ACTIVIST BARBARA SMITH JOINS CRITICS OF PROPOSED MILLENIUM RALLY;
CHALLENGES ORGANIZERS EXCLUSIONARY TACTICS.

I want to share my criticisms of the proposed Millennium March on
Washington and of the march planners' process of excluding grassroots
participation of people of color and other constituencies.  It is clear
to me at this point in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
movement's history that we need to prioritize doing organizing where we
live.  The proposal to carry out co-ordinated simultaneous actions in the
fifty state capitals is a much more useful and strategic plan and one
that I thoroughly support.

Another march on Washington organized by conservative and moderate white
forces that have the single-issue agenda of petitioning the establishment
to extend a few gay rights, will do little to address the pressing needs
of l/g/b/t people of color.  We don't simply need gay rights.  We need
social, political, and economic justice which means at the very least
that we need to work with those who have been and continue to be
*actively* committed to eradicating racism, sexism, and class oppression
as well as homophobia.   

Elizabeth Birch, executive director, of the Human Rights Campaign, is
quoted in the April 17th issue of the WASHINGTON BLADE as stating:  "We
have not always done our best.  We have not always been a good neighbor. 
But this year, you will see us at the Black Lesbian and Gay Pride weekend
and at other major events."  Being "a good neighbor" and showing up at
Black events is besides the point.  What is to the point is the
articulation of a serious, anti-racist activist platform that would lay
out specific strategic actions for challenging racism both in the society
as a whole and within the white l/g/b/t movement.  With such a platform 
HRC would have been one of the first voices we heard when Haitian
immigrant Abner Louima was brutalized by the Brooklyn police last summer
or when African immigrant Oumar Dia was murdered by a white skinhead in
Denver last November.  Birch's statements sound frighteningly similar to
those made by Ralph Reed and other members of the pseudo-Christian right
wing when numerous Black churches were being burned a couple of years
ago.  Institutionalized white supremacy is hardly a problem of good and
bad "neighbors."

The BLADE article also cites the e-mail campaign started on March 30th by
the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan
Community Churches (UFMCC) which is the other initiator of the Millennium
March, to pressure the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum
and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to endorse the march without
ever seeking the input of the Forum.  Perry is quoted in the article as
stating, "Ask them to come on board and to endorse the march.  Let them
know how much we want and need and -expect- their support."  The fact
that the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum and other people
of color were not communicated with from the very beginning when the
Millennium March was being conceived, but are now expected to sign on
after the fact is the epitome of undemocratic tactics as well as of
racism.  

I believe this is a crucial time for the Forum and all l/g/b/t people of
color to stand firm on principle and not to be bought off.  We have an
opportunity to demonstrate that we demand consistent respect, that we
refuse to be tokenized, and are committed to total liberation for all
people, not merely to getting a few rights, that is, crumbs from their
table.  We have a great opportunity to define our movement, to honor our
heritage of struggle, and to establish our place in history.  I sincerely
hope we will take it.

In solidarity and struggle,

Barbara Smith
Albany, New York
[email-masked]  

Barbara Smith is an Activist, Editor and Publisher. Founder and Publisher
Emeritus of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Smith is currently
researching and writing a history of Black lesbians and gays in the U.S. The
Kitchen 
Table Collective's best sellers include: "This Bridge Called My Back", 
and "Home Girls." Additionally Smith co-edited, "Conditions: Five, The 
Black Women's Issue" and "All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are 
Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies." [BLK, BGLLF, HG]