>From: "Russell Johannesson" <russell@cpp.pha.pa.us>
>Date: Sat, 7 May 1994 20:46:58 -0500 (EST)

                               SOS
                       Spirit of Stonewall
                       c/o Gayme Magazine
                          PO Box 15645
            Boston, MA  02215     Tel.(617) 695-8015
                       Fax (617) 266-1125
                     NAMBLA MARCHES WITH US
                 AT STONEWALL 25, JUNE 26, 1994

Spirit of  Stonewall (SOS)  calls on Stonewall 25 and the gay and
lesbian movement  to return  to its roots. The Christopher Street
uprising was  an outcry by those at the bottom and on the margins
of society  against puritanical  self-righteousness and  bigotry.
It was  a cry  for full sexual liberation as part of the struggle
for social  justice.   Stonewall was  the spontaneous  action  of
marginal people  oppressed by  the mainstream  - of teenaged drag
queens, pederasts, transsexuals, hustlers, and others despised by
respectable straights  and "discreet"  homosexuals.  They did not
call for  their rights,  they seized their own freedom.  They did
not ask  for integration into middle-class America, they screamed
against its pretensions of propriety.

SOS is  an ad hoc committee of lesbian, gay and other individuals
and groups formed to bring Stonewall 25 back to the principles of
gay liberation.   We  focus on one of the most glaring departures
from those principles:  the attempt to exclude the North American
Man/Boy Love  Association (NAMBLA),  and possibly  other  groups,
from  the   Stonewall  25  March  and  from  their  place  within
gay/lesbian space and discourse.

Red-baiting, scapegoating,  censorship and  exclusion  have  been
hallmarks of  American society.  Just as unions, the civil rights
and peace  movements were  pressured  to  cleanse  themselves  of
suspected "communists,"  the lesbian/gay movement is now expected
to rid  itself of  social misfits, the vulnerable pederasts first
of all.  Never before has such an ostensibly progressive movement
jumped so  quickly through  the hoops  of its  enemies.  At least
there  were   years  of   debates  among  activists  before  some
capitulated to  McCarthyism.   ILGA, the  Human  Rights  Campaign
Fund, Stonewall  25, and  others  who  claim  to  support  sexual
minorities and human rights have stumbled over each other as they
rush to deny these rights to those deemed unacceptable.

We find  this the  height of  hypocrisy -  to invoke  the name of
Stonewall to  cast out the alleged molesters among us.  The issue
is not,  first of  all, intergenerational  sex - although that is
one the  movement needs  to confront  honestly rather than avoid.
SOS takes  no stand  specifically on  age of  consent laws or sex
between adults  and those  deemed legally "children."  The issues
that now  confront Stonewall 25 are free speech, free association
and inclusiveness.

NAMBLA's record  as a responsible gay organization is well known.
NAMBLA was  spawned by  the gay  community and  has been in every
major gay  and lesbian  march.  It has demonstrated in solidarity
with people with AIDS, and for lesbians in custody cases.  NAMBLA
takes progressive  positions  on  U.S.  intervention  in  Central
America, the  military  draft,  reproductive  rights,  the  death
penalty,  corporal   punishment  and  racism.    NAMBLA  publicly
condemns the  exploitation of  children, including genuine sexual
abuse.   NAMBLA believes the interests of young people demand not
paternalistic protection,  but empowerment  to make real choices.
Every organization within Stonewall 25 need not endorse every one
of the  other organization's  positions.   NAMBLA's call  for the
abolition of  the age  of consent  is not the issue.  NAMBLA is a
bona fide  participant in  the gay  and lesbian movement.  NAMBLA
deserves  strong  support  in  its  rights  of  free  speech  and
association and  its members'  protection from discrimination and
bashing.

     Unless we return to the principles of Stonewall, the fate of
NAMBLA  today   may  be   the  fate   of  other  "different"  and
"controversial" causes  tomorrow.    Gay  and  lesbian  activists
before Stonewall  understood the  task of  liberation.   We agree
with the 1951 Mattachine Society slogan:  "We will integrate as a
group on  our own  terms, or  we will  not integrate at all."  We
will define  our own  agenda and decide for ourselves who we are!
Within our  movement, if our brother or sister self-identifies as
gay, we  will march  with them  and they  with us.   We  call  on
Stonewall 25  to rescind  its attempt  to ban NAMBLA.  Meanwhile,
SOS announces:  NAMBLA marches with us!

SIGNED:  Harry Hay, Pat Califia, Gayle Rubin, Chris Bearchelli,
Scott O'Hara, Charley Shively, David Thorstad, Tom Reeves, Jim
Becker AND:

NAME:___________________________________________________________

ADDRESS:________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________
Telephones:

(h)__________________(w)________________(FAX)___________________

Identification:  (Writer, Activist, Professor, Name of
Organization or Publication, etc. - does not imply endorsement):

________________________________________________________________

GROUP ENDORSEMENT:  (if a group officially endorses the SOS call)

________________________________________________________________

I (WE) WILL MARCH IN NEW YORK, SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 1994 WITH
SOS:________________________________
WE CANNOT MARCH, but we will march "in spirit":_________________
WE NEED HOUSING (Limited Availability at $30 per night, two to
three persons per room):______________________