Subject: Millennium March: A Retrospective of the First 14 Months
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 19:31:14 EDT

From the Communications Department of
the Millennium March on Washington for Equality
April 30, 2000 . Washington, DC

Millennium March on Washington for Equality
An Overview of the First 14 Months
Planning... Organizing... Strategizing...

The Millennium March on Washington for Equality, the 4th national March on 
Washington in the history of the LGBT justice movement, will take place on 
April 30, 2000. 

MMOW staff members have prepared the following report as an overview of the 
steps taken and accomplished during the first fourteen months of planning and 
organization for the Millennium March:

1. A meeting was held in Washington, DC in June of 1998 to which 45 state, 
regional and national LGBT organizations sent representatives. These 
participants represented hundreds of thousands of grassroots activists across 
America. Participants affirmed that a March on Washington will to be held 
April 30, 2000.

2. Participants at the June meeting created a Millennium March Board of 
Directors and established board goals of a minimum membership of 50% people 
of color as well as gender parity. These goals have been achieved and 
exceeded.

3. There are currently 15 members of the MMOW Board of Directors. Nine are 
women (60%). And for the first time in the history of the LGBT Marches on 
Washington, 60% of the members of the Board of Directors are people of color, 
including 33% Latino/a, 20% African American, and 7% Asian American.

4.  Seventy-five state, regional and national LGBT organizations have 
endorsed the Millennium March on Washington, among them Rock The Vote, PFLAG, 
National Organization for Women, Gay & Lesbian Bands of America, Human Rights 
Campaign, InterPride, The Feminist Majority, National Center for Lesbian 
Rights, UFMCC, and the 1 million members of College Democrats. A complete 
list of endorsing organizations follows below.

5.  Four members of the MMOW Board of Directors have been named co-chairs of 
the event: Duane Cramer (The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt), Ann DeGroot 
(OUTFront Minnesota), Nicole Murray-Ramirez (National Latino/a Lesbian and 
Gay Organization), and Donna Red Wing (Human Rights Campaign).

6. Robin Tyler Productions has been retained to produce the March. Robin was 
intimately involved with the three previous national Marches on Washington, 
producing the main stage rallies.

7. The Board of Directors established an MMOW Leadership Council. The 
Leadership Council consists of one representative from each endorsing 
organization (for example, Kate Kendell serves as representative for the 
National Center for Lesbian Rights; Christian de la Huerta is rep for Q 
Spirit; Brenda Henson is rep for Camp Sister Spirit) and two at-large members 
from every state and Puerto Rico.

8. A work plan was designed and submitted to the Board of Directors, 
including a detailed budget. This plan was approved.

9. The Board of Directors approved plans to conduct "GLBT Vote 2000" to 
register voters and mobilize GLBT voters to the polls for the presidential 
election in November of 2000. MMOW will coordinate efforts with Jesse 
Jackson's voter registration drive and with the election efforts of "Rock The 
Vote."

10. The Board approved "town meetings" and public forums across the US to 
facilitate local input and organizing. Public meetings have already been held 
in Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Pensacola, Philadelphia and San Diego. 
The Board will also conduct massive Internet polling, allowing every 
grassroots activist in the country to vote on the platform of the Millennium 
March. This level of grassroots participation -- giving every member of the 
LGBT community the opportunity to vote on the March's platform -- will use 
the latest Internet technology and capabilities to make the Millennium March 
the most democratic, participatory March in LGBT history.

11. In the first 13 months, (March 98-April 1, 99) $13,152 was raised and 
$13,004 was spent on expenses, including advertising, travel, postage, office 
supplies, printing, telephones and related expenses.

12.  PlanetOut has signed on as a corporate sponsor of the Millennium March 
with a commitment to provide $250,000 cash -- and a total of more than $1 
million in cash and in-kind services.

13.  The official website has been launched at http://www.mmow.org.

14.  In an historic first, plans have been announced to cybercast the March 
on Washington to the entire world via the Internet. The March will be 
translated into Spanish, French, Chinese, Italian and other languages.

15.  March organizers held a national press conference at the National Press 
Club in Washington, DC on April 30, 1999 to announce GLBT Vote 2000, 
PlanetOut's $1 million sponsorship, the creation of the March's official 
website, and the launching of a series of town meetings across the US.

16. The Board of Directors affirmed that all MMOW Board Meetings will be open 
to the public and the press and will include an open comment period for the 
public.

17.  Several polls show overwhelming grassroots support for the March on 
Washington. The Advocate Magazine's Internet Poll shows 84% of respondents 
support the Millennium March. The DataLounge Poll shows more than 85% 
support. The UFMCC Poll consistently shows more than 90% support by 
grassroots UFMCC members. And the PlanetOut Survey shows that more than 60% 
of the LGBT community wants to attend the Millennium March.

18.  The Board of Directors has retained veteran activist Ginny Foat to serve 
as the March's associate producer and Jim Birkitt to serve as communications 
director.

19.  A significant portion of the profits from the Millennium March will be 
distributed to people of color organizations and to state and local LGBT 
organizations, with the remainder to be determined at a later date.

(END)

"The Millennium March on Washington will be as broad and open and diverse as 
are all of our LGBT communities. It's theme is simple, understandable, 
timely, and urgent -- a call for equality under the law for all citizens."

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The Millennium March on Washington Board of Directors:

Donna Brazile
Chief of Staff - Hon. Eleanor Holmes Norton

Charles Ching
International Court Systems
Former Board Member, GLAAD
Former Board Member, NYC/LG Community Services Center

Dr. Geni Cowan
Professor, California State University, Sacramento

Duane Cramer
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt

Ann DeGroot
OUTFront Minnesota

Ingrid Duran
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute

Dianne Hardy Garcia
Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby of Texas

Kirsten Kingdon
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman
The Freedom to Marry Coalition

David Medina
AFL-CIO

Deborah Oakley-Melvin
InterPride

The Reverend Troy Perry
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches

Nicole Murray-Ramirez
National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization (LLEGO)

Donna Red Wing
The Human Rights Campaign

Jose Alberto Ucles
Whitman Walker Clinic

Affiliations listed for identification purposes only.  

Official Endorsements
(Through June 3, 1999)

Alabama
Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Veterans of America (Birmingham, AL)

Alaska
Equality Under Alaska Law (Anchorage, AK)

California
ACLU Foundation of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
American Baptists Concerned (Walnut Creek, CA)
American Psychological Association — Division 44 (Irvine, CA)
Apple Lambda (GLBT Employee Group of Apple Computer Co.), (Cupertino, CA)
Christian Science Lesbians (Stockton, CA)
Chrysalis Transgendered Organizations (Northern CA)
Community Peacemakers (Oakland, CA)
Companion Press (Laguna Hills, CA)
Evangelical Anglican Church in America (Oakland, CA)
Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (San Francisco, CA)
Gay and Lesbian Parents Coalition (San Diego, CA)
Gay Wired (Bonsall, CA)
Hay Foundation (Carlsbad, CA)
International Imperial Courts Council (San Diego, CA)
Interpride International Association of Pride Groups (San Francisco, CA) 
Lesbian and Gay Bands of America (San Francisco, CA)
Lesbian and Gay Country Music Association (San Francisco, CA)
Lesbians and Gays of African Descent for Democratic Action (San Francisco, CA)
National Center for Lesbian Rights (San Francisco, CA)
Orange County and Long Beach Blade (Laguna Beach, CA)
Planet Out (San Francisco, CA)
Prodigy's Rainbow Universe (El Monte, CA)
Q Spirit (San Francisco, CA)
Rock the Vote (Culver City, CA)
Serra Project (Los Angeles, CA)
Unity Fellowship Church Movement (Los Angeles, CA)
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (Los Angeles, CA)
Woman in the Moon (San Francisco, CA)

Colorado
Empowerment Program (Denver, CO)

Florida
Coastal Pride (Ft. Walton Beach, FL)
Jacksonville Gay Pride Committee (Jacksonville, FL)

Georgia
Georgia Equality Project (Atlanta, GA)

Hawaii
Lambda Aloha (Kapaa, HI)
Marriage Project Hawaii (Honolulu, HI)

Indiana
501 Tavern Indianapolis (Indianapolis, IN)

Maryland
Chi Rho Press (Gaithersburg, MD)
Maryland Gay Resource Center (Baltimore, MD)
National Association of Social Workers — Maryland Chapter (Baltimore, MD)
Western Rite Orthodox Catholic Church (Lanham, MD)

Massachusetts
International Foundation for Gender Education (Waltham, MA)

Michigan
Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project (Ann Arbor, MI)

Mississippi
Camp Sister Spirit (Ovett, MS)

Missouri
Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance @ U of Missouri, St. Louis (Florissant, 
MO)
Other Sheep (St. Louis, MO)

New Hampshire
Gender Talk North (Peterborough, NH)

New Jersey
Trenton Gay and Lesbian Civic Association (Trenton, NJ)

New Mexico
The Experience (Santa Fe, New Mexico)

New York
A & U Magazine (Albany, NY)
EAGLE for International Business Machines Employees (New York, NY)
EON, Inc. (Syracuse, NY)
Gender PAC (New York, NY)
International Association of Lesbian and Gay Children of Holocaust Survivors 
(New York, NY)
Internet Oracle Inc. (New York, NY)
National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (Brooklyn, NY)
Out and About Newsletter (New York, NY)
Pride Community Center of Central New York (Syracuse, NY)
Queer Alliance of Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY)
Ray of Hope Church (Syracuse, NY)

North Carolina
Triangle Survival Network (Durham, NC)

Pennsylvania
Positive Opportunities (Harrisburg, PA)
PrideFest America (Philadelphia, PA)
William Way LGBT Community Center (Philadelphia, PA)

Texas
International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy (Houston, 
TX)
Lambda GLBT Community Services Center (El Paso, TX)
Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (Houston, TX)

Virginia
Catalyst Production (Chantilly, VA)
Feminist Majority (Arlington, VA)

Washington DC
College Democrats of America (Washington, DC)
Dignity USA (Washington, DC)
Human Rights Campaign (Washington, DC)
Lammas Women's Books and More / women's monthly publication (Washington, DC)
Latino/a Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Organization (Washington, DC)
National Organization for Women (Washington, DC)
Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (Washington, DC)
The New Dawn (Washington, DC)

 (END)

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
James N. Birkitt, Jr.
MMOW Director of Communications
15842 Chase Street
North Hills, CA  91343

Tel. (818) 891-1748
Fax: (818) 893-1593

E-Mail: [email-masked]

Website: http://www.mmow.org