From: MMOW2000@aol.com Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 19:31:14 EDT Subject: Millennium March: A Retrospective of the First 14 Months 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: MMOW2000@aol.com Website: http://www.mmow.org