From: MMOW2000@aol.com Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 20:20:12 EDT Subject: Notes From The March On Washington... Visit The Millennium March Website At http://www.mmow.org \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Notes From The March \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ News of the Millennium March on Washington Produced by the MMOW Staff June 15, 1999 INDEX: 1. Don't Miss "After Stonewall" on PBS on June 23 2. Have You Picked Up A Copy Of "Out For Good"? 3. MMOW E-Mail News Service Continues To Grow 4. Welcome To The Newest MMOW Endorsing Organization 5. Thanks To Dance 1 Video, MMOW Is Featured in 300 Clubs 6. How National GLBT Marches Change Lives... Be Sure To Read This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1. Don't Miss "After Stonewall" on PBS on June 23 Don't miss the new documentary, "After Stonewall: From the Riots to the Millennium," which will premiere on PBS on Wednesday, June 23rd. Produced by Emmy Award winner John Scagliotti, "After Stonewall" includes prominent coverage of the first three national GLBT Marches on Washington (1979, 1987, and 1993). The documentary also features some of the organizers of the upcoming Millennium March, scheduled for April 30, 2000. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 2. Have You Picked Up A Copy of "Out For Good"? There's an excellent -- and extensive -- new book jut off the press entitled, "Out for Good: The Struggle To Build A Gay Rights Movement In America," authored by New York Times reporters Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney. "Out for Good" provides excellent historical coverage of the first three national Marches on Washington. The new book is published by Simon and Schuster and is available in most bookstores. An excerpt from this outstanding book appears below. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 3. MMOW E-Mail News Service Continues To Grow! The free E-Mail News Service of the Millennium March on Washington continues to grow daily! The MMOW E-Mail News Service is a great way to keep informed of news and events related to the March on Washington. Pass the word! And encourage you friends to sign-up for this free information service. Simply send sign-up requests to MMOW2000@aol.com. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 4. We Welcome A New MMOW Endorsing Organization! We extend a warm welcome to the friends and member of the Gay and Lesbian Political Action Committee of Utah (GALPAC), which endorsed the Millennium March on Washington this week. GALPAC works to promote equality for the GLBT community of Utah, and supports local political candidates who are committed to achieving this goal. They have designated their vice-chair, Kellie Anne Foreman, to serve on the MMOW Leadership Committee. (Every endorsing organization may appoint a member to serve on this national MMOW Leadership Council with full voice and full vote.) We are pleased to welcome GALPAC's 7 board members and more than 250 members to MMOW's rapidly growing list of local, state, regional and national endorsers. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 5. Thanks To Dance 1 Video, MMOW Is Featured In 300 Clubs Thanks to the gang at Dance 1 Video, the March on Washington is now being featured in bars and clubs across the US. Dance 1 Video, called "the gay American Bandstand" by Genre magazine, is the premier provider of music and dance videos -- and their videos play in more than 300 bars throughout the country. The summer dance video features clips of past Marches on Washington -- and invites patrons to visit the official MMOW website at www.mmow.org. For more information on Dance 1, inlcuding club locations, visit their website at www.gaywired.com/danceone/home.html. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 6. How National GLBT Marches Change Lives... LETTER FROM BUTCH McKAY, DIRECTOR OF FL. COASTAL PRIDE: Just a note of endorsement for the Millennium March on Washington scheduled for April 30, 2000... Growing up in conservative Alabama, I never felt that I had a right to be open about my sexuality......I felt I was doing the responsible thing by leading a double life. It was a lot of pressure and strain to try and please myself and society both, but I managed to do so for many years. Being a gay man and losing hundreds of friends to AIDS in the eighties and early nineties and witnessing the discrimination against them, not only because of a virus but mostly because of their sexual orientation, I finally had enough and went to Washington, DC for the 93 March on Washington to show support for some of my HIV+ gay friends. That weekend changed my life forever. I had never had the courage to attend a rally in Alabama or in N. W. Florida where I had relocated. That March gave me the courage and strength to say to myself "I'm Gay and it is okay!" After I dealt with my own internal homophobia, I learned to deal with homophobia in my conservative community. I returned home from that March to Panama City and agreed to be interviewed on the front page of the local newspaper about my Washington, DC experience and what it was like to be a gay male in the Bible Belt. That article was the last hurdle to being total free and comfortable with myself. I have gone on to become a gay activist and Director of an AIDS organization and founder of a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered organization called Coastal Pride. Coastal Pride has signed on in support of the Millennium March on Washington for Equality. My story is only man's opinion, but for me the 93 March on Washington saved my life and set me free. If I had not gone, no telling where I would be in my personal life today. I know that I share the experience of a lot of gay men and lesbians in small southern towns who have had their lives changed for the betterment of themselves and the gay community because of national events like the March on Washington. I encourage everyone to support the Millennium March on Washington for Equality in April of 2000. Please feel free to share my comments. PRIDE is not a birthright, it is a commitment! Keep the Pride, Butch McKay (END) Out for Good The Struggle To Build A Gay Rights Movement In America by Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney copyright by Simon and Schuster, 1999 Excerpt From Page 398: "One last grand scheme had emerged from the smoke of the defeat of St. Paul's ordinance, and it was now absorbing Endean's colleagues back in Minneapolis: a national lesbian and gay rights march on Washington, patterned after the black civil rights and anti-war marches of the 1960's and early 1970's. The idea had surfaced with a splash at a lesbian-feminist fundraiser held at the University of Minnesota in spring 1978. "What are you planning to do if you lose?" demanded Robin Tyler, the lesbian-feminist comedienne from Los Angeles who was the main entertainment. She was referring to the imminent repeal of the city's gay right laws. They had to fight back, she told the audience. "We ought to have a march on Washington. We could all sleep in tents on the Mall. You know how gay men love to camp." It was a pun, a joke on gay male sensibilities. But when the women started roaring again, Robin Tyler realized that they liked the idea. "Tyler returned to Los Angeles after her show, but in Minnesota, in the grim aftermath of the St. Paul Repeal, the idea of a march caught fire, and a committee was formed. There was something particularly lovely, in such a glum period, about the image of a vast, might gay throng advancing down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol. But short on money and rent by tensions between women and men, the Committee for a March on Washington collapsed by the end of October. There was little support for the idea in Washington, or even in California, where Harvey Milk, in the midst of the Briggs fight, was dismissive for this idea from Minnesota. "But with the Briggs initiative defeated, Milk embraced the concept, Robin Tyler had spread the seeds in stage appearances in California, too, some of which she shared with Milk, and Milk, was now arguing that the march be held on July 4, 1979, because it would have "great symbolic impact, reminding people of the Declaration of Independence, in which gay people were left out." Endean, who made of secret of his dislike for Milk, was appalled. "Do you know what Harvey Milk's talking about?" Endean fumed on the telephone to Kerry Woodward. What a numbskull idea, Endean though. Congress would be in recess for the summer. The city would be an oven. If the march failed to attract big numbers, it would be devastating to a movement whose sense of siege had just been lifted by the electoral victories in Washington, DC., California and Seattle. It would make his job at GRNL even more difficult. And if the march succeeded in exciting gay activists across the country, it would be hard to compete for resources against it, when his own organizational goal seemed such a different glimmer. "Either way -- succeed or fail -- Endean couldn't see a national march on Washington helping. The other movement people in Washington, as well as the leadership of the National Gay Task Force in New York, the Metropolitan Community Church, and the groups Dignity and Integrity, all felt the same way. The march wasn't their project, and it made them nervous. But the whole equation changed when Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in San Francisco." (copyright Simon and Schuster, 1999)