Subject: Public Statement by MMOW Co-Chairs Murray-Ramirez, Cramer
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 15:28:29 EDT

A Public Statement from the 
Millennium March on Washington for Equality
April 30, 2000  .  Washington, DC  .  www.mmow.org

By MMOW Co-Chairs
Nicole Murray-Ramirez and Duane Cramer

A member of the self-styled Ad Hoc Committee, Billy Hileman, recently missed 
an appropriate opportunity to apologize to Robin Tyler, Executive Producer of 
the March on Washington, for his continuing distribution of inaccurate 
information.

His most recent article, "Conflict of Interest," continues to repeat charges 
Hileman now knows to be untrue. He attended a recent MMOW Board Meeting in 
which many of the Ad Hoc Committee's issues were discussed and clarified. 

Hileman is simply disseminating false information. His information is false 
in several areas. 

Three key points deserve attention and public correction.  

First, he is simply mistaken when he accuses the March's Executive Producer 
of blocking hotel rooms for personal gain. Hileman sat in the Board Meetings 
in Chicago just a few weeks ago where it was clearly and unequivocally stated 
that no individual on the board or staff has ever, at any time, held hotel 
room contracts for personal benefit. Ever. Of course the March booked hotel 
rooms before the new corporate entity was set up -- and deserves credit for 
doing so. L'Arc en Ciel, the independent travel agency used at the time, 
assigned commissions directly to the March. Once the official MMOW 
organization was established, every single hotel contract has been reserved 
by the non-profit March organization and every penny of commissions has been 
designated solely for the March. Sadly, Hileman has turned a terrific 
fundraiser, which guarantees lower hotel rates on thousands of rooms (in 
itself a major savings for our community) into something dishonorable and 
untrue, only to further his vendetta against the March.  And it does appear 
to be a vendetta. During the recent open Town Hall Meeting in Chicago and 
made his own bias very clear when he publicly expressed, "I hope this March 
fails!"

Second, Hileman erroneously charges that the MMOW Platform balloting is being 
conducted primarily on the Internet, excluding many people based on race, 
class, sex and economic issues. Again, he knows better. He sat in the same 
room in which we sat during the recent Chicago Board Meetings. He knows the 
Platform ballot not only is being distributed via the Internet, but is 
appearing in magazines and newspapers across the country. It is being 
distributed by volunteers and local activists at community centers, bars, 
clubs, coffeehouses and bookstores and through local, state and regional 
organizations. Hundreds of thousands of paper ballots have been circulated 
across the country. Ballots may be e-mailed, faxed, sent by postal mail -- or 
even turned in to local organizers at absolutely no cost. 

Finally, we find Hileman's pronouncements about racism to be unfounded. As a 
Latino and African-American, respectively, we're tired of white men such as 
Hileman lecturing us about race. Fifty-percent of this MMOW Board of 
Directors are people of color, including five Latino/as, two 
African-Americans, and one Asian-American (for the first time on a National 
March Board).

There's one other fact Hileman conveniently forgets. He has consistently 
ignored the fact that the Latino community represented by LLEGO (Latino/a 
Lesbian and Gay Organization) was one of the original groups to call for the 
Millennium March.  

Hileman also argues that the MMOW Platform Ballot ignores race and economic 
issues. Even a cursory review of the Platform confirms that almost every 
issue there deeply affects people of color, women, youth, and elders. 
Economic justice runs through the issues of the Platform Ballot, including 
keeping our jobs, social security and pension benefits for same-sex couples, 
and health funding. These issues cross race, class, sex and age lines. 
Immigration is certainly a Latino issue and AIDS continues to affect the 
African-American and Latino communities in disproportionate numbers. The 
right to hold jobs affects every American, and the right to serve our country 
would open the US military, the largest employer of minorities in this 
country, to every member of our community. In fact, for a white man to accuse 
African-Americans and Latinos and Asians of being insensitive to issues which 
affect our communities is inherently racist.

Hileman's continuing efforts to send misleading articles to the press and the 
public, articles he knows to be inaccurate, perpetuates division within our 
community. 

Can we disagree?  Of course!  Should we mislead one another?  No!  Hileman 
should take his anger and direct it at our enemies.

We're surprised by Hileman's comments about the democratic process of 
previous marches. Can't the process by changed and improved? The simple facts 
are clear. A few hundred people took part in the platform process in 1992-93. 
Yet in the last three weeks, more than 12,000 people have taken part in the 
current platform process. And based on current response, we project that more 
than 100,000 lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgendered persons and our 
families, friends and allies will take part in the platform process over the 
next three months. It's time to stop attacking and to start celebrating the 
ways MMOW organizers have opened the organizing process to literally
every member of our community.

Here's the good news in the midst of all of this: The Millennium March on 
Washington will take place in Washington, DC on April 30, 2000. And this 
March will, in the truest sense represent the concerns and issues of all 
members of our broad and diverse communities. 

Nicole Murray-Ramirez           Duane Cramer
MMOW Co-Chair                       MMOW Co-Chair

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