From: PlanetQ@aol.com
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 03:03:10 EST
Subject: Planet Q Editorial re: Advocate & MMOW; forward, post publish OK

Permission is granted to forward, post or publish with attribution


`Why can't we all just get along?'"
The real question is, 
`Why can't we talk this out?'

by Billy Hileman
© Planet Q

    Why is there so much bickering in the LGBT community? Well, according to 
The Advocate's editor in chief, Judy Wieder, the source of our unsettled 
community is that we carry in our DNA that `gay infighting gene.' Wieder 
explains in an editorial in The Advocate's January, 18, 2000 issue that if we 
don't correctly answer the question of `harmony and understanding,' then `we 
are screwed.'
    With all due respect to Wieder, debate in our community is not controlled 
by a common heredity and it isn't necessarily a destructive thing. Further, 
all complaints are not infighting.
    All too often the charge of `infighting' is levied by those whose power 
and control are being questioned. In the same editorial that Wieder complains 
about gays fussing too much, she brags about The Advocate's role as print 
media sponsor for the Millennium March on Washington (MMOW). What is really 
going on here?
    Well, it's not bitchy DNA. The controversy surrounding the MMOW is a 
direct financial threat to The Advocate. The Advocate is committed to a 
300,000 print run of the official MMOW program. No doubt they are busy 
selling ads. The relationship between MMOW and The Advocate is one of the 
major reasons (along with the cybercast deal with PlanetOut and various hotel 
contracts) that the MMOW will not be canceled. To help protect their 
investment, any complaint about the MMOW is automatically characterized as 
`infighting' and is dismissed.
    Complaints can be grouped into two main categories: legitimate grievances 
and self-serving attacks (a.k.a. infighting). Merely discussing issues, no 
matter how whiny the tone, is not infighting. The idea of a national march on 
Washington in April 2000 may be either savvy or ill-advised. Perhaps there 
are legitimate positions both for and against. However, that discussion has 
never been given its due forum. For eighteen months, the MMOW has refused to 
open the process of deciding whether or not we should march on Washington, 
and if so, when?
    The MMOW and The Advocate have done a serious disservice to our community 
with their attempts to squash the debate on whether a national mobilization 
is smart or not by labeling those who would disagree as a threat to `harmony 
and understanding.' Wieder tries to talk the language of the flower children, 
but she ends up sounding more like Nixon.
    When the people march on Washington they are exercising the 
Constitutional right to `peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government 
for a redress of grievances.' The controversy around, and the hypocrisy of 
the MMOW is based on the fact that from the beginning this march would not 
dare allow its own people the opportunity to debate.

Planet Q Publisher Billy Hileman was one of the national co-chairs for the 
1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and 
Liberation, and is a member of the Ad Hoc Committee for an Open Process.