Subject: NEWS:LesBiGay Pride Day Round-Up/WW
From: [email-masked] (N.Y. Transfer)
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 92 02:53:08 EDT

Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
LesBiGay Pride Day Round-Up
 
Pride Day Reports from Houston, Seattle, New York, New Orleans

                HOUSTON PRIDE PARADE DRAWS 30,000
 
                         By Gloria Rubac 
                             Houston
 
On June 28, over 80 groups marched, galloped, rode in 
convertibles, on floats and motorcycles through the heart of 
Montrose, Houston's lesbian and gay community, in the annual Gay 
Pride Day parade.
 
As temperatures inched to the upper 90s, 30,000 people filled 
Westheimer Street as spectators or participants.  There was a 
large contingent from the Houston Area Teenage Coalition of 
Homosexuals, many of whom were participating in their first Pride
parade. The largest group and most militant marchers were from 
Queer Nation. They carried a banner urging everyone to 
demonstrate at the Republican national convention here in August.

A big hit with the celebrating crowd was a convertible with 
lookalikes of Thelma and Louise, characters from last year's hit 
movie. A sign from the 1993 Lesbian, Gay and Bi March on 
Washington read, "Follow Thelma and Louise to D.C. in '93."
 
                               ***

      SEATTLE PRIDE CELEBRATES DIVERSITY, DENOUNCES BIGOTRY
 
                 By Workers World Seattle bureau
 
The 1992 Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Pride March/Pride and 
Freedom Rally brought over 50,000 people into the streets here to
demonstrate against bigotry. The march, which took two-and-a-half
hours to pass, led through the heart of Seattle's gay community 
to the Volunteer Park rally.
 
Margarathe Cammermeyer, a lesbian who was recently discharged 
from the state National Guard, was the keynote speaker. Other 
speakers included Urvashi Vaid, executive director of the 
National Lesbian & Gay Task Force, and Michael Redearth of 
Takoma Two-Spirits. Kaz Susat spoke as a representative of the 
Transgender Caucus of Workers World Party. 
 
This is the first year Seattle has included Transgender and 
Bisexual in the official title of the march.
 
                               ***

            NY PRIDE DAY: GLITTERY, GUTSY AND GIGANTIC
 
                        By Leslie Feinberg

"Pride = Power." The march lived up to this year's theme.
 
A sea of humanity poured into the streets and sidewalks along the
three-mile route of New York's Lesbian and Gay Pride March on 
June 28. It was glittery, gutsy and gigantic.
 
With a roar of motorcycles and blare of marching bands, the march
headed south on Fifth Avenue. Organizers estimated a half-million
people lined the route.
 
Two participants in the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, which gave 
birth to the modern lesbian and gay movement, rode in a lead car.
"Twenty-three years later, we're still here! We are your 
history!" Silvia Rivera called out to the crowds.
 
Sharon Kowalski and Karen Thompson--this year's grand 
marshals--were met with a thunderous and teary welcome. For more 
than eight years Thompson fought to win legal guardianship of 
Sharon Kowalski, her life partner who was seriously disabled in a
car accident. The two women were forcibly separated by Kowalski's
family and the courts solely because they were lesbian lovers.
 
Just before the march began Thompson told Workers World, "This is
a chance for Sharon to feel some of the support I've felt all 
these years."
 
Kowalski carried on a conversation with Thompson through a 
typewriter that "talks." After a long exchange Thompson remarked,
"Can you believe it took more than eight years to convince the 
court that Sharon understands what's being said to her?"
 
Many disabled lesbians and gays were visible throughout the 
march. How did they feel about Kowalski and Thompson being chosen
as grand marshals?
 
Shelley Buskowitz, who is speech and mobility impaired, pointed 
to letters on a giant alphabet she carried. "W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L," 
she spelled out, one letter at a time.
 
Turn the guns around
 
The impact of the AIDS epidemic and the right-wing political 
assault that has accompanied it were visible everywhere. The 
march was filled with huge contingents of people with AIDS, care 
givers, community organizations and AIDS activists. Buttons, 
stickers, ribbons, hand-made signs and banners demanded the 
government cease its war on people with AIDS and turn its guns on
the epidemic instead. This year, AIDS outreach to the lesbian 
community was increasingly visible.
 
At 2:30 the tumultuous din of protest and celebration ceased for 
a long moment of silence to honor lives lost as a result of AIDS.
Over 200,000 ribbons were held aloft amidst clenched fists.
 
The march was diverse and thoroughly multinational. Contingents 
of Native, African American, Latino and Asian lesbians and gays 
reaffirmed their struggles against national oppression and sexual
oppression.
 
The vast majority of marchers and supporters work for a living. 
The labor contingent this year was significantly large, 
indicating a growing number of lesbian and gay workers are 
fighting to bring their demands to the trade union movement and 
to imbue the lesbian and gay movement with trade union 
consciousness.
 
AFSCME District Council 37 constructed an impressive float for 
the labor contingent. Gay teachers handed out a letter calling on
Mayor Dinkins to rescind the city's decision to continue a court 
fight against the right of lesbian and gay municipal workers to 
sue for domestic partner benefits.
 
"Shame! Shame!" wave after wave of marchers chanted, pointing to 
St. Patrick's Cathedral, over which John Cardinal O'Connor 
presides. O'Connor, a notorious anti-gay bigot who has fought 
AIDS education campaigns, recently joined "Operation Rescue" 
anti-woman terrorists at an anti-abortion rally.
 
"Pro-Choice" was visible on stickers, buttons and t-shirts 
throughout this year's event.
 
The reigning emotion was pride--a feeling greater than the sum 
total of its parts.
 
                               ***

               NEW ORLEANS PRIDE MARCH LARGEST EVER
 
                        By Johnnie Stevens
                           New Orleans

Hundreds turned out in New Orleans for the annual Lesbian and Gay
Pride Day. Pride '92, organized by the Lesbian/Gay Alliance, was 
the largest in the 13-year local history of the event.
 
Three local African American politicians addressed the rally in 
support of the lesbian and gay community: Council Member-at-large
Dorothy Mae Taylor, State Sen. Marc Morial and City Council 
Member Johnnie Jackson.
 
Many who attended Pride '92 signed up for the defense of women's 
clinics against "Operation Rescue," scheduled for July 6-13 in 
Baton Rouge.
 
                               ***
 
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted 
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21 
St., New York, NY 10010. Phone (212) 206-8222.
On NY Transfer or PeaceNet, write "workers".)
 
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