Subject: Millennium RALLY
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 00:11:59 EDT

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Equality Begins, Ends at Home

by Billy Hileman

(Billy Hileman is a Pittsburgh based activist, publisher of Planet Q, and was
 one of four national co-chair for the 1993 March on Washington)

	Organizers for a proposed Millennium rally DC in the year 2000 are moving
 ahead despite sharp and growing criticism from grassroots activists from
 across the country. 
	In response to the outcry, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and other
 organizers finally admitted the process is severely flawed and pledged to be
 more inclusive--but recent events surrounding the proposed rally demonstrate
 that only the rhetoric has changed. 
	In a completely closed process, the Millennium Rally organizers have hurried
 every major decision regarding a national civil rights event. At the same time
 they have been shamelessly mouthing the rhetoric of `inclusion' and
 `grassroots' organizing. At this point, if they offer you a seat at the table,
 it is simply to employ you to get people to Washington in 2000, where they
 will pass their collection plate around the Mall.
	In spite of lofty words of inclusion, there is no public Millennium rally
 organizing structure. We have heard rumors about a central decision making
 committee and a mythological 14-page Millennium rally organizing proposal.
 However, what we do have are: a theme, - `Faith and Family; a date - April 30,
 2000; a title - `Millennium March for Equality'; logistics - a rally, no
 march; a platform - no demands; a merchandising plan - T-Shirts, etc.; an
 official travel agency; and 10,000 rooms booked in Washington. This is why
 they aren't in any hurry to open up the process. They don't need to " except
 for their PR purposes. 
	The dishonesty of Millennium Rally organizers raises serious questions about
 the health of our movement and the agenda of the two largest and richest
 organizations " the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the Universal Fellowship
 of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC). Amazingly, each time the
 Millennium rally organizers are called on the carpet for their secretive
 closed process, they pause to reflect and then proceed, unrepentant for the
 tactics used. What follows are some examples.
	The Millennium Rally (a.k.a., the `Millennium March,' even though no March is
 planned) was announced by HRC and UFMCC in early February. Their initial press
 release listed a handful of endorsers, including the National Gay and Lesbian
 Task Force (NGLTF) and the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum
 (NBLGLF). But you won't find NGLTF or NBLGLF on any current endorsement lists.
 The reason? In February, HRC called the leadership of several organizations
 and told them they had only a few minutes to sign onto the Millennium event.
 They were  sending out the press release immediately.
	Flustered and frustrated, NBLGLF, NGLTF and others signed on. But later,
 after the insult of HRC's strong-arm tactic set in, NBLGLF and NGLTF took
 their names off the event. NGLTF is concentrating on the 50 state action "
 `Equality Begins at Home' slated for 1999 and HRC's arrogance may have lost
 the Leadership's Forum's endorsement for good.
	In April, at a NBLGLF town meeting, representatives of NGLTF and NBLGLF
 challenged HRC's Donna Red Wing and the Millennium rally's Executive Director,
 Robin Tyler about the closed process. Red Wing, asserted that the process was
 being fixed, that it would be opened for community input.
	At the same meeting, Robin Tyler, tried to explain away the elitist and
 exclusionary process by claiming to be a political novice unfamiliar with
 proper procedure for launching a march.  It would be laughable if it were not
 such a sorry manipulative lie. In an attempt to win sympathy for the
 organizers, Tyler described how she came up with the Millennium rally idea in
 her hotel room at Creating Change last November.  It never occurred to Tyler
 and company that she and our elders didn't discuss how to create a forum to
 decide if we should march on Washington (even though they were at an
 conference with 2,000 activists from around the country). 
	The rest of the April NBLGLF meeting didn't go well for Red Wing or Tyler.
 The criticism didn't seem to break through HRC's wall of defense and Red
 Wing's promises proved to be a hollow attempt to silence dissent. But it
 didn't matter, the real work was completed by HRC's Elizabeth Birch at an
 Executive Directors' meeting where detente was reached between organizers of
 the 50 State action and the Millennium rally. Apparently, Birch managed to
 convince her peers - who included Kerry Lobel (NGLTF), Dianne Hardy-Garcia and
 Paula Ettelbrick, (Co-Chairs of the Federation), Joan Gerry (Gay and Lesbian
 Alliance Against Defamation), Jubi Headly (NBLGLF) and others - that the
 process would be opened up.
	At the end of April, without any forum or process for community input, HRC
 and MCC announced that the date of their event would be April 30, 2000. But,
 the coup of the Millennium occurred when the Federation, whose 50 state action
 was nearly derailed, and certainly crippled by the HRC/MCC plan, sent a press
 release with glowing comments about both events. The executive directors of
 the two important Millennium rally endorsement  holdouts, NBLGLF and NGLTF,
 are quoted along side Elizabeth Birch. `The `Equality Begins at Home' actions
 enjoys the full and enthusiastic support of the organizers of the Millennium
 March,' said [Birch], ...These two events will complement each other as
 together we build the momentum to achieve equality in the next century.'
	As part of the empty public relations campaign to `open up' the process, June
 9th and 10th meetings have been scheduled in Washington to discuss the two
 projects. The June 9th meeting will discuss the Millennium rally, while the
 10th is reserved for the 50 state actions. Why not the other way around? Well,
 it appears the Millennium folks foresee a problem with the 50 state action
 meeting happening first. If it did, there would be 50 state action folks
 sticking around for day 2 " the Millennium rally meeting. But, the meeting to
 `open up the process' is by invitation only. So, to avoid the embarrassment of
 excluding people from opening up the process, the Millennium rally meeting
 will happen first.
	There has been a lot of work, a lot of learning, and a lot of pain
 experienced by people active in our civil rights movement since Stonewall.
 Much of the struggle around sexism, racism and classism, has been a struggle
 to create an open, inclusive, respectful decision making process " a process
 that should be the soul of our civil rights movement. Everyday since the
 Millennium rally was announced in early February the organizers have displayed
 their contempt for their own communities. Everyday they have aggressively
 employed an organizing strategy that emulates the arrogance of power that we
 struggle against as persecuted minorities.
	Closed door, closed process, closed minds are the friends of racism, sexism
 and homophobia. The irony of HRC and MCC's process is too stark to believe
 they cannot see it for what it is. Calling the Millennium rally " the 4th
 national civil rights event of our movement " is an insult to the principles
 upon which the three prior events were founded. Our community must continue to
 watch and speak out about the organizing process of the Millennium rally. But,
 if your only interest in the Millennium rally is to attend a big queer party
 in D.C. in 2000, your duty to the civil rights movement may be fulfilled by
 making a hotel reservation. But if you care about the way our community
 organizes, the agenda we set, and what we teach the next generation of queer
 civil rights activists - stay tuned.