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THE
MARCH GOES ON!
As
we prepare to march on Washington in the millennium,
OutSmart remembers the past marches of 1979, 1987, and
1993
Interviews
conducted and compiled by Ann Walton Sieber and Blase
DiStefano
To
state the obvious, we can’t write about the upcoming
march, because it hasn’t happened yet. We’ve
already covered the swirling controversies; now is the
time to forget the turmoils that went into the organizing,
and focus on going to the march itself. We could tell
you about all the events that are planned, but that
would just sound like a press release. How best to really
transmit the thrill and meaning of going to a march?
We decided that really the best way to cover the Millennium
March of 2000 would be to talk to folks who went to
the past marches: in 1979, in 1987, in 1993.
Each
march had its own feel, was the reflection of its times
and where the movement was. In these pages, we’ve
tried to recreate the excitement and the historical
moment of each of these previous marches through a pastiche
of images and words from those who were there.
In talking to people who have gone to the marches, what
we found out was not just how exciting a march was to
witness and participate in, but also how transformed
people felt, and how it lead them to change their lives.
Tom Fricke, owner of the Lovett Inn, decided after the
1987 march that he was tired of not living in a vibrant
“out” gay community, and made the decision
to leave New Jersey. “The march caused me to focus
on that I was gay and I wanted to be with gay people.
I realized, I want this, I want this every day. Within
six months of the march, I was living in Houston.”
Deborah Bell was so fired up by the ’87 march that
she returned to Texas and helped organize the first
march on Austin two years later, and then became the
national organizer for the 1993 march. Greg Jeu was
so moved by the 1993 march that he decided to start
OutSmart magazine.
“What
Harvey Milk convinced me,” says Ray Hill, who was
on the scene as the 1979 march made its first steps,
“is that the march is about coming out. Self-actualization
happens in the company of such a massive gathering of
gay people that guilt is frightened away.”
The Millennium March is the fourth march by the lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender community on Washington.
The 1979 march was first proposed by Harvey Milk, who
was assassinated before it could happen. Those who believed
in Harvey’s vision were pioneers—being out
in such a massive public way was a new concept, scary,
untried. The 1979 march strengthened the gay community
immensely—and, as it turned out, it was a strength
we were to need. For, of course, the years following
the ‘79 march was when the gay community was devastated
by AIDS, and we had to muster all our forces to fight
for treatment.
The
1987 march was much bigger, an estimated half million
people, up from the estimated 70,000 in 1979. AIDS was
among us in full force; we were angry and we were determined.
It was the first time the AIDS quilt came together in
one place. Hundreds of people were voluntarily arrested
on the Supreme Court steps as a civil disobedience protesting
the recent decisions in both Georgia and Texas upholding
the sodomy laws. Following the ‘87 march, civil
disobedience became much more prevalent, and ACT-UP
formed soon thereafter.
In the 1993 march we were starting to grow more mature
as a community. An estimated million people attended.
We’d started to see the results of our gathered
strength. Organizers became much more savvy about getting
media coverage. The media, in turn, started to get the
idea that these marches were not freak shows, but significant
events worthy of serious coverage and commentary.
Each
march is both a huge momentous happening in and of itself—and
one part, one step in a larger whole, the march of our
community’s movement. As we remember the marches
of 1979, 1987, 1993, and look forward to the march of
2000, hallelujah, we say: The march goes on!
—Ann Walton Sieber
1979
• 1987 • 1993
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