OutRight
By
Dale Carpenter
Last Words on the Last March
It was the last general-purpose gay civil rights march
on Washington. There may be others devoted to specific
issues, like hate crimes legislation, but the days of
omnibus marching are over. There’s not much purpose
to them anymore, and there’s endless carping. Even
so, we can learn some things from the Millennium March
on Washington.
When it comes to marches, size matters to everyone.
Most people without axes to grind who, like me, also
went to the 1993 March on Washington thought the crowd
was about the same size as then.
That has to be disappointing to organizers and opponents
alike. Until this one, each successive national gay
march attracted far more people than the one before.
The numbers for the 2000 march stagnated, even though
it’s safe to bet there are far more gay people
out of the closet now than during any previous march.
They didn’t think they needed to come; they have
Will & Grace and the Internet now.
But it’s equally clear that the call—by the
far gay left and some ridiculous gay politicians—for
a “boycott” of the march was ineffective.
These people, organized as the Ad Hoc Committee for
Endless Processes, demanded more “democratic”
decision making.
The gay media blew it by paying disproportionate attention
to them. Most gay Americans had never heard of these
self-styled “grassroots leaders” and the six-person
juntas they claimed to represent.
For all the whining about a lack of diversity in the
march, the crowd was more diverse than in 1993. There
was a greater distribution of ages, more women, and
certainly more families with children. As a proportion
of the whole, there were also fewer shirtless muscle
boys sunning themselves. (By the way, wearing an Abercrombie
& Fitch shirt doesn’t make you look like the
guys in the ads.)
The crowd was well-behaved. With all the children present,
it was an exhibition of true family values. Contrast
that with the gaggle of antigay protesters who showed
up to defend the Bible. They had a child, not more than
10 years old, hold up two nude dolls simulating anal
intercourse. We must defend our families against these
sex-obsessed perverts.
On the stage, identity politics were in overdrive. A
leatherman spoke in defense of all marginalized leatherpeople,
of whom I counted precisely two in the crowd. The speakers
mostly complained that there weren’t enough speakers
of their kind or that they didn’t get to speak
first. They shouted into the microphone a lot. Screaming
into a microphone makes you sound shrill, not eloquent.
There was no “I have a dream” moment.
Only one Republican, Mayor Neil Guilliano of Tempe,
Arizona, spoke in six hours of speeches—and he
didn’t come out as a Republican during his allotted
minute. I guess we’ve got a better chance of having
an openly gay speaker at a GOP convention than an openly
Republican speaker at a gay march. I don’t know
how many gay Republicans there are, but I’ll wager
there are more of them than there are “Two-Spirit
Peoples of Turtle Island,” who also got one speaker.
During her comedy routine, Margaret Cho said she was
happy she “could finally use the Washington Monument
as my own personal strap-on dildo.” It wasn’t
funny, wasn’t original (gee, who ever thought of
the Washington Monument as a phallus before?), and was
incredibly offensive to a large majority of Americans
who think the place is a bit sacred. It was especially
bad because it came at the beginning of the rally, before
most C-SPAN viewers had fallen asleep.
HRC’s director Elizabeth Birch told me Cho’s
joke was “not helpful,” and wondered aloud
how such an insult would be received by the family of
a hypothetical 15-year-old closeted boy in Kentucky
watching on TV.
Unfortunately, Corri Planck, communications director
for the march, was more circumspect about Cho’s
joke, saying “I don’t want to make a judgment
call on it.” Lesson: hire organizers capable of
judgment.
And don’t let Ellen DeGeneres’ partner, actress
Anne Heche, speak ever again about anything. A dear
friend of mine, who happens to be a liberal Democrat,
was aghast that Heche said three times that she suddenly
“turned gay” at the age of 27. She said all
this while wearing sunglasses. So L.A.
There was a noticeable lack of Gore-for-President paraphernalia
in the crowd, despite predictions the event would be
a pep rally for him. He and President Clinton showed
up by videotape and got underwhelming applause. Actually,
after all his betrayals, if the President had appeared
in person I think he would have been mooned.
I doubt we’ll do this again. The march got much
less prominent coverage than the one in 1993. On an
otherwise slow news day, it wasn’t even the top
story in the Washington Post, its hometown paper. It
made page 14 of the New York Times, arguably the nation’s
most gay-friendly newspaper. National television practically
ignored it.
And now the FBI is investigating the possibility that
as much as $750,000 in proceeds from the march festival
is missing. Ken Starr, a gay nation turns its lonely
eyes to you.
The best thing about these marches is that they encourage
people to participate in the struggle for civil rights.
But, unlike times past, there’s plenty of encouragement
without big marches to get active. The best evidence
these marches were once needed is that they no longer
are.
Writing from the conservative end of the spectrum, former
Houston resident and attorney Dale Carpenter began his
column for OutSmart in 1994 and has won three Vice Versa
awards for excellence in gay writing. Now living in
San Francisco, he can be reached at OutRight@aol.com.
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