LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Talk |
by Bill Sievert |
To March or Not to March, That Is the Question
My pal Joan, with whom I organized a charter bus trip to a statewide LGBT rally in Florida last spring, is gung ho to hit the road againthis time for a much longer haul. She has been chatting me up about recruiting a group to travel nearly 1,000 miles from Orlando to the National March for Equality in Washington on October 11. My initial instinct was to say yes. John and I have participated in all of the national gay rallies in DC since the very first, which drew 75,000 people in 1979. With each successive event (1987, 1993, 2000), the crowds grew dramatically in sizeupwards of half a million for the last twoand the roster of celebrity speakers and performers became more impressive. However, this autumn's event is not likely to be nearly as large and it definitely won't be spectacular. Backers acknowledge that, with little time to make plans and a grassroots approach to organizing, they're not shooting for the stars. What's more, many national LGBT organizations have remained lukewarm or outright cold to the concept. The march has been controversial ever since it was proposed several months ago by longtime activists Cleve Jones, who worked with Harvey Milk and later conceived The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and David Mixner, a politically connected writer/filmmaker and veteran human rights organizer. Jones and the high-powered Mixner themselves bring a degree of celebrity stature (as well as vast experience) to the event, and other well-known leaders, including Robin Tyler and former National Gay and Lesbian Task Force President Torie Osborn, have endorsed the march. So what's the problem? Let's make that plural because there have been numerous problems, including the lack of planning time and disagreement about whether taking to the streets again is the wisest political strategy in 2009. Most memorable marches since the 1960s have required at least a year of advance planning, with Washington offices and staffs and volunteers who work nearly around the clock to coordinate permits, staging, speakers, entertainers and publicity, as well as transportation and housing for participants. This year's event is operating on a proverbial shoestring without a significant advance presence in DC. Because of the lack of coordination, there is a possibility that the crowd will be embarrassingly small, which the media could translate as a setback for the gay rights movement. In response, Jones has said we all need to think differently about this year's gathering. "The biggest challenge is getting people not to view this march through the lens of previous marches," he recently told one blogger. "We're doing a different type of thing....We're absolutely not going to spend millions of dollars on producing a march on Washington." The stripped-down approach will be geared toward persuading attendees to become politically involved when they get back home. There will be "a two-hour march, then a two-hour rally, and then sending everybody home to their Congressional districts to organize for 2010," he reported on another blog. "This will not be a three-day multi-media spectacular. We won't be flying in celebrities and putting them up in fancy hotels." But will LGBT people in far-off states want to travel all the way to DC for such a barebones gathering? I have my doubts. To many potential marchers, the appeal involves the excitement of sharing a mass communal catharsis with one's peers. A luminary-studded weekend of LGBT-themed activities is an energizing element of the experience. It always has been like that at major rallies. The peace and civil rights protests of the 60s would have been less memorable (and perhaps had less impact) without the performances of such musical legends as Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, John Denver and Odetta. Even Barack Obama knew well enough to lift his inauguration with the voice (and hat) of Aretha Franklinnot to mention all those celebrity-besotted balls. I agree that grassroots organizing does not require name entertainment, but when you're organizing on the front lawn of the federal government, it helps. And despite indications by sponsors that they're not terribly concerned about the crowd count, they should be. It is numbers more than pep talks that make a statement to our politicians and to the world that we're queer, here, and fed up with the endless delays in securing our civil rights. Unfortunately, Congress is not even scheduled to be in session the week of the march, which means it cannot be used as a launching pad for direct lobbying. Again, Jones says the idea is that everyone will go home to lobby. That seems like an opportunity missed, even though scheduling the march for the three-day Columbus weekend could encourage more people to attend. If everyone is to go home and organize, why not just stay home in the first place? Another key objection to this march involves whether it will help build or distract from efforts to work for LGBT rights in the states. Philoso-phically, the organizers want to encourage everyone to persuade their members of Congress to support legislation in our behalf rather than continuing to fight gay-rights battles city by city and state by state. According to Jones, such localized tactics "could go on for decades at enormous cost. But if we could shift our focus and seize this historic moment and get federal legislation...we could end it all at the federal level." Many LGBT leaders disagree, pointing to a recent string of victories for gay marriage in more liberal states versus the slow, reluctant pace of Congress. Personally, I favor working simultaneously at every levelfederal, state, county, municipality and block to block. And the best national marches I've experienced are those that find room for expression of a wide range of opinions on how to achieve shared goals. We can pursue various tactics, but pursue we must. America's LGBT community is much like the Democratic Party. By the very nature of our diversity we're disorganized. But if we listen to and respect one another, we can come up with a united front line. From talking to friends and reading blogs, I do get a sense that there is considerable interest in and pent up energy for marching on Washington, so perhaps a large number will turn out. The organizers are encouraging everyone to bring along at least two straight friends. (For information, go to nationalequalitymarch.com. It is a minimal site at this point, but has links to related postings at Twitter, YouTube, etc.) My current view of the march is rather like that of Sean Straub, who recently endorsed it in an article published on David Mixner's website. Straub, founder of POZ magazine and president of Cable Positive (a telecommunications industry AIDS action group), wrote: "I appreciate the voices of those who have passionately argued against the march....But let's recognize that decentralized organizing...is underway and the march is going to happen, albeit in a much different way than marches in the past. It will probably have more of the grassroots feeling of the 1979 march than the increasingly corporatized 'movement as a market' events we've seen in more recent years. That's a good thing, in my view. "I hope those who have opposed the march can find their way to embrace these realities and try...to help make the march as successful as possible....Let's let this march teach us all more about the moral authority and political power we gain when coalition-building is our priority rather than our problem." Maybe I'll see you there.Bill Sievert can be reached at billsievert@comcast.net. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 19, No. 09 July 17, 2009 |