National March! On Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights: Official Souvenir Program Page: 12
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South for Civil Rights had been told by newly gutsy Blacks, "Go
home and fight it out in your own community." It was time for that!
An angry counter-culture radical Gay Liberation Front began in
New York days later, and in six months they were all over America
and Europe, young, anarchic, funky, brash, quickly evolving a new
definition of gayness, interpreted in revolutionary terms. We
paraded, sought alliance with straight-radical groups, and with the
vigorous new Women's Liberation movement. We found that radical
lesbians and GLF Blacks wouldn't sit quietly in the corner, and even
old-time white-male radicals didn't know how to deal with their rage.
The radical lesbians, needing self definition, drew off from the
largely white-male gay movement. Then after two years of zapping
Churches, politicans, the media and shrinks-NYC's Gay Activist
Alliance being the master of the tactic-many radicals settled down
to build multi-purpose service agencies such as the federally funded
Gay Community Services Center in L.A. and others even in small
communities. Politicians began to court the gay vote and we racked
up major electoral victories culminating in several local equal rights
ordinances.
The Dade County one brought Miss Florida Orange down on us,
and despite our largest nationwide campaign to date, [Miami] voters
quashed the "Gay Rights Ordinance." Similar losses followed in
Wichita, St. Paul and Eugene. We began to fear we couldn't win that
sort of battle, until our massive same-day wins in Seattle and Califor-
nia. These battles brough new alliance with the Women's Movement,
brought many big names to our aid, and brought tens of thousands
out of the closet for the real revolution of recent years: strong parti-
cipation by many business and professional people, with new styles,
techniques and objectives.
IS THERE LIFE AFTER ANITA BRIGGS?
I've had to skip over hundreds of important matters: the Psycho-
logical Assn's new view of us; the Gay Academic Union; Howard
Brown's coming out; Elaine Noble's election and Harvey Milk's; the
New Orleans fire and others; the new Advocate, Gay Sunshine, the
diverse lesbian press; many gains with the media and in mainline
churches; the start of "Third World" groups; and the Milk-Moscone
shootings which did so much to bring us here. The Dan White verdict
riot last November was an echo of Stonewall-but with what a dif-
ference!
Many gays can't see a purpose to this march, since it isn't a re-
sponse to any particular threat or enemy. We've marched so often in
response to attacks, it's time to make a positive statement, and every-
one who stands up here and now speaks ten times as loud. We are
here to acclaim our freedom, our uniqueness, our creative diversity,
12
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D.C. Media Committee. National March! On Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights: Official Souvenir Program, pamphlet, 1979; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc276226/m1/14/: accessed June 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.