National March! On Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights: Official Souvenir Program Page: 30
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Organizing for Freedom
by Brandy Moore
The National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights is a
grass roots effort bringing together a diverse group of lesbians and gay
people and their supporters across American to plan and execute a
celebration and demonstration of our strength, in Washington, D.C.
on October. 14, 1979. This ambitious effort depends on a strong, coor-
dinated network of organizers in communities large and small, urban,
rural, for its success.
Established initially by the call from an Ad Hoc Committee in Min-
neapolis, Minn. in August, 1978, this committee was thwarted by in-
ternal struggles and dissolved shortly thereafter. In Nov., 1978, Harvey
Milk was assassinated in San Francisco. Activists in San Francisco,
Philadelphia and New York began discussions on the organization of a
National March. In December, they made a call for the first planning
conference to be held in Philadelphia, Feb. 23-25, 1979. At that con-
ference an interim structure was developed, including a Steering Com-
mittee, Coordinating Committee, and several working committees. The
National office was established in the Spring of 1979, and regional of-
fices soon followed. These offices organized Area conferences to select
delegates to the National Steering Committee meeting in Houston,
Texas.
During the weekend of July 6-8, people from 31 states converged on
the Univ. of Houston, in Texas, to hold a conference that was to
change the course of the lesbian and gay liberation movement. There,
128 delegates, 48% women and 28% Third World persons, plus
observers and press discussed the questions concerning lesbian visibility
and the inclusion of Third World people in all leadership and policy
positions within March planning. That conference was co-chaired by
six persons on a rotating basis to allow the broadest facilitation of the
meeting. Since March organizing was being done by transperson
(transexuals, transvestites, transgenderists, drag queens, and female im-
personators) along with all the other various organizers in the country,
there was considerable discussion about a policy of non-discrimination
towards these people. Out of those discussions came the inclusion of
transperson within all March literature, and on advisory boards to the
structure of the organization of the March. Permits for the March and30
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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/m1/32/?rotate=270: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.