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Pen Points
Letters to Gay Today |
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Millennium March on Washington: Statement
The Festival was to be the March's largest revenue line item, and was expected to bring in approximately $750,000, which was estimated to be 65 percent of the total Festival revenues. On Monday, May 1, Millennium Productions informed members of the Millennium March executive committee that they suspected Festival revenues were missing. Immediately following this notification from Millennium Productions, the executive committee and Executive Director Dianne Hardy-Garcia met and a decision was made to contact law enforcement. March officials, as well as Festival organizers, contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) immediately to promptly begin an investigation into the missing money. After consultation with the Millennium March co-chairs Ann DeGroot, Nicole Murray-Ramirez, Duane Cramer and Donna Red Wing, finance committee members Margaret Conway and Michael Armentrout, along with Hardy-Garcia, were directed to meet with the FBI investigators. That meeting took place on Wednesday, May 3. Festival organizers officially informed March officials on Thursday, May 4 that they would not be able to make their scheduled payment to the Millennium March because their suspicions were confirmed that money was, in fact, missing from the Festival. March officials are gravely concerned that the loss of this revenue stream will severely impact the Millennium March's ability to meet its budgetary expectations. While March organizers spent less than $2 million to produce the event, some March-related bills are still currently outstanding. In order to fully comply and cooperate with the investigation, Millennium March organizers and officials cannot provide further comment at this time. NYC Councilmember Christine C. Quinn Why She Avoided the Millenium March A letter to the community:
Given the process through which it was created and the circumstances surrounding the MMOW, I could support the march as a means, because I believe the message it conveyed was not one that is inclusive, grassroots or representative of our community's current needs. As I and the other New York City LGBT elected officials noted in our public statement, the intended message of the march was not particularly clear even to those who were being asked to march, much less to legislators, the media, or the general public. In part, I am very concerned at how the message and organization of the march occurred. That process was, I believe, very much "top down" and lacked real grassroots efforts. The idea for the march came out of a policy roundtable of directors of gay and lesbian groups who work on a national level. We agreed that we would go back to our communities and discuss the possibility of doing a large action in 1999 or 2000, perhaps in Washington D.C., perhaps in state capitols. We agreed that we must go back to our constituencies and consult with them--and be willing to shift our focus according to the response we heard. We understood, as a fundamental principle of political organizing, that no group or individual was entitled to speak for the community. The Round Table was to reconvene in a few months to present the results of our community discussions. In the interim period, the Human Rights Campaign announced plans for the Millenium March. The organizers completely evaded the obligation to consult with the community, and sidestepped the consultation process that was already ongoing.
The LGBT movement is gaining such strength, and is growing so large, that we will increasingly be faced with issues of representation. We do not elect community representatives, yet we need advocates to work with us and for us. We will almost certainly be confronted again with a group that claims to speak on our behalf without having established structures for consultation with the community at large. The MMOW controversy is the most public struggle with this issue to date. Our response to it will be measured and noted, and will resonate with groups planning advocacy in the future. The Ad Hoc Committee for an Open Process, a group of LGBT community members and longtime grassroots organizers who worked on the earlier Washington D.C. marches, expended an enormous amount of energy over the past two years asking the MMOW organizers to engage with the community. Sadly, the MMOW did not respond, so as a member of the community I felt forced to object. It is important to note that the crucial work of presenting LGBT issues at the federal level is ongoing by means other than the MMOW. This is an election year, and LGBT issues are playing a greater role in national politics than in any past election. Well-organized, highly visible grassroots participation in electoral politics is on the rise in the LGBT community. Candidates are finding discussion of LGBT issues imperative. Due in large part to our community's success in positioning LGBT campaign issues, federal lawmakers are engaging--with unprecedented intensity--in addressing hate crimes, transgender issues, the existence of LGBT families and other essential questions. This legislative activity has opened up a nationwide conversation about what it actually means to be an LGBT person which will set the context for all our political work in the future. For this reason it is extremely important now, as we decide how to integrate LGBT issues into a government framework, that the entire community be consulted and able to participate in decision-making. It is crucial to show our political strength and relevance, and our community has organized itself to do just that at the grassroots level. The MMOW does not recognize or contribute to that vital work. After the release of our public statement, my colleagues and I received many comments from community members, both positive and negative. I appreciate the willingness of the community to engage in this discussion, and I hope we will all carry the lessons of this struggle far into our future as a movement.
Sincerely,
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The Rev. Troy Perry, here at the Millennium March on Washington's Mass Wedding, was one of the organizers of the March 
Christine C. Quinn 
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