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Mothers March for AIDS? |
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Compiled By GayToday
 New York, New York--Another chapter unfolded this week in the nearly decade old conflict between St. Veronica's Roman Catholic Church in Greenwich Village and The Mothers March Against AIDS which sponsors an annual candlelight memorial service the Friday evening before Sunday's Gay Pride parade.
An annual AIDS candlelight memorial service and vigil commenced in l985 and became part of New York's Gay Pride activities thereafter. Originally sponsored by The Christopher Street Festival Committee, it attracted hundreds of participants and featured speakers and performers who were frequently openly gay PWAs. Controversy erupted in l991 and l992 when St. Veronica's Roman Catholic Church convinced the vigil organizers to move the event into its premises on Christopher Street. Simultaneously, St. Veronica's established "The AIDS Memorial in the Village" in its balcony and offered small brass plaques bearing the name of a lost loved one for $25. AIDS activists objected. The balcony walls alone could hold nearly a hundred thousand dollars worth of plaques. Dignity, an organization of gay Catholics could not use St. Veronica's premises while a group called Courage, which advocates Catholics who are gay live celibately, was listed as holding regular meetings in St. Veronica's bulletin.
In l993, Heritage of Pride provided Jacques Garon, the leader of the old Christopher Street Festival Committee, with $3000 in funding for the annual AIDS vigil declaring that it "was not interested" in taking on that responsibility. Its resources were stretched thin running the parade as usual and now the street festival as well. The previous year members of Dignity, with its Roman Catholics; Integrity, an organization of gay Episcopalians; the Cathedral Project and an assortment of well know gay leaders--Matt Forman, Bill Dobbs, Randy Wicker, among others--boycotted and picketed the service with placards condemning "The AIDS Memorial In The Village" as a "fraud" in particular and condemning the official Roman Catholic Church's hostility toward the gay community in general. Brendan Fay, well known for his work with Dignity and the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, organized an "Alternative AIDS Candlelight Vigil Coalition" in l993 and asked for the vigil permit. NYPD denied his application invoking the "grandfather clause" which automatically grants permits to the previous year's sponsor. Fay's alternative coalition held their service on the waterfront at the foot of Christopher Street. Gay couples held one another in grief. Speakers spoke openly and proudly of same sex love. One read a love poem to his departed love. The Lavender Light Gospel Choir, which had been asked "not to bounce around so much" when they sang stopped participating in the "official" service in St. Veronica's. Sponsors of alternative service included, along with Dignity and Integrity, the People with AIDS Coalition, the Metro Quilters, the Metropolitan Community Church, and even the AIDS Atheist Ministry. With no financing forthcoming, Jacques Garon's Christopher Street Festival Committee abandoned the vigil in l994, announcing a "postponement" until the following November. It was then that Mothers March Against AIDS stepped forward, applied for the permit, and took over the vigil. The first year's vigil couldn't have been more markedly different from St. Veronica's traditional Roman Catholic vigil. A young black woman, 18 years old, gave a sermon emphasizing that: "Everyone deserves a better high school graduation day 'present' than finding out you're HIV positive!" and asking "why didn't we get better sex education in school?" Volunteers helping with the Mothers March Against AIDS vigil, one of whom was Roman Catholic and was bothered by existence of 'two' competing services, tried to find "common ground" with St. Veronica's. For a couple years, timing was coordinated so those attending St. Veronica's service would come down to the waterfront, St. Veronica's priest would bless the wreath and then everyone would proceed to the Hudson River waterfront where the "blessed wreath" would be tossed into the waters-usually by an openly gay male and a drag queen. In l998, Sylvia Rivera and Randy Wicker served as wreath bearers. 1999 would herald the loss of common ground. St. Veronica's changed the timing of their service so such "joining" of the two groups would no longer be possible. The Lavender Light Gospel Choir were singing, moving and "doing their thing" at the Mothers March Against AIDS vigil outside Bailey House, a residence for people with AIDS. Beverly Rotter, founder of the Mother's March Against AIDS, and mother of Iris De La Cruz who became a legend in AIDS activism and in whose honor major AIDS treatment facilities in New York City have been named, was infuriated to discover that the l999 New York Pride Guide, "The Official Events Guide to Lesbian & Gay Pride Month," dropped the listing for the Mother's March Against AIDS vigil but listed instead "The 9th annual Interfaith AIDS vigil in The Church of St. Veronica. Mother's March Against AIDS founder spelled out her feelings in an angry letter to the publishers of the Pride Guide, a private for profit publishing enterprise run by a former member of Heritage of Pride but which is in no way otherwise associated with that group and its dedicated volunteers. Text of Beverly Rotter's Letter to 'Pride Guide' I spent 6 months putting together an AIDS memorial vigil while working two jobs. I am a mother who lost her child to AIDS. I work 2 jobs because I spent everything I had trying to keep my daughter alive. The vigil is a memorial to all the beautiful people who died of AIDS. I made sure to notify you of this vigil very early but I see that Pride Guide did not think enough of it to even bother to publish it. Mothers March Against AIDS is made up of mothers whose children died and we are very, very hurt that you think so little of us and our dead children. My child was not gay but I walk in Gay Pride Parade in support of the gay community who have been absolutely wonderful to me and my daughter. I hope that people come to this very important AIDS memorial in spite of you. Thank you for nothing Beverly Rotter Mothers March Against AIDS 
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