THE M ARCH
I saw much of what I saw in D.C. through the
lens of my Konica; I took it everywhere. Snap
shots: Three couples, all men, walking hand-in-
hand up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial . The
incredibly long escalator at the Dupont Circle
Metro stop crammed with people wearing some
version of the pink triangle. From the rally stage
at 5 p.m . on Sunday, a sea of people stretching
almost to the horizon. (A spokesperson of D.C.
Mayor Marion Berry reported that the Metro
politan Police estimated 800,000 people were
assembled in the Capitol Mall at that time.)
Posters, T-shirts, buttons, banners, flags
proclaiming the wit acquired by lesbians and
gays in the struggles against bigotry. Snapshots:
“ Homophobia is a sin - REPENT! “ “ Queer and
present danger’ ’ superimposed on a representa
tion of the Supreme Court building. “ Keep
your church out of my crotch.”
Everywhere, reminders that many of us have
died and are dying while a hostile government
ignores, when it does not encourage, homo
phobia, the primary obstacle in the battle
against AIDS. Snapshots: The enormity of the
Names Project Quilt. The grid outline of the
quilt pieces remaining in the grass the next day.
The hundreds of wheelchairs passing by the
empty White House.
Civil disobedience at the Supreme Court on
Tuesday: women and men offering up their
bodies in protest against institutionalized
homophobia. Snapshots: Police in riot gear
marching single file into a happy, singing
throng. A PWA struggling to pull himself onto
his wheelchair. A woman triumphantly laugh
ing as she is being dragged away by three burly
cops.
Jay Brown
NATIONAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON
FO R LESB IA N AN D G A Y R IG H TS
Just Out • 16 • November. 1987