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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1995)
10 ▼ October 2 0 , 1 0 0 5 ▼ ju s t o u t W e a re everyw h ere. V \ CARNIVAL national news 7 night Caribbean cruise San Juan • St. Thom as • St. Martin On the “Funship” celebration Cm I $727 FR O M « |l f Part of a million ppdo Plus air and port charges Book early for free outside cabin upgrade MAUI T H E LES B IA N C O M M U N IT Y PR O JEC T U PC O M IN G EVENTS Pride Bingo! NW Service Center, NW 18th & Everett Sunday, Oct. 29,11 am-1 pm Jew ish Lesbian & Bisexual Brunch At Julie's, call for location: 281-4543 Sunday, Oct. 29, 2-6 pm Lesbians of Color Gathering Call for location: 223-0071 A n ti-V io le n c e P roject 7 9 6 1 7 0 3 /1 -800- 7 9 6 -1 7 0 3 P V A E T T B ppdo Children's fares available. Stop over in New York required; We will add you favorite hotel. Other extensions and itin eraries available. Restrictions a p p le - subject to change. (5 0 3 ) 2 2 3 -0 0 7 1 /T D D F ax 2 4 2 -1 9 6 7 f P.O. B ox 5931 O - P o rtlu n d , OR 9 7 2 2 8 I lack by Birth, Gay by God, Proud by Another seemingly straight observer com Choice,” read placards carried by a mented to his friend, “Well, if you have a million men they say you’ll have 100,000 faggots.” There group of a hundred gay men in the was no malice in his tone, it was a simple acknowl Million Man March. The Oct. 16 march, held in Washington, D.C., edgment of fact. was called by the controversial Rev. On Louis the Mall itself, as the group worked its way into a more thickly settled patch of grass, their Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam. The National Black Gay and Lesbian Leader rhythmic chant of “Gay men of African descent” seemed to clear a way through the crowd. One ship Forum organized the contingent after much marcher laughingly called it “a parting of the Red soul-searching and with some trepidation. But Sea.” For Boykin it was “the most moving part of their participation matched the warmly positive the day.” It encapsulated the growing sense of experience that permeated the event. empowerment within the group. Pride, determination and a tinge of apprehen A mile away at midday, with sirens wailing, the sion shone on the faces of those gay men who police escorted a three-car convoy of Farrakhan gathered at a pre-march rally a half-dozen blocks and his party through the business district of Wash off the Capitol Mall. They girded themselves for ington. The K Street canyon of lawyers and lobby the unknown challenge of marching openly into an ists had the deserted air of a Sunday. event orchestrated by the Nation of Islam, a group The crowd on the Mall had a festival atmo known to be vocally homophobic. sphere: celebratory, warm and congenial. Every “I pour a libation to remember our ancestors third person seemed to hold a camera or video cam. and to remind us that we didn’t get here by our It was 99 percent black men, and most of the selves. That someone made a path before us. And remaining 1 percent seemed that we have an obligation - ------------- to be with the media. to lay a path for those who “What was going on [at] are coming behind us,” of P • . the Mall among the partici fered the Rev. Rainey pants was so unrelated to C heeks in his opening what was happening on prayer. stage,” said A lexander “I’m not here because of Robinson, president of the Farrakhan, or despite black-oriented National Farrakhan, or to spite Task Force on AIDS Pre Farrakhan,” said Derek vention. He called the Livingston, a co-chair of the speakers “background 1993 Lesbian and Gay noise” to the main event. March on Washington. “I’m On the stage at the foot here because we are family of the Capitol the program and we are in crisis.” droned on. Boykin had been Leadership Forum co told that an openly gay man founder Phill Wilson was would speak from the po the inspiration behind this dium, but nobody so identi rally. He recited a list of fied themselves. friends and leaders lost ££k The principle mention “from AIDS and other ill # 7 ; of AIDS was by Dr. Alim nesses” as his reason for J Muhammad, minister of marching. “Black men lov J' health for the Nation of Is ing black men is a revolu lam, who runs an HI V clinic tionary act. I say, let the Keith Boykin in Washington, D.C. He revolution begin.” spoke of people who seem to have purged HIV “What we are talking about today is a revolu from their bodies and attributed it to Kemron, a tion in our thinking, a revolution in our way of form of alpha interferon, which his clinic peddles. seeing ourselves and our relationship to our com AIDS activists say there is no scientific evi munity at large," said Leadership Forum executive dence that Kemron works. Boykin said it held out director Keith Boykin. “false hope” to people living with AIDS. “You are the vanguard. You send the message Speakers claimed that one and a half, perhaps of courage and hope to all those who cannot be two million black men attended the march. Later here. We represent the tens of thousands of black the official Park Police estimates, based on a series gay men who are assembled on the Mall today and of aerial photographs and their grid system, placed cannot be there openly. We represent them. the number at 400,000. The controversy is stan "By wearing your African rainbows, by show dard with these events. The 1993 Lesbian and Gay ing your pride, you will send a signal today to those March on Washington claimed a million partici who cannot yet be there but will be there in the pants; the Park Police said 300,000. future.” But the peak numbers had already passed when The marchers were advised of security precau the Rev. Farrakhan took to the stage. Some march tions, to stay together for protection. “Do not ers left to make their scheduled bus departures respond to verbal outbursts from others,” offered back home. Some were perhaps simply tired. But one parade marshal. “They are not our enemies, others no doubt left in disagreement with the they are just ignorant.” And with that the group speaker. The Mall cleared considerably during the exuberantly stepped off for the Mall. two and a half hours of his rambling speech. The men’s chants and placards drew a few Television coverage showed broad expanses of rounds of applause but mainly looks of surprise grass where bodies once stood. And by the time he and bemusement from those they passed. At the finished, only a third of the marchers remained. National Archives on Pennsylvania Avenue, a The organizers from the Leadership Forum lone man reacted by tracking them for half a block stayed for the entire program, then returned to with harangues that they were "unnatural” and “immoral," pointing his thumbs down. He seemed Boykin’s home for a well-deserved celebration. to protest too much. They had made history. $2745 A membership organization...join today! R RT First class air— 7 nights Kea Lani 1 bedroom, ocean view, Mustang convertible for total stay— taxes and service charge Christm as train to Lapland Dec. 20-29 includes RT air Helsinki - train to Salla - Raindeer Park - stay in cottage with sauna Pohjanhovi Artikum - Husky Driving and snow m obile safari Daily breakfast - hotel and taxes English speaking guide Janelle & Joyce's, FFI: 360-694-3740 P by Bob Roehr FINLAND Saturday, Oct. 21, 6 pm 1 1 V Deluxe Fall Package Restrictions apply— subject to change FFliCP OHkt 223-0071 ¡ring your hinds to win cash prims SW W ash. 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