While
I attended the first three Lesbian & Gay Marches on Washington,
including the ones in 1987 and 1993, the 1979
one is the most special to me. I was only out of the closet a little
more than a year and was living in Norfolk, Virginia.
I somehow found myself Editor of the gay newspaper there, Our Own
Community Press, so not only was I attending my
first March, and basking in the overwhelming empowerment that came
with being there, I was also "covering" it
for the paper, and I wrote about my own memories of the weekend which
you can read here.
This Page: Day
of the March - Houston Contingent Getting Organized
The
March on Washington - Part 1, Houston
The March on Washington & Rally
- Part 2, Los Angeles
The March on Washington - Part 3- Everyone
else
The
March on Washington - Part 4 - More Everyone Else
The pre-March Rally, the day before
Ray
Hill
& Houston Rally Shots
Robin Tyler & Maxine Feldman
Holly Near & Meg Christian
Blackberri
Gotham
Allen Ginsberg & Peter Orlovsky
Casselberry
& Dupree, and Mary Watkins
Kate Millett and Charles Law
Rally Crowd Shots
Other Speakers/Performers
Misc--Houstonians at the Hotel
Color
Photos
Photos
I took of the MOW
and mostly for researchers, three pdf files of organizing correspondence
and clippings from the March
File
1-Planning Correspondence
File
2-More Planning Correspondence
File
3-Clippings of MOW coverage
79 March coverage from
TWT
Below, Houston hosted
a pre-March planning conference
Also see extensive
Houston coverage in Upfront, issue
2-21 and issue
2-22
Boston's Gay
Community News Guide to the March, 10/14/79
1
above, members of
the Salsa Soul Sisters, a NYC lesbians-of-color group, help carry
the banner;
Anna T Ortiz (not a Sisters member) is above the L in National and
M in March, with glasses
Download
the Program Click
for The Banner Project info
Listen to exerpts of a meeting
between Harvey Milk, Ray Hill, Howard Wallace, and David Lamble,
discussing whether a March should be held. This was a meeting the
weekend of June 9-11, 1978, in Dallas,
held the same weekend as a Texas
Gay Task Force conference. Courtesy of the Pacifica Foundation.
Listen,
29 Minutes
Short prize-winning documentary
from 2014 about the March,
made by high school students. They used a number of photos taken
by me at the March, like, hey, the one below
VIEW
Video
We Are Everywhere
There
was a record album associated with the MOW...
it was mostly clips from the speeches from both the
March and the Gay Freedom Train that crossed
the country on its way there
When
I googled this March I was surprised at actually how very few photos
of it have been uploaded to the net,
and I believe this will be the most extensive collection to be found.
This is also why I am displaying them larger
than you might expect, to see all those proud faces. As the photographer,
Larry Butler, was from Houston,
the photos are very Houston-centric, but there are plenty showing
folks from everywhere, and a large number
showing the speakers and performers.
Click
to Download the Album, 35:42
And,
see MUCH LARGER scans of complete LP
Extensive Coverage
of the March, from Pacifica Archives & Internet Archive
LINK
33:53, with Ray Hill (...), Charles Law (...)
KZ0754.02A
starts with Holly Near, JT Thomas and Meg Christian
performing
"There's something about the women" (begins midway through
the song) and a
rendition of "We are a gentle angry people." A female announcer
(not named)
speaks about money and solicits donations from the audience. Holly
Near then
performs "Over the rainbow." Ray Hill from Houston,
TX talks about incarceration
of gay men and lesbians and introduces the Reverend Dr. Charles
Law. Law speaks
on how "integration, and not assimilation" is the main challenge
for gay activism in
the 1980s. Hill then introduces Paula Gunn Allen from the American
Indian Gay
Movement, who speaks on how she represents the people with the longest
gay
history in the Western hemisphere. Allen Ginsberg reads his
poem "Song" and
sends a warning to Congress, and Peter Orlovsky reads "Someone
liked me
when I was twelve."
LINK
32.41
KZ0754.02B
begins with Ray Hill introducing Juanita Ramos and Armando
Gaetan, representing Third World gays and lesbians (Ramos speaks in
English
and then Gaetan summarizes the speech in Spanish). Congressional
Representatives Ted Weiss (D-NY) and Phil Burton (D-CA) speak briefly.
Hill makes some brief announcements and then another female announcer
introduces the disco band Gotham who perform "(I'm your)
AC/DC man."
Lucia Valeska from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force speaks.
Audre Lorde speaks about the necessity to address racism, classism
and
sexism in the LGBT movement. BlackBerri speaks briefly and
performs his
song "Eat the rich."
LINK
28:27
KZ0754.02C
starts with Hill making more announcements, then introduces
Tom Robinson who sings "Glad to be gay" and "Stand
together." Howard Wallace,
who organized the boycott of Coors, speaks on behalf of the gay labor
movement.
Kate Millett, author of Sexual Politics, speaks about the "threat"
of gay love.
More announcements, then Florynce "Flo" Kennedy is brought
on stage and sings
"Nothing could be sweeter than to find out that Anita [Bryant]
is a lesbian" with
a chorus, and then addresses
the crowd.
LINK
17:16
KZ0754.02D begins
with Margo Carl from Lambda Legal speaking about
violence towards and incarceration of LGBT people. Anthony Sullivan,
one of
the first same-sex marriage applicants in the US, speaks about LGBT
people
and immigration law. Reverend John Kuiper, the first gay man to adopt
a child
in the US, speaks about his case. Sandy Schuster and Madeleine Isaacson,
lesbian mothers, speak of their struggles. Supervisor Harry Britt
from San
Francisco speaks about Harvey Milk. The final speaker of the day is
Arthur
McCombs of the Gay Atheist League of America, who decries religion
as the
source of gay oppression.
LINK
59:05
Day of the March
- Houston Contingent Getting Organized
2
3
3,
Bruce Herman in center
below, the Montrose
Marching Band, getting ready
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
17,
left and center Art Kelly and Al White and Wes (last name unknown);
18, left, Billy
Ramsey
19
20
21
22
above
right, on right, Gerald Hagan
23
above
on left, Steve
Shiflett and Billy
Ramsey;
24, Fanny
Farmer
24
25
26
25,
Billy Ramsey; 26, Steve Sigmon
27
28
above
right, he brought his own copy of Houston newspaper Upfront
29
30
26, 29 , 30,
Steve Sigmon (tended bar at Venture N and then at the Drum)
31
32
33
34
above,
Fanny Farmer
35
35, 36 above and below,
Steve Shiflet in dark shirt, Don
Hrachovy in center
36
Color photo
courtesy of Steve Sobota
37
38
37, on left, Emery
Daly-Lingwood; 38 Linda Jones, Mark
Firner; Dennis Bergen, center with cowboy hat
39
40
41
above, with gloves,
Steve Shiflet, Billy Ramsey (middle), Jeff Baggett on right
42
43
44
45
46
46, center is Roy
Ourso And to his left is Bobby
Lovell
Gene Oliver
in right background
47
48
49
above & below,
Andy Mills in center
50
51
52
51, Dennis Bergen
53
54
54
at left, Gerald Hagan, and center David, of the Venture-N (last name?)
55, at left, Steve Shiflet, Guy
Amadee, Larry Bagneris
55
56
56, Billy
Ramsey,
and on right, Sidney
Brandenberger
57
58
57,
David of Venture-N on right
58, on right, Steve Shiflet
59
60
59, 60 center,
John
Schillinger
61
above
center, Dennis
Dunwoody
62
63
62, Billy Ramsey
64
65
64,
Bruce Herman, lover of Warren
Duncanson, seen in #65
66
67
68
69
70
71
70,
with arm up, David, of Venture-N; 71, Charles Gillis of Wilde 'N Stein
Bookstore
72
73
74
On the right above
is Rose Vecchio
75
76
77
78
77,
center, David, co-owner of Venture-N (last name?)
79
80
79, Steve Sigmon,
80 and 81, Fanny Farmer
81
82
83
84
84
left, Mark
Firner
85
86
86,
Linda Jones in back, holding flagpole
87
88
88,
Jeff Baggett, wearing an Upfront press badge
89
89,
left Steve Sigmon
90
90,
Dennis
Bergen, and at right front, Sid
Brandenberger
and, a few more, from Texas, not necessarily from Houston
91
92
93
94
95
96
96, on right,
is Richard
Rogers, of Dallas, the taller man, with Dale Smith
97
98
99
The
Day of the March - Houston Contingent Getting Organized
The
March on Washington - Part 1, Houston
The March on Washington & Rally
- Part 2, Los Angeles
The March on Washington - Part 3- Everyone
else
The March on Washington - Part 4 - More
Everyone Else
The pre-March Rally, the day before
Ray Hill
& Houston Rally Shots
Robin Tyler & Maxine Feldman
Holly Near & Meg Christian
Blackberri
Gotham
Allen Ginsberg & Peter Orlovsky
Casselberry
& Dupree, and Mary Watkins
Kate Millett and Charles Law
Rally Crowd Shots
Other Speakers/Performers
Misc--Houstonians at the Hotel
Color Photos
Photos
I took of the MOW
