National
Another march in 2012?
L.A. activist says protest gathering needed to push Congress on gay issues
The National Equality March in October 2009 (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Veteran lesbian activist Robin Tyler of Los Angeles says she’s talking to LGBT leaders and organizations across the country about the possibility of a national march on Washington for equality in May 2012.
In a statement released to the Blade on Thursday, Tyler said she first proposed the idea of a 2012 LGBT march in the weeks following the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. Tyler has helped to organize LGBT Washington marches in 1979, 1987, 1993 and 2000.
She said an LGBT march on Washington held in October 2009 and a series of street protests during the past year by the direct action group Get Equal played a key role in what she called the few LGBT advances under the Obama administration, including the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” She was not involved in organizing the 2009 march.
“The fact is, without continuous protests that Get Equal, Dan Choi, Robin McGhee and others did, I believe, as so many others do, that DADT would not have been struck down,” Tyler said.
She said the main objection by some activists to holding another national march is it would take away resources and divert attention from needed LGBT activism in the states. At the time the 2009 LGBT march was being planned, skeptics said it would have little impact on members of Congress who don’t support LGBT rights.
A more effective way to prompt action by Congress would be visible activity and lobbying by constituents from lawmakers’ homes states rather than a march or rally in Washington, the critics said.
Tyler said the process of organizing a national march would trigger more activity in the states than what is currently taking place under the leadership of both state and national LGBT groups.
“[L]arge national marches on Washington, which take over a year to do on that scale, produce activists and activity from every state,” she said.
Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Fred Sainz, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, said their respective groups had yet to take a position on whether another LGBT march on Washington should take place in 2012.
Carey said Tyler would have an opportunity this spring to discuss her idea for a march at a meeting of the National Policy Roundtable, an informal group of executive directors of many of the national LGBT organizations. Carey said the date of the meeting has yet to be scheduled.
“We have met with Robin Tyler and have listened to her ideas about a march,” Sainz said. “Beyond that, we haven’t formulated an opinion one way or the other.”
Veteran LGBT and AIDS activist Cleve Jones, the lead organizer and spokesperson for the 2009 march, could not be reached for comment on Tyler’s proposed 2012 march. Veteran gay Democratic activist David Mixner did not return calls seeking comment on a 2012 march. McGehee, the GetEqual leader who worked with Jones to organize the 2009 march, said she would release a statement later this week.
LGBT activists had mixed views on the impact of the 2009 march, which took place Oct. 11, 2009. It included a march from the White House to the Capitol and a rally on the Capitol’s west lawn. Many of the nation’s most prominent LGBT leaders and activists spoke. Recording star Lady Gaga also spoke at the event.
Some supporters and organizers said the march drew more than 100,000 people. But others put the total at about 30,000. U.S. Park Police, who in the past gave an official estimate of crowds attending marches and rallies at the Capitol or on the National Mall, stopped giving such estimates years ago.
In association with the 2009 march, Jones, McGehee and other activists formed an organization called Equality Across America, which served as an umbrella group to help organize and raise money for the march.
At the time of the march, Jones said Equality Across America would continue after the march to organize an LGBT activist presence in all 435 U.S. congressional districts, as a spin-off of the activism generated by the march.
But according to Tod Hill, an official with the Tides Center, a San Francisco-based consulting group for progressive, non-profit organizations, Equality Across America ceased operating and dissolved sometime in 2010. He said the Tides Center managed the finances of Equality Across America.
No information could be found to show whether Equality Across America carried out activity in congressional districts before the group disbanded last year.
“I’m not aware of anything that came out of that,” said D.C. gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein. “The fact that we took such a beating in the House and Senate elections last year indicates they weren’t very effective if they did, in fact, do something.”
Rick Rosendall, vice president of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of D.C., said another national march would be a “complete waste of time, money and effort.” He said national marches in the nation’s capital organized by a wide range of groups and causes are so common that they have become “a dime a dozen” and Congress and the public pays little attention to them.
“What we really should to be doing is the hard work our movement so badly needs throughout the country and not engaging in another self-indulgent march in Washington,” he said.
Gay activist Dan Choi, the former U.S. Army lieutenant who made national headlines by chaining himself to the White House fence to protest the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, said he supports the idea of another march.
“I do think a march would be very strategically important, especially before the conventions of both parties,” he said. “And I think we’re ready to do it. The young people and the grassroots activists who were so empowered in 2009 – they’re ready to do it.”
Tyler said “massive street actions” historically have made a difference in the U.S. and elsewhere in prodding political leaders and governments to take action they would otherwise be unwilling to take.
“If you think mass actions do not work, look at what is happening in Egypt right now,” she said.
National
Blade reporters reflect on covering Pulse massacre 10 years ago
Orlando stepped up to comfort and support its LGBTQ community
Friday marks 10 years since a gunman killed 49 people inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
The massacre, which, at the time was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, left the LGBTQ community in this country and around the world reeling. It also prompted renewed calls for gun control.
The OnePulse Foundation, which Pulse owner Barbara Poma founded after the massacre, raised upwards of $20 million for a memorial that never materialized.
The city of Orlando in 2023 purchased the Pulse property for $2 million. Crews earlier this year demolished the former nightclub. The city of Orlando has pledged $12 million for a permanent memorial that is scheduled to open in 2027.
Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff and International News Editor Michael K. Lavers reported from Orlando in the days after the massacre. Here are their reflections a decade later.
Describe the scene when you arrived in Orlando. Where did you go first?
NAFF: Most mainstream reporters headed for the Pulse nightclub, but it was already roped off with police keeping bystanders at least a full city block away. Instead, I hurried to The Center, Orlando’s LGBTQ community center, downtown. I expected to find it locked down with tight security but instead the doors were flung open and everyone inside was busy at work. No tears, just dedicated staff and volunteers working the phones to secure visas and free plane tickets for relatives of the victims. The director gave me a tour and in the back storage room were pallets and pallets of bottled water stacked to the ceiling. When I asked what all the water was for, he said the city had issued a call for blood donations and the lines to donate were 1,500 deep in 100-degree heat. So The Center drove around to all the sites to deliver water to all those standing in line.
That scene was so inspiring and a testament to the strength and resiliency of the LGBTQ community. We’d seen tragedy before and knew how to respond.
LAVERS: I arrived in Orlando about 14 hours after the massacre took place. The city was shellshocked.
Equality Florida, the state’s LGBTQ advocacy group, and other organizations held a press conference at The Center shortly after my flight from D.C. landed. I drove there from the airport. Terry DeCarlo, who was The Center’s executive director at the time, along with then-Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith and others spoke on behalf of a community that was reeling. The Center at the press conference handed out business cards that read, “You matter.” I had it in my wallet when I drove to a makeshift memorial that was a block from Pulse — the police had cordoned off the area immediately around the nightclub. A local resident who I interviewed told me that she did not know if her friends who were at Pulse when the gunman opened fire survived. Another person with whom I spoke shared a similar story.
A torrential downpour began shortly after I arrived. The storm was an apt metaphor for the raw emotion of that horrific day.
What’s your most prominent memory of covering the Pulse massacre?
NAFF: I was covering a vigil in downtown Orlando when then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s motorcade arrived unannounced. To that point, he had not addressed the LGBTQ angle and seemed to be downplaying the fact that this was an attack on our community. I hurried to the front row as he held an impromptu news conference. To my dismay, he took only three short questions from TV reporters then rushed away. I grabbed his communications director and insisted that Scott take a question from the LGBTQ media. She agreed and told me to wait next to the SUV. When Scott approached, I asked him, “What is your message to LGBTQ Floridians?”
To my surprise, he sputtered, stammered, and broke into tears before telling me, “This was an attack, what else can you say? This was an attack against the gays, an attack against Hispanics, an attack against our country, our nation and it’s disgusting. The biggest thing we do now is ask how to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
It was his first public acknowledgment that the LGBTQ community was the target of the attack.
LAVERS: Two moments stand out for me.
The first moment is when then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Orlando on June 16, four days after the massacre. I was one of the reporters who the White House asked to be part of the local press pool. I was about 50 feet away from Obama and Biden when they placed bouquets with 49 flowers — one for each of the victims — at a makeshift memorial between City Hall and the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Orlando. Obama in remarks he made to the press pool mentioned one of the gay victims who had once said, “We cannot be afraid.” The emotions of the last four days simply became too much, and I broke down. Another reporter who was part of the press pool who was standing next to me realized I had broken down. She put her hand on my back to console me.
The second moment came a few weeks later when I was in Puerto Rico to cover the community’s response to the massacre and to interview victims’ relatives. Orlando has a very large Puerto Rican community, and nearly half of those who died at Pulse were of Puerto Rican descent.
I drove to Caguas, a city that is roughly 20 miles south of San Juan, the island’s capital, on July 7, and interviewed Aida Velázquez in her small apartment. Her son, Frankie “Jimmy” de Jesús, died at Pulse. Aida talked about her son, and she showed me pictures of him. Jimmy also danced Jíbaro, a Puerto Rican folk dance. The interview took place less than a month after the massacre — Jimmy’s funeral took place in Caguas less than two weeks earlier.
I sat in my car after the interview and sobbed uncontrollably for nearly five minutes. Nothing can possibly prepare you for interviewing a mother who had just lost her child in the most horrific way possible.
How did the local community respond and what about their response gave you hope or inspiration?
NAFF: In addition to the staff at The Center working to assist victims and their families, everyday Orlando residents stepped up to help however they could. At the downtown vigils, straight mothers and fathers carried signs offering hugs to anyone who needed them. I encountered a group of young teenage males who approached a group of law enforcement officers and appeared to perform for them. When they finished, I asked what they were doing and they told me that they were straight friends who lived in Orlando and wanted to do something to help so they composed an uplifting rap song and walked around performing it for anyone who needed cheering up.
LAVERS: The way that Orlando rallied around the LGBTQ community was simply inspiring.
Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, at a memorial service that took place at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center on June 13 said his organization was “united as Americans when it comes to standing with the LGBT community and their rights to live freely and to practice their lives here.” This comment underscored the outpouring of support that Orlando showed its LGBTQ community after Pulse. It was also a call for the better angels among us to reject hate in all of its forms.
What surprised you most about the experience?
NAFF: I was most surprised — and moved — after talking to Rev. Debreita Taylor of Oasis Fellowship Ministries, an LGBTQ-affirming ministry.
“My message is love. Period. Love. Period. There’s nothing in the word of God that faith leaders can go to that teaches hate,” she told me. “Have faith and believe that evil and hate can be eradicated one person at a time. How do you treat someone? How do you embrace someone who treats you wrong? We all bleed, laugh, hope and have great victories and major defeats. And so, you know me, even if you don’t know my name — I’m you.”
LAVERS: It admittedly took me quite a while to fully process what I experienced in Orlando — I was focused on doing my job as a reporter, which was to cover the story, and, most importantly, show the human impact of what had happened. I suppose one surprising aspect of the time I spent in Orlando was that I found myself feeling more defiant against those who seek to destroy our community. They want us to live in fear, and I refuse to give them that satisfaction.
What, if anything, changed as a result of Pulse?
NAFF: In the immediate aftermath of the attack, queer spaces began rethinking their approach to security, which has served us well in the years since. Sadly, just a year later, Pulse was bumped to the No. 2 deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history when a gunman opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas, killing 60 people. Americans and their politicians never learn from these largely preventable tragedies. The carnage continues.
LAVERS: Gun violence remains a shameful scourge in this country. Our community remains vulnerable to violence and discrimination. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other politicians here in Washington, around the country, and overseas continue to use our community to advance an anti-equality agenda. The carnage continues, as my colleague correctly notes, but our community remains strong and defiant. That gives me hope.
National
Queen Jean is Tony’s first transgender winner
Designer/activist wins for work on ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’
It was a historic night at the 79th annual Tony Awards on Sunday as Queen Jean won the award for Best Costume Design of a Musical, making her the first out transgender person to win a Tony.
“This experience has been monumental. We are here for the legacy of queer people, trans people,” she said. “We are taking up space in ways we have to take up space. We have to shift the paradigm. So I just want to say, thank you all so much for this incredible honor. The world right now is deeply, deeply combating so many ailments, and we know as a society that when we come together, we can make real, permanent change.”
She won the award for her work on “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” and was also nominated for best costume design of a play for “Liberation.”
In addition to her stage work, Queen Jean is the founder of Black Trans Liberation, an organization that supports trans and gender-nonconforming people in New York City.
National
Madonna turns Times Square into massive dance floor
Pop icon celebrates Pride month with surprise performance
Pop icon Madonna celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York City’s Times Square on Thursday to the delight of 50,000 fans.
She performed for about 15 minutes high above street level, including several songs from her new album “Confessions II” due on July 3, along with a trio of songs from the first “Confessions on a Dance Floor.”
In addition to the brand new “Love Sensation,” she performed “I Feel So Free” and “Bring Your Love,” plus “Hung Up,” “Get Together” and “I Love New York.” She wished the crowd a happy Pride season; the event was shared with audiences through Grindr’s first-ever livestream.
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