The controversy that surrounded the Millennium March on Washington ( MMOW ) from its inception did not abate as the day of the event drew near. And a post-mortem evaluation left a decidedly tarnished image that suggested this might have been the last such event for many years to come, perhaps forever.
Those on the left questioned its legitimacy as a top-down activity orchestrated by the Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) . They claimed that past marches on Washington had been grassroots efforts that percolated up from and with participation of local communities. Without such participation the event lacked legitimacy.
They said the prime reason for the event was to create a marketing event targeting the GLBT community as there was little political rationale or tie-in to pending legislation.
Others questioned the organizational ability of those nominally in charge of the event. The MMOW committee seemed to confirm that evaluation through its inaction, closed financial records, series of changes in key personnel, and eventual subcontracting out of most of the planned activities.
The hope that corporations would lay out big bucks to become sponsors of the event went largely unfulfilled. The biggest donors were the gay media outlets online and in print, and most of their contributions were not cash but in-kind donations of promotional space. This provided further ammunition for those who called the MMOW merely a marketing opportunity.
HRC tried to insulate itself from the controversy when executive director Elizabeth Birch left the MMOW board, but at the same time it made sure that its staff and board members held key positions within the MMOW. It also set up a parallel event, the stadium benefit concert "Equality Rocks" with some big name draws donating their talent. HRC pulled in a fist-full of cash from the concert.
Supporters and opponents put out conflicting numbers on how many people attended the main event on the Mall on April 30. Whichever number was more accurate, the crowd clearly was smaller than that at the last such event, in 1993.
Equally disturbing were charges that someone had absconded with huge sums of money from the concession area that the MMOW had been counting on to pay the bills. MMOW officials initially suggested that as much as a million dollars was missing, a figure that upon closer scrutiny seemed to be a rather gross exaggeration, but one that matched their debt. The FBI investigated but no charges ever were filed on this "grand" larceny.
As the year ended, HRC and gay online companies forgave close to a half million dollars that they loaned the MMOW. That left the organization about a half million dollars in debt to vendors who did much of the actual work at the event.
Last year The Advocate purchased the financially troubled Out, putting the nation's two largest gay magazines under the same ownership. Then in the spring, the online company PlanetOut announced an agreement in principle to acquire the parent company that publishes the two glossies as well as porn magazines. That effort has stalled, though the players say it will be completed in 2001.
In November, the two biggest online sites competing for GLBT Internet surfers, PlanetOut and Gay.com, announced a merger of their empires. It seemed that all of nation's major gay media would soon have a single owner. PlanetOut president Megan Smith raved about gays and lesbians as "a large group of customers." She salivated at the prospect of offering them "a wide diversity of products and product offerings."
All of these companies, now coalescing as one, had been major backers of the MMOW and HRC. Not to be outdone, the folks who brought you "Equality Rocks" have created "equality shops," though they have yet to be so brazen as to call it that.
This fall, HRC opened a store in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., a prototype for what they hope to be a string of shops in gay ghettos across the nation. They hope to lure customers with trendy T-shirts and baseball caps that bear their logo, collecting names to add to their list for marketing politics and apparel.
It further blurs the line between movement and market. It leaves one wondering what gays are fighting for, equal rights or the equal right to shop? When Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I have a dream…" was he was talking about the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog?
Copyright © 2001 Lambda Publications Inc. All rights reserved. Lambda publishes Windy City Times, The Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community, Nightlines, Out Resource Guide, Clout! Business Report, Blacklines and En La Vida. 1115 W. Belmont 2D, Chicago, IL 60657; PH ( 773 ) 871-7610; FAX ( 773 ) 871-7609. Web at outlineschicago.com E-mail feedback to outlines@suba.com
