SOUNDBITES — “To announce a LGBT March on Washington without checking to see if the National Mall was free on October 10, 11, and 12, was incredibly naive. Those of us who have worked on prior LGBT marches have always obtained permits prior to the announcement of a National March. The Columbus day weekend is always incredibly busy in Washington. The minimum Cleve Jones and Torie Osborn should have done was check to see if the Mall was available. It would have just taken one phone call to the Agency in DC who issues the permits.” —DayOfDecision.com co-founder Robin Tyler (one of the original plaintiffs in the California Supreme Court Prop 8 lawsuit) on the apparent missteps of March On Washington organizers announcing a date for a rally that’s already been booked. Tyler also participated in the National March on Washington in 1979, the era of Anita Bryant.
Robin Tyler
‘The minimum Cleve Jones and Torie Osborn should have done was check to see if the Mall was available’
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Darrell6tt
A march on Washington may make some folks feel good, but it is unlikely to do anything else, like influence a politician. I see it as a big waste of limited resources.
allstarecho
If it’s anything like the last one, I’ll pass. Nothing but a big block party, with vendors unpaid and HRC staffers selling drugs out of their hotel rooms.
flightoftheseabird
The march on DC is a stupid idea. Period. Robin Tyler basically said as much at the Leadership Summit on Sunday, the room agreed with her (for the most part). If we are going to win marriage equality back in CA, we need to be here on the ground. I respect what Cleve Jones has done in the past, but this is just a dumb idea. Why doesn’t he have a March on CA. Where those 500,000 to 1 million people he expects to show up in DC come to every county in CA and knock on 50 doors over the same two days and talk about marriage equality to voters. Over two days we could talk to every single voter in the state of CA. Now that would be a powerful image.
Landon Bryce
@flightoftheseabird:
First of all, marriage rights in CA does not equal gay rights. Many of us, even many of us who who in CA are horrified by the idiotic decision to immediately waste resources by plunging into a repeat of the Prop 8 battle.
California couples have all the legal rights the state can give them. Gay people in most places in the country cannot enter into any sort of union. I think a California focus when people in most parts of the country can be fired for being gay is obscene.
If all of the money and energy we spent on the failed Prop 8 effort how been spent lobbying Congress on ENDA, DADT, and DOMA, I think it would be much harder for the President and the Democratic controlled Congress to be draggin
The point of a march on Washington is to make the point that we ar engaged in a civil rights struggle which concerns us all
Landon Bryce
Sorry, cat sent last message before I finished.
I’m not sure a march is a great idea. But I know that a CA 2010 marriage battle will distract from ought to be a national focus for no good reason.
I see only a self-centered temper tantrum in the insistence of many gay people who live in my state that their right to the word marriage matters more than the right to employment for the entire country.
Wolf
@Landon Bryce:
I totally agree with you. As for Robin Tyler I think she has a bit of a conflict of interest.
Also you know I really want to go on the books here by saying just how cheesy and selfish it is for all you CA Marriage people to trash the idea of a March. Why because its NOT ABOUT YOU?
All I have jeard is it will talke money from the CA Fight. Yadda Yadda.
If you don’t want to go to the protest then don;t. but don;t sit back and try to sabotage it and bad mouth it because you’d rather have the focus on you.
Its selfish and tacky
Alex
Fuck the mall. Let’s pack Lafayette Square until we’re spilling out until Pennsylvania Ave is impassable. Of course, I’m drunk right now, so…
edgyguy1426
Maybe seein a huge mass of people on the Mall will spur someone to start countin each person there as a vote.
Darrell6tt
@Alex: Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House has been impassible since the Clinton Administration. The Secret Service closed it off after the Kansas City bombing.
hyhybt
@Darrell6tt: Wait, when was there a bombing in Kansas City (either of them)?
Darrell6tt
@hyhybt: Why did I write Kansas City??? Wrong state. It was Oklahoma City. Sorry. Sometimes my brain looses a connection or two.