MARCHING ON.

THERE DECADES AFTER STONEWALL, MILLENNIUM MARCH ORGANIZERS CAN ATTEST THAT THE MOVEMENT IS STILL RIFE WITH PROTEST

Activist Robin Tyler Carries in her wallet a slip of paper listing the demands 100,000 demonstration made at the 1979 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. She keeps the piece of paper to remind herself that these basic demands for equality--including gays' right to serve their country, raise their children, and live without fear of violence--have yet to be met.

"We've got visibility. We've dew, loped a GLBT industry. But we don't have one basic thing that we asked for in 1979," says Tyler, a veteran organizer of the 1979, 1987, and 1993 marches. "We've got to go back to Washington."

On April 30,2000, she expects about 1 million people to go to Washington, D.C., for a fourth national march for gay civil rights--the Millennium March on Washington for Equality.

At a press conference in late April, march organizers detailed plans to hold town meetings and conduct Internet polls to develop the "most democratic" march platform in the movement's history. Organizers also boasted that the 15-member organizing board consists of 60% women, 60% people of color, and only one gay white male--the Rev. Troy Perry, moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. They had hoped the announcements would pacify loud and persistent critics who question the timing and need for the march as well as its self-appointed leadership.

But critics were not mollified. "It's not a question of putting a Band-Aid on the march," says New York City activist Leslie Cagan, a member of the Ad Hoc Committee for an Open Process, a group of about 50 people united by their complaints against march organizers. In recent months the committee has collected 500 signatures on a petition asking for more representation on the march planning board. Says Cagan: "The plans need to be put aside so we can engage in a discussion about whether we even want to do a march on Washington."

Controversy over the march began more than a year ago with the call for the event. Tyler first solicited support for a fourth march at the 1997 National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change Conference in San Diego. There she found resistance among activists who were planning a series of actions in all 50 states, the campaign that became last March's Equality Begins at Home. But Tyler also found support among activists who, like herself, had noticed that the demands of 1979 had gone unmet. Shortly after Creating Change, Tyler and veteran march organizers Nicole Murmy-Ramirez and the Reverend Perry called for the millennium event.

The march was unveiled publicly on February 4, 1998, with a press release issued by the Human Rights Campaign and UFMCC. "This march will set a new tone for a new century," HRC executive director Elizabeth Birch declared in the document. Perry echoed Birch's prediction: "This march will set the pace for social justice and human rights."

The press release implied that the march had already been set by HRC, UFMCC, and Tyler, who was named executive producer. The dispatch set off an uproar from activists who thought their potential contribution to the planning process had been ignored.

"Wherever the idea for the previous marches came from, the idea was accompanied by meetings around the country to hash out questions: Is this the right time to march? What are we marching for?" says Ad Hoc Committee member Barbara Smith.

In the past year a number of organizations and leaders have either refused to endorse or withdrawn support for the march. The National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum; the Pride at Work labor group; BiNet USA; It's Time, America; and the National Youth Advocacy Coalition are not on board.

"There are big gaps," says Bill Dobbs, another member of the Ad Hoc Committee. "Significant pieces of the GLBT realm are missing from this march."

Most recently, NGLTF executive director Kerry Lobel quit the march board. "Basically, I question the timing of the march, its focus, and its strategy," Lobel says. "We've marched on Washington three times. What's different now?"

There are some who believe controversy over the march could derail the event. Organizers, however, insist that march support is bedrock-solid. The event's endorsement list includes more than 73 organizations. The march's bank account has been bolstered by a $250,000 sponsorship from PlanetOut, which is hosting the official march Web site and preparing to cybercast the event worldwide in five languages. (The Advocate is a national supporting sponsor of the march.) Also, numerous Internet polls suggest that the gay populace is eager to march. In fact, an informal poll of Advocate readers in 1998 found that 84% supported the planned march.

"I see people all across the country are excited about the march," says Murray-Ramirez, one of the four national cochairs of the event as well as the national cochair of the Latino/a Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Organization. "The people don't want to be involved in the ugly politics behind the scenes. They want to march. They want to march for lesbian health, against HIV, for hate-crimes legislation. They want to go to Washington to show our strength, to show our numbers."

March organizers also emphasize that controversy often surrounds national marches, including the landmark 1963 civil rights march on Washington, and has been a factor in each of the national gay civil rights marches. In 1993 activists questioned the logic of holding a march a year before the celebration commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots. In 1987 activists argued whether a march would pull money away from the fledgling battle against HIV/AIDS. In 1979 activists debated whether to march at ail and, after the march was called, whether to allow '60s radical Angela Davis to speak at the rally because of her Communist Party ties. And in each march there were disputes over who would organize the events.

"There's never been an entire rising up of a group of people to call for a march," Tyler says. "It begins with a few people with a good idea."

Neff is an editor at Chicago's Windy City Times.

For more up-to-date planning information on the Millennium March, go to www.advocate.com