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National Coming Out Day October 11, 1988
ALABAMA FORUM
OCTOBER 1988 A PUBLICATION OF LAMBDA, INC.

Return to D.C. :
March on
Washington
Anniversary
by Rex Wockner, Chicago Outlines

The gay/lesbian community will return to
Washington, D.C. October 6-11 to mark the first
anniversary of 1987's historic National March on
Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
Highlights of the anniversary gathering include a
display of the NAMES Project quilt, and a
massive civil disobedience action at the Food and
Drug Administration in Rockville, Maryland.

According to NAMES Project general manager
Michael Smith, the quilt will be unfurled on the
Capitol Mall on Oct. 8 and 9. At dusk on the 8th,
thousands of mourners are expected to light
candles and walk from the Mall to the Linclon
Memorial. The procession will be lead by parents
groups from around the country
and by a host of politicians involved in the AIDS
fight.

The quilt's anniverary display will mark its first
presentation in its entirety since last year's march.
The 10,000 panels are expected to stretch from the
Capitol to the Washington Monument.

Meanwhile, thousands of AIDS activists
nationwide have announced their intention to
stage a civil disobedience action at the FDA Oct.
11. Groups such as New York's AIDS coalition to
Unleash Power (ACT UP), Houston's Gay Urban
Truth Squad (GUTS), Chicago for AIDS Rights
(C-FAR), and other, more mainstream
organizations believe the FDA is "criminally
negligent" in its handling of anit-AIDS drugs.

The action is being coordinated by the AIDS
Coalition to Network, Organize and Win (ACT
NOW), a San Francisco umbrella organizationfor
the burgeoning gay/lesbian direct action and civil
disobedience phenomenon. Demonstrators will
demand that the FDA "revease the treatments",
some 40 potential AIDS remedies caught up in
bereaucratic delays. They will insist that women,
Blacks, Hispanics, children and I.V. drug users be
included in the few clinical test studies underway.
On Oct. 6 and 7, preceding the quilt display,
mainstream gay rights groups have called for
National Lobby Days. Gay men and lesbians from
around the country are asked to personally visit
their elected representatives in their Washington
offices.

An AIDS activist teach-in, including workshops
and special caucuses for persons with AIDS,
people of color and women, is planned for Oct. 8.
Topics will include fundraising and community
organizing.

On Oct. 9, ACT NOW will hold a strategy
conference for the country's 40-some AIDS direct
action groups. Organizers hope to plan a series of
national campaigns centered on specific issues.

Civil disobedience training will take place from
9:00-3:00 on Oct. 10, followed by a 4:00 rally at
the Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS oversees the National Institutes of Health,
another "culprit", activists say, in the AIDS
"fiasco". At 7:00 on the 10th, a pre-action meeting
is scheduled for all those who will be commiting
civil disobedience the next morning at the FDA>

Demonstrators should plan to arrive in Rockville
no later than 7:00 AM on the 11th. ACT NOW
organizer Terry Beswick says the goal is nothing
short of "seixing control of the FDA and
demanding access to AIDS treatments." Lou
Snider of C-FAR adds, "We're going to try to take
the building, take it for ourselves".

ACT NOW's FDA action coincides with National
Coming Out Day, during which all gay men and
lesbians are encouraged to take the next step out
of the closet. Organizers have said that "the next
step" could be anything from telling the first
person ever that you're gay to telling the world on
the six o'clock news.

Tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of gay men
and lesbians are expected to make the trek to
Washington for the anniversary of the March,
which may concider to have been the most
significant event in the gay movement since the
Stonewall revolt. For more information, contact
ACT NOW's Scott Sanders at 202-234-8801,
NGLTF's Sue Hyde at 202-332-6483, the
NAMES Project at 1-800-USA-NAMES, or
C-FAR at 312-848-1066.

[Photo captioned "From the Oct. 11, 1987 March on Washington"]
[Photo credit: KEVIN ROBERSON 1987]

LWAC
Incorporates
Separately

The Living With AIDS Coalition (LWAC), a
group of persons who have AIDS, ARC or have
tested positive for HIV, has incorporated
separately as a non-profit organization and moved
into office and meeting space on Birmingham's
Southside.

LWAC, which has previously been associated
with Lambda and Covenant Metropolitan
Community Church, incorporated separately to
insure its independence and autonomy, according
to leaders of the group.

LWAC will be sharing space in a large, restored
home called "The Clearing House" with the
Center for Attitudinal Healing. In addition to
office space, space will be available for rap
groups discussing the problems associated with
living with AIDS, a small exercise room, a
wood-working shop and business meetings. A
small garden, deck and swimming pool are
connected to the house, but are in need of repair
before they can become functional, group
members said.

LWAC is organized to provide financial, physical
and emotional support to persons with the AIDS
virus, by persons with the AIDS virus.
Membership in the organization is confidential.

The LWAC is appealing for donations of money
or household goods, including office supplies and
furnishings to defray the cost of moving in to their
new space, and donations for the assistance fund
are always appreciated. This money goes directly
to PWA's for household and medical support.

For more information on the LWAC, please call
252-2255 or 942-8331.

Leonard Matlovich Dead at 44
by Rex Wockner, Chicago Outlines

Leonard Matlovich, who in 1975 challenged the
Air Force's ban on gay servicemen, died June 22
on West Hollywood of AIDS-related
complications. He was 44. Matlovich was a
decorated Vietnam veteran and served 12 years in
the Air Force before being expelled in 1975 when
he told his supervising officer he was gay.

Matlovich challenged his dismissal from the Air
Force and settling out of court five years later for
$160,000. The settlement vacated a Federal court
ruling two months earlier that he be reinstated
with back pay because the Air Force based its
policy on retention and discharge of homosexuals.

Matlovich recieved both the Bronze Star for
bravery and the Purple Heart for injuries during
his military career. He was later features on the
cover of Time magazine and became a hero of the
gay rights movement.

His epitaph - which he wrote himself and placed
on a tombstone in the Congressional Cemetery in
Washington, D.C. during the National March on
Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in
October 1987 - reads: "When I was in the military
they gave me a medal for killing two men, and a
discharge for loving one."

Randy Shilts to
Appear at UAB

Randy Shilts, author of And the Band Played On,
has been heralded as having written a landmark
work whose importance cannot be overstated.
Newsweek calls it compelling and often shocking,
impassioned and heartbreaking...the best book on
AIDS yet. Time refers to it as stunning...an
impressively researched and richly detailed
narrative. Shilts has shown clearly why the
epidemic has spread so wildly - and why the
authorities we most trusted failed us so badly.

On October 17th at 8:00 pm, Randy Shilts will be:
appearing at the UAB Arena. The public will be
admitted free. His appearance at UAB will be
preceeded by a cocktail reception from 5:30 - 7:30
pm at the Harbert Center, 2019 Fourth Ave.
North, to benefit Birmingham AIDS Outreach.
For ticket info call Billy Cox at 324-7613 or
591 2005..

Dukakis Appoints O'Leary to
Democratic Nat'l Committee

Democratic presidential nomince, Michael
Dukakis has appointed lesbian activist, Jean
O'Leary as an at-large member of the Democratic
National Committcc. O'Leary's appointment
marks the first time an open lesbian has been
named to the governing body of the National
Democratic Party.

Tim McNeill, the Associate Director of Issues for
the Dukakis campaign, commented on O'Leary's
appointment saying "Michael Dukakis has said
that gay men and lesbians would have more than
just a foot in the door and would participate in
policy making. Jean O'Leary is the kind of caring
and qualified person thai Dukakis hopes to attract
to public service.

O'Leary has had a long and distinguished career
as a gay rights activist, as well as being a 17 year
veteran of Democratic Party politics; serving,
most recently, as a Dukakis whip at the
Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.

During the Carter Administration, O'Leary
organized the first and only mecting of gay and
lesbian leaders held in the Whitw House. This
landmark cvcnt was followed up by scrics of
meetings that changed policy regarding gay men
and women with key federal agencics including
the State Department, the U.S Department of
Justice and the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. In
1977, O'Leary was appointed by President Canter
to the National Commission on the Observance of
International Women's Year, the first time an
openly gay person had been appointed to
Presidential Commission. She was subsequently
named to his National Advisory Commission on
the Status of Women.

For the past seven years, O'Leary has been
Executive Director of National Gay Rights
Advocates, 2 on profit, impact litigation firm,

[Photo of Jean O'Leary. Captioned "Jean O'Leary"]

committed to promoting civil rights for lesbians
and gay men.

When O'Leary leamed of her appointment to the
prestigious Democratic Committee, she said,"I am
proud to have recieved this appointmen. This is
another example of the commitment Mike
Dukakis continues to demonstrate on behall of our
community. This appointment is consistent with
his suppon of positive AIDS policies and civil
rights for lesbians and gay men. It clearly
highlights the difference hetween Govemor
Dukakis and an administration that has tumed it's
back on the gay community for cight years."