National Gay Mobilizing Committee for a March on Washington, May 1973-December 1973

Under Construction

The Cast - Major players identified. Actual historical figures on left.

Jeff Graubart, GLF activist, YSA member, Coordinator NGMC, Narrator	Dave Rosen
William Stanley, GLF activist, YSA member, NGMC member	Winston Stanfield III
Roger Walther, President GLF and NGMC	Roger Hamilton
Wayne Sunday, GAA Secretary, YSA member, NGMC supporter	Zach Doubleday
John O'Brien, GAA member, SWP member, NGMC supporter	Austin O'Rourke
Garret Gray, Leader, Illinois Gays for Legislative Action	Larry Gulian
All other LGBT activists mentioned, some with minor speaking roles	Real Names Used

---

Keeping my Demons at Bay

Having won some points with the national and regional offices of the Young Socialist Alliance and Socialist Workers Party for my strong showing (by revolutionary socialist standards) in the Urbana Mayoral race, and by this time completely obsessed with the fight for gay liberation as the only way to keep away my demons, I decided to call in my marker with the YSA and push them to provide the infrastructure for a gay and lesbian march on Washington.

Not only were LGBT people suspicious, at best, of revolutionary socialists and vice versa, but I was not well-known on a national level as either a gay activst or a revolutionary socialist. However, sometimes audacity and naivete can make for good history.

Dramatization of Early Discussion between Bill Stanley and Jeff Graubart on Washington march A fictionalized account to show my state of mind.

---

The IGLA Conference in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois

Urbana failed to pass the gay rights bill as I had assumed and instead threw the bill into the Committee on Legislation. At this point, the Washington march was just beer talk at Bill Stanley's, although, on one drunken occasion, he called a gay YSA comrade in New York who supported the idea.

Bill Stanley and I both supported a march on the Illinois State Capitol, Springfield, and we planned on bringing that up at a statewide meeting of a group based out of Chicago called, Illinois Gays for Legislative Action, although Bill was certain they would defeat the proposal without the Urbana victory to give creedence to our style of direct action politics.

Dramatization of Bloomington-Normal IGLA Conference I am uncertain how much of this dramatization is fiction and how much is fact. IGLA did endorse the march on Springfield and I did mention the false assertion that the SWP/YSA were considering building a gay and lesbian march on Washington.

---

Mission to New York

With the prospect of a march on Washington with resources provided by the SWP and YSA in the public eye, Bill Stanley and Jeff Graubart travel to New York in late May to get a sense of support from the New York comrades and to get the reaction from the nations largest and most militant gay organization, the New York Gay Activist Alliance (GAA).

Dramatization of Trip to New York The dramatization is intended to be accurate. Bruce Voeller, preseident of GAA, whose real name is used, said a lot more about the march and conference than the one line attributed to him, all of it negative. The discussions with and about Steve Endean, whose real name is used, happened as was reported to the best of my recollection. A few other YSA comrades and GAA members who joined us for dinner were omitted from the novel for conciseness.The dramatization will be reviewed by Wayne Sunday for historical corrections before the March deadline.

---

The National Gay Mobilizing Committee for a March on Washington

William Stanley was hooked by the New York trip. Now it was time to set up an office, get officers and send out mass mailings.

Dramatization of the Birth of the NGMC Accurate to the best of my recollection

A heart-warming endorsement

Jeff Graubart spent as much time as possible in the National Gay Mobilizing Committee for a March on Washington office, at least an hour a day and sometimes dawn to dusk. Endorsements for the conference were pouring in from all over the country. Each day, at least three and as many as eight would arrive in the mail. There were donations. Usually one to five dollars, but there was a donation of a hundred dollars arrived from rural Indiana.

Some endorsements were extra special. From small towns, the praise and gratitude were greatest. “Thank-you for bringing the sun back to the sky,” said one. The larger cities were less enthusiastic. The tone of their endorsement or response was: “Who the fuck gives you, Champaign-Urbana, the right to call this conference?” Nevertheless, even replies from the grumbling bigger cities mostly were endorsements.

---

Endorsements and Criticism From Around the Country

Article in Pittsburgh Gay News calling for a local chapter of NGMC

                  Support

Morris Kight Endorsement

Loretta Lotman Letters

Letter From Jeff Graubart Printed as Article in The Fountain

A Collection of Endorsements and Comments

Frank Kameny Letter

           A Chill Wind in DC

Allan Vick Letter

Larry Maccubin Letter

---

Wayne Sunday discusses possibility of New York GAA endorsement

March on Springfield?

Dramatization of Larry Gulian Discussion on Springfield March

---

Halloween Nightmare

Dramatization of the events of October 31st, 1973

Advocate Article on March

---

The Thanksgiving Convention

Dramatization of Final Phone Conversation With Larry Gulian

Dramatization of the Convention

---

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold

There was a great deal of honest dissent over the Washington march and NGMC convention. This is how a democratic process unfolds. But there were two instances of dishonest, active sabotage of the convention. The YSA and SWP allowed me to build the convention, and then forbade all comrades from attending and then used the small turnout as proof that the gay movement was dying. Even more maliciously, Larry Gulian, chairperson of Illinois Gays for Legislative Action lied about building a march on Springfield, lied about supporting the convention, took resources of the NGMC ostensibly to build the convention in Chicago, but did nothing other than tell Chicagoans that the convention was a communist plot to take over the gay movement.

The YSA convention was held in Chicago at the end of December, 1973. I stayed a member just long enough to let my "comrades" know what happened. Wayne Sunday and I handed out almost 200 copies of the flyer pictured to the right before we were stopped. The end of 1973 and early 1974 saw a general exodus of gays from the YSA and SWP. The Advocate article below describes what Wayne and I did at the convention as well as the rift between gays and the YSA/SWP.

Gay issue splits Socialist Party ranks

As for Larry Gulian, that confrontation did not occur until June of 1974. It is beyond the scope of Champaign-Urbana. I'll save the story for readers of The Quest for Brian. That story could aptly be titled "The Day the Chicago Gay Alliance Died."