GAY AND LESBIAN ATHEISTS AND HUMANISTS
P.O. Box 34635, Washington, DC 20043-4635
www.galah.org

July19, 2001

For Immediate Release

Contact person: Tom Klem
tomonroad@yahoo.com
www.galah.org

ATHEISTS, HUMANISTS CALL ON MCC, HRC TO PAY OFF MILLENNIUM MARCH DEBTS

Gay and Lesbian Atheists and Humanists (GALAH) is calling on the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) and Human Rights Campaign (HRC) to pay off the over $300,000 in debt left over from the Millennium March on Washington.

The MCC and HRC were the two organizations that attempted to impose the event on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Making things worse, they prescribed an exclusionary and religious agenda for the event.

"The MCC and HRC made much of the mess. They should be more than willing to clean it up," said GALAH Treasurer Tom Klem.

The power play resulted in attendance figures that were much lower than the 1993 March on Washington. While the Metropolitan Police Department (Washington, DC) estimated the 1993 March attendance at 1 million, the same agency estimated the MMOW attendance at 200,000. These figures corresponded with observations around the District the weekends of the two events. While there were large crowds in the Dupont Circle neighborhood during the time of the MMOW, those crowds were smaller than those during the 1993 March on Washington. More importantly, the 1993 March drew so many people that much of the city was filled with queer people.

A event whose agenda and organization were designed to render non-Christians and many other segments of the lgbt community invisible naturally would have trouble drawing the very people it had contempt for. Had there been a legitimate, inclusive march that year, attendance would have been high enough to prevent any losses, even those incurred by the alleged theft of festival funds.

When Gay and Lesbian Atheists and Humanists called for the cancellation of the event, GALAH addressed the problem of using up valuable resources on MMOW, resources that would be unavailable for more pressing needs. Little did we know that another important resource may end up being squandered — the credit-worthiness of the lgbt movement. "The HRC and MCC should pay up so future march organizers do not have the obstacle of the MMOW debt to address," GALAH Treasurer Tom Klem urged.

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