Rally for Gay Rights, 1984

From The Los Angeles Times, July 16, 1984.

Unionists, Gays Stage Rallies on Convention Eve

By HENRY WEINSTEIN
Times Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO-In separate, spirited rallies, about 150,000 union members--many carrying anti-Reagan banners--and 100,000 gay and lesbian activists calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals peacefully marched through downtown San Francisco on Sunday on the eve of the Democratic National Convention. . . .

Paul Boneberg, co-chairman of the National March for Lesbian/Gay Rights, also urged the defeat of President Reagan. He said the Reagan Administration "is anti-civil rights and that includes rights for lesbians and gays."

Then he helped lead the 1 1/2 mile walk from Castro and Market streets in the heart of one of the city's gay neighborhoods to a rally site across the street from the Moscone Center, where the convention is being held. . . .

Marching at the front of the gay and lesbian parade, civil rights lawyer Mary Dunlap said: "I'm thrilled. It's been a long time coming. The Democratic convention is a marvelous opportunity to move our agenda, which is a human rights agenda in an environment that's friendly"--a reference to the inclusion in the Democratic platform of a number of planks supported by gay organizations.

Dunlap, co-chairman of the march, said that gays and lesbians also expect to stage a march at the Republican National Convention in Dallas next month. But she acknowledged that they are unlikely to draw as large a crowd there. Still, as she talked to a reporter, a group of gays who had come from Texas for the march began to sing, "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You." . . .

One of the principal demands of the march was "immediate and massive federal funding to end the AIDS epidemic," a reference to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a disease that has struck many gay men. "AIDS is the issue," said Bobbi Campbell, who is afflicted with the disease.

The Democratic platform includes a plank calling for more federal money to combat AIDS and several other positions advocated by gays and lesbians, including an end to job and housing discrimination against them.

But Dunlap said: "We have to do more than be visible and have the Democrats pat us on the head. Achieving our goals will be harder work than all this."

Near day's end, Bill Olwell, vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, the highest ranking union official who is a publicly declared gay, linked the two events in a speech to the gay rally.

"This morning, I marched up Market Street with tens of thousands of my labor brothers and sisters demanding an end to the Reagan Administration," Olwell said. "This afternoon, I marched down Market Street with tens of thousands of my gay brothers and lesbian sisters demanding the same justice and equality and an end to the same repressive Reagan policies. This is what today is all about."