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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE         Contact: Nadine Smith (202) 597-4288
 
Civil Disobedience Separates from March.  Division Over Strategy and Legal
Concerns Cited.
 
     Washington, DC.  Organizers of a civil disobedience (CD) action aimed at
Congress have severed ties with the March on Washington.  Citing legal issues
ad disagreement among March organizers about the strategy of the CD, the group
announced its decision during a national meeting earlier this month (Feb 6-7).
 
     The CD action was called for in October as a response to government
inaction on the health care crisis facing the lesbian, gay and bisexual
community.  The group has since expanded the theme of the CD to "Health Care
--and Human Rights" and now has plans to stage a second demonstration in front of
the Pentagon that would not involve civil disobedience.
 
     Gay and lesbian lobbyists, politicians and community leaders voiced
concern that mass arrests at the U. S. Capitol Building will alienate potential
allies in the new Congress and undermine the President at a time when the
community needs to muster support.
 
     The CD committee was evenly divided on whether to change the focus to the
Pentagon to support lifting the military's ban on homosexuality or to keep
health care concerns as the primary target, said Scout, a national co-chair for
the March.
 
     "Those who wanted to stick with the original plans argued that the
Congress has had ample time to address our community's issues and has failed,"
said Scout.  "After a great deal of discussion, the CD committee made a
decision to split off and the National Steering Committee supported that."
 
     "Less philosophical reasons factored into the CD committee's decision to
disassociate as well," said Billy Hileman, also a national co-chair for the
March.  "As a non-profit organization, there are certain guidelines we have to
follow that were too restrictive for the event that the committee wants to
organize."
-- 
     Similar legal concerns over the March's non-profit status led to the
organizers of the 1987 civil disobedience at the Supreme Court to remain
separate from the actual March committee.  Over 600 people were arrested in
that demonstration to protest the high court's ruling in the Hardwick vs Bowers
case.  That decision which upheld sodomy laws that outlaw private sexual
relations between consenting same-sex adults galvanized the lesbian, gay and
bisexual community and drew a record-breaking 650,000 marchers to the nation's
capital.

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