NAMBLA endorses march
(NAMBLA sent this letter with its endorsement of the March on Washington.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Please add NAMBLA's name to the list of groups endorsing the March On Washington, October 11. NAMBLA also endorses the Civil Disobedience for Lesbian and Gay Rights at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 13, and the forty hour March Against Violence and Death scheduled for October 9 - 11. While NAMBLA wholeheartedly endorses these activities, and fully supports the reasons the March On Washington committee has given for holding these and related activities, we also feel that the call for the right to practice our sexuality freely makes the call for the repeal of all laws that make sodomy between consenting adults a crime inadequate and superfluous.
The right to practice our sexuality freely necess1tates the repeal of all laws that make sodomy between consenting adults a crime. But that right requires far more. For all members of our community to enjoy the right to practice their sexuality freely, we must replace all existing anti-sex legislation with laws that will protect people of all ages from unwanted sexual experiences and advances, and at the same time, leave them free to determine the content of their own sexual experience. We must also find ways to cure and eradicate AIDS and to adequately educate people of all ages about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Consistent with this failure to call for a comprehensive revision of anti-sex legislation is the failure to include a call for an end to ageism in the list of reasons for the march. Ageism is responsible for a great deal of persecution and suffering among both younger and older members of our community. Ageism deprives lesbian and gay young people of a vast array of rights that lesbian and gay adults take for granted. (Los Angeles City Council Member Zev Yaraslovsky [Yaroslavsky] - an endorser of the March On Washington - even told Edge political editor Andrew Exler that young people "don't have rights.")
Despite these inadequacies and the lamentable tendency of persons insecure about the validity of their sexual orientation to pander to politicians for their approval of the march, NAMBLA understands how important it is for all elements of the lesbian and gay community to participate, and we have encouraged as many of our members to participate as are able.
As a group that has been repeatedly infiltrated, spied upon, lied about and legislated against, NAMBLA knows all too well just how ruthless the Reagan regime has been, can be and continues to be. We know just how much money that can't be found to help end the ravages of AIDS has been used to persecute good gay people in NAMBLA. And those NAMBLA members fortunate enough to be able to participate openly in the march realize how important their participation is to those unable to attend.
FOR LOVE AND FOR LIFE, WE'RE NOT GOING BACK!
source: Article 'NAMBLA Endorses March'; NAMBLA Bulletin, vol. 8, no. 8, October 1987