OW 73 - Outweek.net

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UPHILL BATTLE-Mayoral Liaison Majori" Hill
,
by Nina' Reyes
,
NEW. yo.RK-~town meeting
sponsor~d by Queer'Nat'ion last week
br,~ugh! mayora(liaison.MarjOrie Hill
before ~'largely sU,pportlve, but occa-
siopally hostile; crowd, effectively eas-
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ing the"~ension , that has mounted be-
tween ¢e gilYand_lesbian direct-action
group apd HilI.inthe last few months.
_ A1ttiot\gh few observers express.ed
· deep. satisfaction with the forum, which
, " r.
strayed far afield from'the slated topic
of anti-gay Violence, many thought that
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.the meeling facilitated a long-overdue
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dIalog ~tween African-American, Lati-
'.. no and wbiteactivi$ts, ','
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Paise rumors circulated priOl'to the
forum"however, that Queer Nation
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planned,tocall fot Hill's resignation at the
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·event, fqeling anger among her 'support-
ers and creating a.sense of underlying
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tension that permeated a good deal of .
the exchanges througho\lt the meet.ing,
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Nov.... It... a1.... eo
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hear from David Dinkins."
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~magreed to ask Police Commissioner
Lee Brown to meet with lesbian
and gay anti-violence activists, although
she did admit that pulling' off a summit
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like that would be quite a feat She also
stated sharply, in response to a question,
that i~uing veiled threats of resignation
in the face of mayoral policy decisions
with J;hich she did not agree is
not her style. -
. Probably the most overtly antago-
. nisti.-, . '. '- --.. '.
. \' ; called thereptark about he~ ward~obe!\
~ '" drawing laughtedrom the 'crowd aQd
As diss~tisfactiorvwith Mayor, making it more' than clear whose posi-
David Dinkins' respopse to escalating tion the participants supported,
anti-gay and anti-lesbian viQlence has ' When the discussicm touched on
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built, some activists have publicly persistent racism and sexism within the
charged that Hill has not been appropri- communitY of a~ivists, Hill diplomaticalately
attentive to the issue. In fact; dur- Iy remarked, "My style, which' has been
ing recent genenll meetings of Queer criticized along with my dress, isnot to ..
Nation, which has been closely associ- point fingers."
ated both with al\\;-violence advocacy "We spend'far too much time and
and with criticism of Hill, whenever the this is the story of oppressiotl-picking .
~, .,.. . .
Iiaison',s name came up, members on each oth~r,~ she continued. '!Weneed
hissed and booed, . to decide what the salient issues are."
, At the Nov, 5,tOWIlmeeting, how- A broad cross section of social and
ever, an entirely different attitude to- political groups from both Manhattan
ward liill prevailed. , and iheput~r borough~ attended, lend-
"It took years to get into this ....ing the Qµ~ef';Nation-event a-multiculmess-it's
not going to take four months tural and co-sexual patina. "It's not'that
to get out," one member of the audience we suddenly wanted to attend a Queer
remarked pOintedly, Another partici-. N~ion meeting;"explainedone,African--:pant,
explicitly locating responsibility American woman"challenging forum -
for the city's lethargy on the issue of partic'ipaMs ~o fi,ght ethnQcentrism.
queer-bashing, said, "I hear your com- "What are you going to do to get us to
mitment, Marjorie Hill, but I want to come back?"'"
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