Looking to November - Brief Article

Organizers plan to make a list of potential voters to help local causes

April may seem a long way from November, but for the organizers of the Millennium March on Washington, autumn is very much on their minds this spring. As part of the legacy they are hoping to leave from the march, planners will distribute voter pledge cards at the event. The information from the cards will be used to develop voter lists that will be distributed free to local and statewide gay organizations,

"The voting stuff is the real reason to do the march this year," says march executive director Dianne Hardy-Garcia, "We have to use this opportunity, We are getting close to declaring ourselves a bloc of voters. And that is substantive for politicians,"

Indeed, it is as much for politicians as it is for gays and lesbians that the cards are being distributed, says march cochairwoman Donna Red Wing. "It's important for candidates to see all those queer folks making their pledges,"

"Getting out the vote" (or GOTV, as insiders dub it) is hardly the most glamorous occupation for activists. But the ability to turn people out at the polls on election day is the surest sign of political clout, That depends on good lists of gay rights supporters, something that many local groups simply do not have,

"Lists are everything in politics," notes Hardy-Garcia, "Whether you can deliver a group of voters to the polls and whether you can say what percentage that group is makes you a bloc. It's nitty-gritty, dirty work, but I can tell you, if in Mississippi they can increase their list from 20,000 to 30,000, that's huge to them,"

In order to build those lists, march organizers are counting on the cards they are distributing at the event. "We are asking people to take a pledge to be part of the largest queer vote in history," says Hardy-Garcia, "We want to get 100,000 to 200,000 to take that pledge." The list will be distributed free to local, state, and national groups doing GOTV work on behalf of gays and lesbians, "We are giving it away to those people who are going to do this work," says Hardy-Garcia, "It's not going to be sold to a company so people can get video catalogs, It's going to be used for the fight for our equal rights."

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