The 1992 Pride Parade Conflict
Milwaukee’s PrideFest recently celebrated setting a new attendance record in their 28th year of proudly celebrating LGBT culture and community. This venerable member of the Milwaukee summer festivals has a storied history, and today I wanted to highlight one of the roadbumps they hit as an organization in 1992.
First, a disclaimer: this entry is not intended to bring up bad blood or to throw mud at old political figures (namely former mayor John Norquist). Instead, I am bringing up this incident as illustrative of just one of the hardships that LGBTQ individuals and organizations have faced in this very city. Cultural acceptance has come a long way in the past 23 years, though sometimes it may seem it has not come far at all.
We go back to the 21st January of 1992, when the Common Council of Milwaukee approved contributing $5000 to the Milwaukee Gay/Lesbian Pride Parade with a 9-to-6 vote, followed shortly by a vote to approve the suggest funding of 38 other ethnic and cultural parades and festivals. Yes, the Pride parade got to be all singled out for its own vote, though it did handily pass the council. It would have marked the first time the Milwaukee government contributed to the Pride parade. Yes, would have.
You see, the very next day Mayor John Norquist vetoed the entire motion. Unable to veto just funding the Pride parade, he instead vetoed funding every festival and parade. He justified his actions by stating that he was a strong supporter of gay rights, but “Parades and festivals are meant to be non-controversial” and that “it would be as improper as using property taxes to pay for a `pro-life' or `pro-choice' parade”.
This move was met with the reaction you’d expect. There’s a choice quote from Dennis Bunch, vice president of the Milwaukee Lesbian/Gay Pride Committee, who said the veto "almost brings the analogy of Mr. Norquist playing a political Pontius Pilate and washing his hands of queer blood." The veto was widely criticized as wholly political move – 1992 was an election year.
Later that month, the Common Council attempted to override the veto, but did not have the 11 votes to do so. In fact, they only had 8 votes to override the veto as Alderman Donald Richards stated his constituents had informed him that they believed no city money should go to festivals at all.
While the Committee was able to get other funding and still organize the parade and PrideFest that year, it was a bitter and angering experience. A member of the MLGPC told the Journal Sentinel that Norquist himself had told the organization to apply for city funds some four years previously, so the whole situation felt like a personal betrayal . However, the MLGPC licked their wounds and graciously stated they would not fight politically for funding from the city that year – they did not want to endanger all the other festivals and parades.
You can check out more about PrideFest history at the Wisconsin GLBT History Project, and you can always find books and other materials on GLBT issues at your local library. The quotes included in this blog are from various Milwaukee Journal Sentinel articles from January 1992.