The Nation - News from May 1, 1989

At least 15,000 people, shouting “victory or death,” rallied at the Capitol in Austin, Tex., and marched in support of rights for homosexual men and women. The “March on Austin” began with a colorful, musical parade downtown to the Capitol a mile away, where demonstrators rallied in support of legislators pushing bills backed by gays and lesbians. “We’re not going to go away,” state Sen. Craig Washington, a heterosexual supporter of gay rights, said at the Capitol. “We must never surrender. We must never retreat.” Demonstrators from across Texas and several other states said they want to increase funding for and access to treatment for AIDS, abolish the state’s anti-sodomy law and enact hate-crime legislation, which would increase penalties for those who attack people because of their sexual preference.