After The March Is Over

THE PEACEFUL MARCH THROUGH WASHINGTON OF hundreds of thousands of gay-and- lesbian-rights protesters seemed to its participants to be the kind of civil rights milestone that would touch all Americans. When the marchers dispersed and returned to their homes around the country, however, many found that it had moved their fellow citizens but not necessarily as intended. In Tampa, Florida, Darlene DeBerry came back to find that an arsonist had burned her trailer home to the ground. A few days before leaving for Washington, DeBerry had received a threatening phone call: "If you march, your house will torch." In Melbourne, Iowa, Mayor Bill Crews' house was vandalized, and the words GET OUT and MELBOURNE HATES GAYS were spray-painted on the walls. A column Crews wrote for the Des Moines Register announcing his homosexuality had appeared the day of the march. Aboard a Dallas-bound American Airlines flight carrying marchers from Washington, attendants used blankets to mop up a food spill. An airline staffer then mistakenly sent an internal message suggesting that the blankets had been changed for fear of spreading AIDS. Airline officials called the message "totally inappropriate," explaining that the employee had not realized that the blankets were soiled with mere food.

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CREDIT: TIME Graphic by Steve Hart

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