(This article was originally published in the December 1999 issue of UltraViolet, newsletter of LAGAI Queer Insurrection. More recent issues of UV are online at www.lagai.org.)

By far the biggest disappointment of the Seattle events for me was the lack of queer visibility at nearly all of the events. A coalition of queer groups, OutFront Labor Coalition, Dyke Action and Dyke Community Activists, organized a one-day conference about a month before the WTO meetings called “Queers Fight the WTO,” which I am told had great speakers and was attended by over 100 lesbian/gay activists. I met queer activists from Philadelphia, San Francisco and Eugene, as well as Seattleites, who were participating in the protests.

There was a solid and very visible rainbow flag contingent in the big AFL/CIO march, but those of us who participated in the direct action had no visibility as queers at all. In fact, my Dykes From Hell and two Dyke Action t-shirts may have been the only identifiable queer insignia anywhere in the 40 blocks of blockades. LAGAI put out a call to queers who wanted to form an affinity group for direct action but that didn’t come together, not least because 2 of the 3 of us who were planning to go had to cancel at the last minute.

Which does not excuse the organizers of the many many many panels, conferences and rallies for failing to have even one gay or lesbian speaker that anyone I know heard. I went to an excellent panel on Sunday at the Lesbian Resource Center called “International Women Workers.” Organized by Liz Burbank of LRC in coordination with the Labor and Employment Law Office, it featured speakers from the Philippines, Saipan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Brazil, who spoke about sweatshops, trafficking in women and organizing of domestic workers, but NO ONE, except Liz in her intro, said the word “lesbian.” Why not?

Several months before the WTO ministerial, IGLHRC, ACT UP and Health GAP had approached organizers about having an action on December 1 focused on World AIDS Day. They were told that, sorry, but the themes for each day had already been chosen, and Wednesday was women’s day. They needn’t have been discouraged; the United Steelworkers of America (not a primarily women’s organization) certainly weren’t; but they didn’t know that. A scheduled event with the Northwest AIDS Foundation was supposed to feature Ryan White’s mother, but according to a Seattle activist, did not come off as planned due to the chaos around the WTO and the bad weather. IGLHRC did hold a press conference focusing on the TRIPS, or WTO-approved rules governing patenting and licensing, and hence pricing, of AIDS drugs especially in the Third World. Doctors Without Borders, which just received the Nobel Peace Prize, also spotlighted the issue in a forum and press conference.

There were AIDS actions around the country on Wednesday, most dramatically in Washington, D.C., where 400 activists from ACT UP/Philadelphia and other groups associated with Health GAP demonstrated at the White House. 10 members of ACT UP chained themselves to the fence, and were arrested. Previously, on November 17, ACT UP/Philadelphia members and others gave United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky a surprise “Bon Voyage to the WTO,” by occupying her office on the second floor of the USTR building in Washington, D.C.. Another five climbers chained themselves to her balcony with a large banner demanding "Essential Medication for all Nations." The demonstrators threw dollar bills featuring Barshefky's image, and empty pill bottles symbolizing the effect of USTR bullying of nations hard-hit by HIV/AIDS.

The actions were quite effective: in his televised speech to the WTO, Clinton announced a major shift in U.S. drug patent policy. “The United States will henceforward implement its health care and trade policies in a manner that ensures that people in the poorest countries won’t have to go without medicine they so desperately need,” he stated. We all need to be vigilant and active to ensure that this change is implemented.