By DONNA SILBERBERG

Under a hand-made banner proclaiming “Proud to Be Union. Proud to Be Gay,” a contingent of DC 37 members marched down Fifth Avenue and through Greenwich Village with thousands of their sisters and brothers June 24 in the cityís famous Gay Pride Parade.

The union’s Lesbian and Gay Issues Committee, known as LAGIC, organized participation in the parade, which is one of the major events in the celebration of June as Gay Pride Month.

The theme of this year’s parade was a question addressed to U.S. President George W. Bush: “What part of equality don’t you understand?”

“We don’t believe that President Bush understands the need for full equality for everyone,” said LAGIC Co-chair Cheryl Minor, who was recently elected 3rd vice president of Clerical-Administrative Local 1549. She was also recently appointed to the Gay and Lesbian Advisory Board of AFSCME, DC 37’s parent union.

Ms. Minor said that political action is important to LAGIC. “For the upcoming election, we want to build pressure to improve and expand domestic partnership benefits, which are very important to our membership,” she said.

“We also are hearing more reports about public school students who are being harassed because they are gay,” she said. “In some cases, the students aren’t gay, but their harassers think they are. In either case, harassment has to be stopped. We are supporting legislation that protects students from harassment whether they are gay or not. We want this declared a crime.”

Gay Pride Month began at union headquarters with a photo display showing LAGIC’s activities during the previous year. It depicted events such as a program at Astrea, an organization that raises funds to support women’s issues, where LAGIC co-founder Regina Shavers was honored. There were also pictures of LAGIC members at the national conference of the labor movement’s “Pride at Work” organization. The conference focused on gay and lesbian organizing in the workplace, the importance of hate crime bills and the need to broaden domestic partnership laws.

On June 1, LAGIC held a program celebrating the heritage and history of gay pride. Blaine Roberts, the gay liaison from Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fieldís office, was the featured speaker.

He said the office wanted to reach out to the gay and lesbian community and make sure that they were involved in the upcoming election. He stressed the importance of knowing how candidates stand on issues that are important to the gay community.

Nat Keitt, co-chair of LAGIC, invited union members to attend LAGIC’s next meeting, which will be held Sept. 20 at DC 37.

He said that in the past year, LAGIC members have been more active and visible than ever before. In addition to the meetings and conventions they attended, members appeared on Manhattan cable television to discuss non-traditional roles for women in the workplace. Members also spoke on DC 37’s radio program about the growing role of gays and lesbians in the labor movement.