GLAA Honors War Dead with 20th Annual Wreath Laying
At approximately 2:35 p.m. on Sunday, May 30, 1999 — the day before
Memorial Day (observed) — the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of
Washington, DC conducted its twentieth annual wreath laying ceremony at
the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. U.S. Army
veterans Franklin Kameny and Craig Howell (the former a GLAA co-founder,
the latter GLAA's current president) led a small group in placing a wreath
at the Tomb in memory of all who have died in the military service of the
United States, including gay men and lesbians.
The ceremony has been held every year since 1980, when Kameny won the
right for the Gay Activists Alliance of Washington, DC (as the group was
then known) to conduct the ceremony under its own name.
