Editor's Letter

Defining Moments

On the eve of the largest gay-rights rally in the nation's history, no single figurehead for gay activism has yet appeared on the scene. But there are several men and women whose varied styles and methods converge in a common goal: the gaining 'of full gay-and-lesbian equal rights. Contributing editor Luisita Lopez Torregrosa spent time with four of them—all impressive leaders coming into prominence at a defining moment for their cause ("The Gay Nineties," page 122).

"The unique thing about the movement," says Torregrosa, "is its Madison Avenue-versus-downtown approach —the corporate, politically motivated, marketing-wise strategy versus the grass-roots, less pragmatic approach.

"Talking to these people was gripping," she continues. "This is one of the most important social issues of the 90s— 1993 may be for gays and lesbians what 1963 was for blacks. Though there are crucial stages in any movement, this is the defining moment."

If this is any sort of defining moment for another movement, that would amount to the worst possible news. What began in Germany as a handful of isolated, aberrant attacks on foreigners has escalated in an alarming way: today, the rise of neo-Nazism is a fact. Sparked in part by resentment about Germany's liberal refugee policy and by a wretched economy, upwards of 4,500 xenophobic attacks were reported last year, 740 in one month alone. Arson and murder are not uncommon. One of the first casualties was an Angolan worker beaten to death in 1990 while police looked on; his killers weren't even charged with murder. It is his story that William Shawcross uses to describe the larger picture ("Fear and Hatred in the New Germany," page 42).

"I think refugees and mass migration will be one of the most intractable problems of the 90s, as global communications make more and more people aware of the comparative wealth of the First World, and as nationalism disrupts communities," says Shawcross. The author of several books on international politics (and, most recently, the biographer of Rupert Murdoch), Shawcross has a long-standing interest in Central Europe. (Indeed, his father was the chief prosecuting lawyer at the Nuremberg Trials.)

"Refugees and migrants are treated badly in many countries," he adds. "In some ways, Germany has a much better record than, say, Britain. But the spectacle of foreigners being beaten to death by thugs claiming allegiance to Hitler has an awful resonance of its own."

Two utterly different movements, but both certain to help define the 90s, and to emerge from the decade themselves transformed.

Editor in chief