People
who
knew
Wanda
Alston
—
gay,
straight,
rich,
poor,
black
and
white
—
are
vowing
to
keep
the
human
rights
activist’s
socially
conscious,
politically
progressive
legacy
alive.
It
is
a
legacy
rooted
in
giving
a
voice
to
the
voiceless,
they
said,
whether
they
are
poverty
stricken,
addicted
to
drugs,
people
of
color,
or
gay,
lesbian,
bisexual
and
transgendered
residents
of
Washington,
D.C.
“We
all
loved
Wanda
because
she
got
it
done
for
the
cause
of
civil
rights,”
D.C.
congressional
Del.
Eleanor
Holmes
Norton
said
Monday
at
Alston’s
funeral.
Alston
was
stabbed
to
death
in
her
home
on
March
16.
A
neighbor
was
later
arrested
and
charged
with
her
murder.
Police
said
they
have
ruled
out
anti-gay
bias
as
a
motive.
Alston,
who
was
born
in
Newport
News,
Va.,
on
April
7,
1959,
believed
civil
rights
were
indivisible,
Norton
said.
When
it
came
to
equal
rights,
it
was
all
or
nothing
—
for
everybody
—
not
for
any
one
particular
group.
Those
familiar
with
Alston’s
work
and
life
said
she
understood
deeply
the
challenges
posed
by
being
an
African
American,
a
woman,
a
former
cocaine
addict,
and
a
lesbian.
After
becoming
clean
and
sober,
she
remained
active
in
the
recovery
movement
nationwide
and
reached
out
to
help
others
who
needed
her,
friends
said.
In
2001,
Alston
recorded
her
oral
history
for
the
Rainbow
History
Project,
an
ongoing
effort
to
document
gay
and
lesbian
history
in
Washington,
D.C.
“I
can’t
stop
fighting
racism
because
no
matter
how
old
I
get,
I’m
still
going
to
be
black,”
she
said.
“I
can’t
stop
fighting
[sexism]
because
no
matter
how
old
I
get,
I’m
still
going
to
be
a
woman.
“I
can’t
stop
fighting
some
of
the
other
‘isms’
I
see
because
I
can’t
change
those
things,”
Alston
said.
“I’m
going
to
change
the
culture,
and
begin
to
work
with
people
who
want
to
change
the
culture.”
Officially,
Alston’s
political
career
began
in
1992,
when
a
friend,
D.C.
resident
Marquita
Sykes,
introduced
her
to
the
National
Organization
for
Women.
Unofficially,
Alston’s
political
career
started
before
that,
according
to
Valerie
Papaya
Mann,
who
said
she
remembers
when
a
youthful
Alston
would
attend
Sapphire
Sapphos
meetings
and
sit
quietly
and
listen.
The
now-defunct
organization
was
geared
toward
supporting
black
lesbians
in
the
D.C.
area.
“She
was
coming
to
those
events
as
one
of
the
kids,”
Mann
said.
“And
then
she
grew
up,
and
took
the
movement
forward.”
Mann,
an
international
consultant
on
HIV/AIDS
issues,
described
Alston
as
strong,
feisty
and
opinionated
and
said
she
possessed
self-taught
political
savvy.
“I
saw
her
up
there
with
the
big
boys,
attending
meetings,
setting
policy,”
Mann
said.
“She
took
the
steps
that
a
lot
of
us
weren’t
willing
to
take.
Or
we
were
willing,
but
just
tired.”
At
NOW,
from
1992
to
1996,
Alston
worked
as
then-President
Patricia
Ireland’s
executive
assistant
and
as
a
special
projects
director.
Her
first
major
project
at
NOW
involved
helping
organize
its
1992
March
for
Women’s
Lives.
Alston
also
helped
NOW
organize
other
national
marches
on
Washington
and
while
there
served
as
the
staff
liaison
to
Rev.
Jesse
Jackson’s
National
Rainbow
Coalition.
“It
wasn’t
until
I
got
to
NOW
and
I
started
reading
the
case
studies
and
I
started
listening
to
what
the
work
was
about
that
I
said,
‘Yeah,
I
was
a
victim
…
I
was
victimized
all
my
life
behind
this
bullshit
called
racism,
sexism
and
homophobia,’”
Alston
told
the
Rainbow
History
Project.
“I
put
names
on
my
pain.
I
had
not
done
that.
If
there
was
anything
that
changed
my
life
more
than
my
sexuality,
it
was
understanding
that
there
was
a
place
to
take
my
pain.
I
wasn’t
alone,
and
that
was
a
beautiful
thing
about
being
at
NOW.”
At
Alston’s
funeral
Monday,
March
21,
Ireland
said
that
while
at
NOW
Alston
learned
how
to
“harness
her
energy.”
“Along
the
way,
I
watched
Wanda
blossom
…
into
one
of
the
most
determined,
courageous
and
best
people
I
know,”
Ireland
said.
Alice
Cohan,
the
current
political
director
of
the
Feminist
Majority,
who
also
worked
with
Alston
at
NOW,
echoed
this
sentiment
when
she
spoke
Saturday
at
another
public
gathering
to
mourn
the
loss
of
her
friend.
“Wanda
was
an
organizer
par
excellence,”
Cohan
said.
“She
could
convince
and
cajole.
There
wasn’t
an
action
she
didn’t
love
…
whatever
the
issue
might
be.
She
was
a
scrappy
old
kid.
And
sexism
was
one
of
the
major
issues
she
felt
had
to
be
changed.”
Alston
told
the
Rainbow
History
Project
that
the
highlight
of
her
career
came
in
September1995,
when
she
co-led
a
NOW
delegation,
which
included
Ireland,
that
traveled
to
Beijing
for
the
United
Nations
Fourth
World
Conference
on
Women.
Alston
went
there
to
talk
about
lesbianism
and
the
fact
that
lesbian
rights
were
not
part
of
the
platform.
She
left
NOW
in
1996
to
explore
other
career
options,
...
