Fathersday2000
By Chris Jenkins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 19, 2000; Page B03
Ken Yolman came from the Virgin Islands seeking words of comfort. Heather Smiler drove from Brooklyn to support her brother who says he hasn't seen his daughter in 10 months. Richard Brooke, from Chicago, said he just wanted to talk with other fathers who have struggled to see their children after a messy divorce.
They were among nearly 100 people gathered in front of the Capitol yesterday as part of "FathersDay2000," an effort to support the tens of thousands of dads nationwide who, organizers say, are kept from participating in the rearing of their children.
Wearing shirts that read: "I'm Not Just A Pay Check," "Dead Beat or Beat Dead?!" and "Time to Change the System," dozens of men, some carrying young children on their shoulders, rallied across from the White House, then marched down Constitution Avenue to the Capitol in the early afternoon heat, calling for new laws to protect their rights as caregivers.
"There are fathers out there who have had it," said Greg Romeo, an aircraft mechanic from Nashville and a march co-organizer. "We are tired of not being treated right by family court judges and caseworkers and being deprived of our rights to help raise our children."
Many were divorced fathers, some still locked in lengthy custody battles. They came with new families and old friends and talked, sometimes through cracked voices and falling tears, about their experiences navigating family courts.
"We are not opposed to the laws that protect women from men who batter and abuse," said Dean Tong, the rally's keynote speaker and a lawyer from Tampa, Fla., who advises fathers in divorce and custody hearings. "But there are too many instances where men are denied due process when they are unfairly prevented from seeing their children."
Yesterday's event marked the third time the march's organizers have gathered at the Capitol. The event has grown each year since the first rally, arranged by David Wilson, a longtime fathers rights activist and a landscaper in Cocoa Beach, Fla. But unlike last month's "Million Mom March," or 1997's Promise Keepers rally, both of which drew tens of thousands, yesterday's gathering was subdued. Many marchers said while there are hundreds of small groups advocating for fathers, they lack a consolidated network.
But the marchers, some of whom came from as far away as St. Paul, Minn., and Santa Fe, N.M., seemed mostly buoyed by the experience.
"For a long time I thought I was the only person who was going through these kinds of problems in the courts," said Matt Schuzer, who traveled with his wife and stepdaughter from Lexington, Ky. "But just knowing there are other fathers out here makes the trip worth it."
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