Stonewall + 40

Happy PRIDE, Yall!

Yeah, I'm here in Mendon for the big day.. I'll post some pics from the massive Mendon Gay Pride Parade later on. Neil is down in NYC to march with INTEGRITY in the NYC parade. It's nice weather down there, which is good, because it is a long walk.

Very Good Frank Rich column this morning: 40 Years Later , Still Second Class Citizens. Some very interesting points from a 60 yo straight white guy.. ( a straight white guy that spent LOTS of time around Broadway.. just saying..) Part of his point is the over-all invisibility of our movement. Everyone in the nation saw Bull Connor's dogs and fire hoses attacking those brave kids in B'ham, no one outside of lower Manhattan knew about the Stonewall riots. Mr. Rich links to the actual NYT stories from 40 years ago.. but they are not free, and the kyle+blog is cheap. Even today, on what I consider a very important civil rights anniversary for this country, not one mention of Stonewall or Pride or any of that sort of thing on any of the big three Sunday morning shows. Some real anti  gay family decrees from Mitt Romney, the usual  garbage.

I am overly sensitive to this, but hey! It's my cause. It's been 161 years since the Seneca Falls Convention, it;s been 55 years since Brown v Board.. and 40 years, today, since Stonewall. Do you , my readers, who I am 1000% sure spend less time thinking about this than I do, think that it is just that darn ICKY-NESS factor that makes  - what to me is a VERY important moment in American history -  less important or newsworthy?

My very first Pride event was late.. I was...27/26 ? Pride in Atlanta had not become the mega three day , all star, all out event that is has been the last 10 years or so. It was a little more like a Peasant Corporate Meeting , with some Dykes on Bikes and Diggin' Dykes from Decatur thrown in. My beau at the time.... ( VERY surprising , seeing how he turned out!) was very anti pride, so , I just went alone. Heck, I knew half the guys there. It was just never that big of a deal for me, and yes, at times a little bit embarrassing.. BUT that is just me.

"Grandma.. I know, I know and I support you 100%... but really, shirts on IF you are going to be pieced there.... I have not had breakfast yet"

"Dude, you work in a bank.. and its July in Atlanta.. so, full leather , at noon?"

Pride in Atl grew to be MASSIVE, with free Indigo Girls or B-52's etc.... Not so much here in the Rochester area, but we are right between two HUGE celebrations in NYC or the much much closer Toronto.

So, what does it all mean.. and is it relative in 2009 to celebrate what those  nameless misfits did 40 years ago? Some in the broader glbt world say " heck no! getting the drag queens and leather daddies all over the news hurts us much more than it helps". For a while, I agreed with them. No longer. It has become very apparent that if we want CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN, we are going to have to get it for ourselves. No, big strong white knights riding in on rainbow sparkle bright ponies for us. Changing minds one at a time, being out, being proud.. being VISIBLE, this is the legacy of Stonewall, and one that it will take our entire community to  help achieve. ( It can also be a damn good party... nothing Puritanical about me!)

I'll post updates when I get them from any of the many k+b operatives OUT in the field.