Gay Pride has come a long way in the last 38+ years. One of the major starting points for the Gay Rights Movement was the Stonewall Riots in New York June 27th, 1969. This would be the first time Gays received national attention in the media. I was only 10 years old at the time and knew nothing about it and wouldn’t for several more years, but I knew I was different.
cross posted at Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, refinish69, Texas Kaos,
Gay Pride is not just about a parade, party or a march. This part and parcel of it but it is so much more at the same time. I remember my first Gay Pride March. I was in Raleigh, North Carolina and had heard about it at the Capital Corral which was the gay bar in Raleigh. When I arrived at the staging area to march, I found friends and we walked around talking and laughing and building our courage to march down Hillsborough Street. We didn’t know if we would be cheered or jeered as we marched. There were certain groups present such as PFLAG(Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and other groups that I was unfamiliar with at the time. There were no big floats, no corporate sponsors or party groups. We marched chanting “What We Want? Gay Rights! When Do We Want Them? Now!” We were followed down the street by a man carrying a 7 foot cross with wheels who told us we were an abomination and would burn in hell. Being Young and full of fire and conviction and a little bravery from our numbers we were able to laugh at this and ask did Jesus have wheels on the bottom of his cross on the way to Calvary.
When we arrived at the State Capital, there were no elected officials there to speak. We had some local activist, a few from out of state and a gay writer speak to us about what we could do to make a difference. Now I had been active in politics and civil rights for a long time but had done very little about Gay Rights. I caught the bug and started talking to politicians, candidates and everyone who would listen about Equal Rights for Gays. Why should I be a second class citizen? Why should I have to hunt down bars that were hidden behind other businesses with no signs? Why couldn’t I walk down the street holding hands with my Boy Friend any day of the year and not just at Gay Pride? I wanted the same rights and protections as all my straight friends. What I realized at that first Gay Pride March is that I was okay. I was not sick. I was not an abomination. I was just as I was intended to be and as a Human, I deserved respect just as any other human did.
I know a lot of older activist hate the Gay Parades with corporate sponsors and the fact that the main stream media focuses on the Drag Queens, the Dykes on Bikes, The Leather Lords and the Muscle Boys on the bar floats. I also get upset when I realize that the only part of Pride that seems to get media attention is the more outlandish portions of the GLBT Society but as I get older, I remember what it was like to be young and coming out and experimenting. Yes, the youth are wild in their taste of Gay Freedom and I say more power to them!!! All to soon, reality such as work, middle age and family life will drain some of that energy and a lot of the creativity from them. Let them enjoy their moment in the sun as we older activist, along with many young ones work to stop bad laws and enact good laws to protect our rights.
Raleigh, North Carolina was the first city in the United States to have an anti-discrimination clause for city employees that included sexual orientation as a protected group. That came about be cause we were seen, we spoke out and we demanded fair treatment. No longer can a person be arrested in the United States for being gay or lesbian. Our bars are no longer raided and in most states employers will not fire you-even if they can- just because you are gay and in many states they cannot. We have 1 state where we can get married and several where civil unions are available and many cities even in states where civil unions or marriages are illegal where you can register as domestic partners.
Times have changed and are still changing. Just as with any civil rights movement, it seems sometimes that for every 3 steps forward, we take 2 steps back but the steps have been large ones and we will never go back to square 1. Gay Pride and Gay Rights go hand in hand and we will keep fighting to insure that someday Equal Rights For All People are a reality. Look at the difference so far. At my first Gay Pride March, there were no elected officials or candidates. This past weekend at San Francisco Gay Pride not only were there politicians galore in the Parade but Elizabeth Edwards spoke to the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club. This is the first time a Presidential campaign has ever spoken to a group at a Pride Event.
Times- They are a changing!!! We have to remember the past and use the past lessons and pain to keep moving forward even as we see the Religious Right and the Republican Party demonize the community. They might have passed some hate legislation and amendments in certain states- Texas included- but we can keep working and educating the general population and our elected officials and make a difference. The set backs during the past 12 or 13 years have only been set backs. We have also seen some of the most forward movement in Gay Freedom in major cities, states and nations.
Celebrate Gay Pride during June but remember Gay Pride and Equal Rights for All People is a feeling and a movement that is active everyday of the year. I look forward to the day when a gay or lesbian couple can hold hands, raise a family, or just be without fear. I know it will happen someday but the Pride can be now!!!
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How are you doing, rf? It’s good to see you back writing.
Doing okay. Thanks for asking. Still job hunting and all that but am enjoying doing some of my political stuff again.
Really, I am a live and let live kind of guy but the future of all this will play out perhaps in a different kind of way as generations move on. A certain percentage of kids may become the opposite of the parents in rejecting the issue of gay pride simply because it becomes of the annoyance factor.
It has become one of the primary issues of the left and quite frankly I think it’s a retarded one manufactured and elevated to a crisis status by media for the sole purpose of creating a political issue.
Well, yes, I have done a crappy job trying to explain my position and yes, of course you may give me back the standard line “you must be a homophobe”. That simply illustrates my point, the click, click absolute mind conditioning which surrounds it all, the “friend or foe” identification system media has built for you. That would mean media sucks, not me.
Did you even read the diary or have any know;edge of what the GLBT Community goes through even today in certain areas? This is a dairy about where we have been, where we are and where we have to go to attain Equal Rights For All People. I guess you think it would have been better if the Suffragettes had stayed home because women would have eventually been able to vote and that the Freedom Riders should have stayed home because eventually African Americans would have been given Equal Rights and fair treatment under the law also. Hate to break it to you, but the world is not that kind or understanding. Never has been and never will be.
Wow…I just don’t know what to make of this. I have to assume ignorance. I’ve seen what happens to teens who are thrown out of their homes because they are gay. I’ve seen men die without their families because they are gay. I’ve seen young teens shunned because they were gay. My best friend lost his job because he was gay (among many other similar situations).
It may not be politically expedient to support gay rights, but it will be a cold day in hell before I sell my friends up the river for political expediency.
Maybe the Republicans focussed on this issue to split the Dem party, but as far as I am concerned, I would no sooner vote for a candidate who spoke out against gay rights as I would vote for a pro-life candidate. Gay people have been working hard towards this goal long before today’s neo-cons and they will continue after the fall of the neo-cons.
There is no doubt that media manipulation exists and plays a role in how issues are perceived. But when a portion of society is denied rights possessed by others, it is unclear exactly how the issue has been “manufactured”.
Thanks boran2. I know the media can bring attention or even hurt a civil rights movement depending on the slant they take. I agree with you this is not a “manufactured” thing. It is very real to those of us who have lived through moments of discrimination and watch as friends are hurt or worse.
Thank you so much for this diary. It made me think back to my first Gay Pride March. It was a day I will never forget. Being in the 80’s, my friends and I were into punk and being that most of them were gay, we were eccentric too. We all got completely decked out in our finest “freak them out” outfits, complete with mohawks, nipple rings, boys in dresses (but not in drag), etc. and had a fucking field day. We looked great and we felt great and we were a hit. We gladly submitted to photographs from all types, tourists, media, fellow friends, ad nauseum. The tourists were the best. It was so cute to pose our “bad-ass” selves around some poor asian woman while her husband took a picture. We were always polite and totally broke their stereotypes. ;>)
Months later, my friend was in D.C. (the march was in NYC) and walked into a store that had a brochure with us on the cover, and a button with us as well. It was out fifteen minutes of fame!
Living in the Bay Area of San Francisco, it is hard for me to see the change in the rest of the nation. But, I am with you. I do see that we are making slow, but steady progress. Women worked for decades to get equal rights, and we are not there yet. I think it will be similar for our gay and lesbian friends and family, but it will come.
Thanks for the uplifting essay, reminding me that even in the last 20 years, we have seen real change, and letting me remember a wonderful day.
Thanks for your memories also. I remember it all to well and am thrilled with what we have done and feel positive we will achieve more in the future. Sometimes it is hard when there have been set backs but we are still moving in the right direction over all.
Great diary, RF! Thanks for spreading the love.
Thank you!!!!
Love this diary, rf. I saw a parade in NYC back in the 90’s, and these photos remind me again what a pleasure it is to see a community having fun together.
Thank you Alice!!!!
Hey RF, good to see you posting. Lovely diary.
Thank you!!! It feels good to be posting again also. I will try and be a little more active as things calm down in my personal life and get busier in my political life. LOL