Rick336
11-11-2008, 09:23 AM
There are protest going on all across America this week in response to the defeats on November 4th in California, Arizona, Florida, and Arkansas. Nothing like this has happened since Anita Bryant's anti-gay campaign thirty years ago when tens of thousands of LGBT people and their supporters took to the streets.
Anybody that been to a loud and enthusiastic protest march knows what it feels like. But there may be some that have never had the chance to be a part of one and have no idea what such an event can do for the soul.
Below I've posted the emotion description of three LGBT protest. The first one was written by Peter Fisher, a gay rights activists from the early days of Stonewall. He describes what the very first Gay Pride march felt like as the small group moved through the streets of New York City in June 1970.
"I doubt the spirit of that first march will ever be recaptured. The crowd was definitely beautiful. I had never seen so many different gay people, so many smiles, such radiance - where were the unhappy homosexuals I had heard of all my life?
Feelings ran high. We moved uptown past police lines, blue uniforms, billy clubs, patrol cars, flashing lights: I could smell the confrontation. Before we reached Central Park we were a tide flooding Sixth Avenue from sidewalk to sidewalk for blocks and blocks. We were strong, Our voices rocked the buildings as we passed. "OUT OF THE CLOSETS AND INTO THE STREETS!" We were gentle. "I am a lesbian and I am beautiful," read a sign. We were a tapestry, a riot of color, a madcap dance, the last American revolution.
I reeled in the glory of it, walked as I had never walked before, soared. I looked up at the walls of glass and stone, and the tiny faces looking down, and laughed and shouted: I’m gay and I’m proud! I hadn’t shouted since I was a child. When had I really felt proud before? The years of hiding and hating myself and putting up with things and hurting and lying and wanting to scream ripped through me and exploded.
There’s no going back after that. You can’t feel those things and take them back to the closet and nurse them. When you know what it really means to be free, you know that freedom is life. Do you know how it tastes to be alive for the first time?"
- Peter Fisher June 1970 - from his book "The Gay Mystique"
http://www.amazon.com/Gay-Mystique-Myth-Reality-Homosexuality/dp/0812814312
The second one is part of a story in this week's Advocate (Nov. 7, 2008 ). Gay activist Corey Scholibo describes the protest last week at a Mormon church in California.
For the complete story click here--->http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid65244.asp
[To] stand there and scream at the top of my lungs at the Mormon Church and really mean it when I said I wanted equal rights now -- that woke me up. I was young and gay and angry all at the same time for the first time in my life. It is not acceptable for this to happen. It is not OK that the Mormon Church funnels money into California to accomplish this. It is not OK that your friends, your family, your neighbors love you but just can’t get behind this issue. There is no excuse.
So you better get pissed and stay pissed, because no one is going to give us our rights. Will & Grace isn’t going to get it done, and it doesn’t matter if all those high-profile closet cases finally come out and give a new face to our community. Standing in the streets holding a sign for the first time in my overprivileged life, I now know: This is not the end. This is just the beginning.
- Corey Scholibo The Advocate November 7, 2008 www.Advocate.com
The third description are my own words describing a protest in downtown St. Paul on April 19, 1978. This is from a book I am writing about my gay rights days in Minnesota during the 1970s:
A muffled rumbling of soles scuffing asphalt rose from the deluge of signs and faces descending Cedar Street. From the front of the line a woman’s voice began blasting through a megaphone, “WE ARE EVERYWHERE! WE ARE EVERYWHERE!“ Other voices joined in. The clamor drew curious onlookers to their apartment balconies peering down at the river of people below. Soon the chant was resonating through the entire length of the march. “WE ARE EVERYWHERE! WE ARE EVERYWHERE!” Banners and placards demanding equality danced to the rhythm.
The chorus gained strength as the protesters filed passed poker-faced cops standing guard by their squad cars along the rout. “HEY HEY! HO HO! ANITA BRYANT HAS GOT TO GO!!”
The march slowly snaked through the empty streets, passing neon bar signs and department store windows. By the time it reached city hall it had grown into a rousing beast. The lens of news cameras aroused a dozen shaking fists that scolded spectators in their living rooms. “WE ARE EVERYWHERE! WE WILL BE FREE!” The roar echoed through the steel and glass canyon of downtown St. Paul.
The smoldering resentment in my gut had suddenly caught fire and was erupting into the night. “GAY RIGHTS NOW! GAY RIGHTS NOW!” My fist pounded the air. My rage tested the strength of my vocal cords. A powerful force within me had suddenly exploded and I felt more alive than at any other time in my life.
- Rick
Have you been to a protest? Tell us what it felt like.
.
Anybody that been to a loud and enthusiastic protest march knows what it feels like. But there may be some that have never had the chance to be a part of one and have no idea what such an event can do for the soul.
Below I've posted the emotion description of three LGBT protest. The first one was written by Peter Fisher, a gay rights activists from the early days of Stonewall. He describes what the very first Gay Pride march felt like as the small group moved through the streets of New York City in June 1970.
"I doubt the spirit of that first march will ever be recaptured. The crowd was definitely beautiful. I had never seen so many different gay people, so many smiles, such radiance - where were the unhappy homosexuals I had heard of all my life?
Feelings ran high. We moved uptown past police lines, blue uniforms, billy clubs, patrol cars, flashing lights: I could smell the confrontation. Before we reached Central Park we were a tide flooding Sixth Avenue from sidewalk to sidewalk for blocks and blocks. We were strong, Our voices rocked the buildings as we passed. "OUT OF THE CLOSETS AND INTO THE STREETS!" We were gentle. "I am a lesbian and I am beautiful," read a sign. We were a tapestry, a riot of color, a madcap dance, the last American revolution.
I reeled in the glory of it, walked as I had never walked before, soared. I looked up at the walls of glass and stone, and the tiny faces looking down, and laughed and shouted: I’m gay and I’m proud! I hadn’t shouted since I was a child. When had I really felt proud before? The years of hiding and hating myself and putting up with things and hurting and lying and wanting to scream ripped through me and exploded.
There’s no going back after that. You can’t feel those things and take them back to the closet and nurse them. When you know what it really means to be free, you know that freedom is life. Do you know how it tastes to be alive for the first time?"
- Peter Fisher June 1970 - from his book "The Gay Mystique"
http://www.amazon.com/Gay-Mystique-Myth-Reality-Homosexuality/dp/0812814312
The second one is part of a story in this week's Advocate (Nov. 7, 2008 ). Gay activist Corey Scholibo describes the protest last week at a Mormon church in California.
For the complete story click here--->http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid65244.asp
[To] stand there and scream at the top of my lungs at the Mormon Church and really mean it when I said I wanted equal rights now -- that woke me up. I was young and gay and angry all at the same time for the first time in my life. It is not acceptable for this to happen. It is not OK that the Mormon Church funnels money into California to accomplish this. It is not OK that your friends, your family, your neighbors love you but just can’t get behind this issue. There is no excuse.
So you better get pissed and stay pissed, because no one is going to give us our rights. Will & Grace isn’t going to get it done, and it doesn’t matter if all those high-profile closet cases finally come out and give a new face to our community. Standing in the streets holding a sign for the first time in my overprivileged life, I now know: This is not the end. This is just the beginning.
- Corey Scholibo The Advocate November 7, 2008 www.Advocate.com
The third description are my own words describing a protest in downtown St. Paul on April 19, 1978. This is from a book I am writing about my gay rights days in Minnesota during the 1970s:
A muffled rumbling of soles scuffing asphalt rose from the deluge of signs and faces descending Cedar Street. From the front of the line a woman’s voice began blasting through a megaphone, “WE ARE EVERYWHERE! WE ARE EVERYWHERE!“ Other voices joined in. The clamor drew curious onlookers to their apartment balconies peering down at the river of people below. Soon the chant was resonating through the entire length of the march. “WE ARE EVERYWHERE! WE ARE EVERYWHERE!” Banners and placards demanding equality danced to the rhythm.
The chorus gained strength as the protesters filed passed poker-faced cops standing guard by their squad cars along the rout. “HEY HEY! HO HO! ANITA BRYANT HAS GOT TO GO!!”
The march slowly snaked through the empty streets, passing neon bar signs and department store windows. By the time it reached city hall it had grown into a rousing beast. The lens of news cameras aroused a dozen shaking fists that scolded spectators in their living rooms. “WE ARE EVERYWHERE! WE WILL BE FREE!” The roar echoed through the steel and glass canyon of downtown St. Paul.
The smoldering resentment in my gut had suddenly caught fire and was erupting into the night. “GAY RIGHTS NOW! GAY RIGHTS NOW!” My fist pounded the air. My rage tested the strength of my vocal cords. A powerful force within me had suddenly exploded and I felt more alive than at any other time in my life.
- Rick
Have you been to a protest? Tell us what it felt like.
.