In the summer of 1969, I was still coming to terms with my sexuality. I had yet to visit a gay bar, since the drinking age was 21, and most of my sexual experience was limited to fooling around with high school and college friends.
That summer, I remember seeing a small news article in the local paper about homosexuals rioting in New York City. There had been numerous protests over the war and for various other causes that summer, so another march or another riot only garnered minor attention in Dallas.
A few days after the Stonewall riots, a young man crashed the doors at NBC and interrupted the newscast of “Today” show announcer Frank Blair. The brief scuffle was quickly brushed aside and a commercial hastily filled the screen.
Later, Blair explained that the person was a member of something called the Gay Liberation Front and was protesting the treatment of homosexuals by police in New York.
The exact details of the events are fuzzy in my mind, and seeing how it was the 1960s, that isn’t surprising.
Later, I saw a pamphlet from the Gay Liberation Front that both amused and excited me. On the face was the slogan, “Do You Think Homosexuals Are Revolting? You Bet Your Sweet Ass We Are!”
From that day forward, gay Americans would never be looked on again as a bunch of passive, limp-wristed sissies. From that point on, I found the idea of identifying as gay less of a problem.
In 1969, gays took to the streets. It was rowdy; it was even sometimes silly. Imagine a line of guys facing police in riot gear doing high kicks and singing, “We are the Stonewall girls; we wear our hair in curls; we don’t wear underwear; we show our pubic hair.”
But whatever it was, it had an effect, and the authorities, politicians and the news media took notice.
Ten years later, in October 1979, I marched in the first “National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.” Thousands of lesbians and gay men marched and rallied on the national mall.
That too, had an effect but it didn’t get the job done.
Now, 40 years after Stonewall, we still find ourselves without full rights as American citizens, and though we have achieved a great deal in those years, it’s time to finish the job.
Today the media, the politicians and most of America have grown to accept our existence. In this “post ‘Will & Grace’ world,” most Americans believe LGBT people deserve equal rights.
The problem is they forget that we still don’t have those rights. They see our celebrations and forget that we are still denied full access to all that our country offers.
And we forget it, too. We are comfortable in our lives and often forget that we are second-class citizens — until we’re faced with the realities of discrimination in a crisis.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” and same-sex marriage are just two issues that must be remedied. There are a host of others, including hate crimes, workplace discrimination and immigration issues.
Maybe it’s time to take to the streets again — not in our yearly celebration of our identity, but for something far different. Perhaps we need to take to the streets again and, whether it is with bullhorns or high-kicks, demand our rights as American citizens.
I am waiting for an answer.
Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBT activist. His blog is at https://dungeondiary.blogspot.com.
I think you might have missed the theme of this piece, but the statement that religion is the enemy is a bit broad.
To group all religions in to the BAD category is as ridiculous as fundamentalist Christians lumping LGBT people in the same boat as pederasts. Over generalizations are part of the problem.
I can point you toward quite a few religious denominations that do not condemn LGBT people. I sincerely believe we need to end the hate, and I take that message to heart.
Politicians are who make the laws and as such they need to be lobbies and persuaded. Religions or more specifically religious denominations and institutions if they are hateful, should be left to stew in their own juices.
And that rant about Jesus? I am sorry you had a bad childhood and were abused by a twisted fundamentalist religious upbringing. It must have been hell.
Guess I am not familiar with the condemning and judgmental Jesus, the one I know never said a thing about gay people, only about love.
To the point, hatred hurts, stop it!
This article misses the point – GAY IS STILL WRONG and there is only one thing that makes it wrong – RELIGION.
HRC and other “gay rights” groups continue to avoid this primary cause of gay suffering. That is the battle that must be fought and the older generation was simply too afraid of that fight.
As more young people grow up without religious brain-washing, gay has become more “tolerated,” and while this seems like progress – it isn’t. There is absolutely nothing wrong with us that requires us to be “tolerated.” Seeking tolerance was and is the biggest mistake of the gay rights movement. Sure protesting and even civil disobedience can be helpful, but we have the wrong targets. Conservatives are not the enemy – they believe gays are wrong because that’s their religious belief. They probably inherited that belief before they could even think, as a child. Instead of directing all of our attention at the believers, we must attack the belief.
Maybe it is time for the gay generational divide to be filled with a concerted effort to “end the wrong” by neutralizing the effect of religious dogma and its resulting hatred for gays. Religion is just a story – it isn’t and has never been the truth. The truth is “nobody knows” for sure and that’s okay.
Even discussing religion has been taboo for many years and yet this is the primary source of gay suffering and mistreatment. For every act of gay-bashing or hatred God is nearby. While religion may have a place in modern society, having the ability to make an entire class of people wrong, is unacceptable.
I am a 46 year old gay man living in Dallas, Texas. For the first 35 years of my life Jesus prevented me for being who and what I am. I was scared to Hell before my first erection. Because of Jesus I lost my youth. So, yeah I’m a little pissed. I also feel sorry for the many young gay teens that commit suicide because they too are “wrong” or defective in God’s eyes.
So you can feel empathy for me, the older gay guy, or for the innocent teens who take their own lives – but PLEASE DO SOMETHING.
We are wasting our time and energy with politics – focus on the real source of gay hatred – religion. Not just radical or extremists, but all religion. Remember, it is the ONLY thing that makes gay WRONG.
END THE WRONG and we will END THE HATE.
Religion Hurts – make it stop.
There are not “quite a few denominations” that say GAY IS NOT WRONG. Ask the Cathedral of Hope – the biggest “gay church” in Dallas if homosexuality is not a sin and you will not get a straight answer. Cathedral of Hope is Christian and they have accepted, embraced and marketed to gays and lesbians, but they have not change a fundamental belief that homosexuality is wrong. Perhaps a few small rebellious churches are willing to modify the christian doctrine to attract more members, but the vast majority of christians and most religions continue to make it WRONG.
Oddly enough you want to stop hatred, but at the same time you are apologetic for religion. Do some research on christians and see how many make it okay to be gay or have said it is no longer wrong.
we have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying politicians during the last 40 years – IT HAS NOT HELPED. In fact, during the last 10 years we have only had 7 politicians change their votes on gay issues. You can not lobby away the idea that “gay is wrong.” A very hateful and destructive idea placed in minds and hearts at a young age – mostly before they could even think. With the promise of Heaven or the punishment of Hell this idea was burnt into minds and hearts. THAT is our problem – not politics. It is the beliefs, not the believers.
I have kept a very close watch on HRC, Lambda Legal and other organizations during the last 20 years. They do not have a strategy or even a plan to deliver equal rights for gays. We are always admonished to “be patient.” Well, if you really try to understand the plight of gay people you eventually understand we need to un-wrong homosexuality. The only way to do that is to expose religion. I actually don’t care if people choose a religion (if they actually do choose it – 99% are inherited) but I do take exception with people believing that gay is wrong. There only source for that belief is religion. Nature doesn’t make it wrong, science doesn’t make it wrong, love doesn’t make it wrong – only religion does.
I’m not an atheist, I actually believe in the possibility of a supreme being and I live without judgment. I believe in “I don’t know, neither do you and that’s okay.” I think that’s honest.
I cannot prove there is a God or there isn’t a God, but I can prove that religion is the source of ALL gay hatred and bigotry. They made it wrong.
Especially christians.
This is from the Cathedral of Hope’s website:
“Homosexual Acts
Of thousands of Old Testament passages, only two make explicit reference to homosexual acts: Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13. Both of these passages are a part of the Levitical holiness code, which is not kept by any Christian group. If it was enforced, almost every Christian would be excommunicated or executed. It has been logically argued that science and progress have made many of the Levitical laws irrelevant. For example, fundamentalist author Tim LaHaye states that, although Levitical laws prohibit intercourse during menstruation, medical authorities do not view it as harmful, and, therefore, it should not be viewed as sinful. He further explains, “Those laws were given 3,500 years ago before showers and baths were convenient, before tampons, disinfectants and other improved means of sanitation had been invented.†(The Act of Marriage, p.275) With that, LaHaye makes this law irrelevant and rightly so. Ironically, though, in his book, The Unhappy Gay, the Levitical laws are one of the chief cornerstones of his arguments. Much of the holiness code is now irrelevant for us as moral law. Thus, having children, which was of exceptional importance to the early Hebrews, is now made less relevant by overpopulation, just as the prohibition against eating pork and shellfish has been made irrelevant by refrigeration.”
Notice that is says “much of the holiness code (Leviticus) is now irrelevant for us as moral law.” How about the homosexual parts? Nowhere on the COH website does it say directly that “homosexuality is not a sin” or that it is not wrong. So, if these local Christians are welcoming gays and lesbians are they also un-wronging them?
If religions are going to parse Christianity to fit their marketing efforts, shouldn’t we demand full disclosure? The COH has never proclaimed that homosexuality is not wrong. Ask them.
I can’t belong to an institution that makes me wrong and is fully responsible for most of the gay hatred and discrimination – religion.