A Long Road Traveled
The last time I got as close to the White House as I did this week was many years ago—six years after the Stonewall riots, when I was a 13-year-old National Spelling Bee participant from St. Margaret’s School in Lowell, Mass. We spelling bee kids didn’t make it into the White House that day—we stood outside as first lady Betty Ford spoke to us from a balcony. By then I already knew I was gay. Raised in a staunch Catholic home and taught (and tormented) by nuns, I was certain that an open homosexual (that was the only term I knew back then) could never be allowed inside the White House. I knew nothing of the nascent gay-rights movement—it hadn’t reached Lowell in 1975. All I knew was that that whatever words there were to describe what I was, it would have to be suppressed forever. I assumed that I would have to either become a priest or figure out some other way to hide.
Thankfully, time marched on, and I eventually became a politicized college student rather than a candidate for the priesthood—and ultimately I kicked open my closet door and came out. But I can’t help thinking about that personal history as I replay the reel of yesterday’s visit to the White House in my head. As the executive director of SAGE, an advocacy group for LGBT senior citizens, I was invited, along with some 200 other LGBT leaders, to join the Obamas in commemorating gay pride—which falls this year on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
I was accompanied by three SAGE members: a lesbian couple who are 86 and 91, who reminisced about voting for FDR and described Barack Obama as “the most inspiring politician since Adlai Stevenson,” and a Stonewall veteran and founder of the Gay Liberation Front, an activist group formed in the aftermath, who proudly chose his SAGE T shirt over the ties worn by every other man in the room.
Apart from celebrating, we had gone to the White House to make a point: that older people have to be included in the Obama agenda for LGBT progress. And we did what we came to do, with one of our members (the Stonewall vet) even receiving a personal meeting with the president and Mrs. Obama. But as I stood with my partner, in the front row, some five feet from the presidential podium, I realized how intensely personal this experience was for me. I thought about how each member of the SAGE contingent has had our own life’s journey—and each of us was moved deeply and differently by that moment.
See A Long Road Traveled Newsweek
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/long-road-tra…
Pride Mass, Pride Booth & March down Market Street highlights Oasis Celbration of SF Pride 2009
The Episcopal Diocese of California will mark this year’s San Francisco Pride Celebration & Parade by celebrating a Pride Mass, staffing a booth one the Pride Festival grounds and sending a diverse contingent down Market Street during the Pride Parade. Set for Saturday June 27 and Sunday June 28, Pride events are free and open to the public.
The Pride Mass
Our Bishop, the RT. Rev. Marc Andrus, will join Lutheran Bishop Mark Holmerund in celebrating our annual Pride Mass. Set to start at 10:30 AM, we will worship on the street at the location where we gather to march in the parade (check back here or at www.oasisca.org a few days before the parade for the exact location). Members of the Lutherans Concerned contingent will join us for this special outdoor Eucharist.
The Celebration Booth
On Saturday and Sunday, volunteers from Oasis California will staff a booth on the Pride Celebration grounds near City Hall. Oasis Board Members Judy Lebens and Justin Cannon are coordinating this aspect of our celebration. For the first time in several years we’ll be able to talk with people about our work to include LGBT as full members of our church, our stand for marriage equality, and the location of LGBT friendly Episcopal congregations around the Bay Area. We’ll also be distributing information on the Bible, homosexuality, Anglicanism and Oasis California. To volunteer or find out where to send information about your parish please e-mail Judy and Justin at booth@oasisca.org.
The Parade & Cable Car
On Sunday our diocese will be represented by a contingent of LGBT Episcopalians and their straight allies, friends, family members, fellow congregants and children. This year we will have a cable car bus so that people who can’t walk the route can join in the parade. The cable car offers a great way for children to be part of the parade. As we march down Market Street we’ll be distributing more than 1,000 “Blessed Bubbles” kits to help people “spread joy & dispel fear of marriage equality.”
♫
We Need Parade Monitors!
Once again we are recruiting people to serve as monitors, a post that requires a brief training session and comes with a neat button. There is also the fact that without enough parade monitors, our contingent will not march. Two Oasis volunteers, Fernando and Charles, are coordinating our monitors. To volunteer as a monitor, please e-mail them at parade@oasisca.org.
Monitor training programs include:
· Wed 6/17 7:00 pm Kaiser Permanente, 1800 Harrison, Oakland
· Fri 6/19 7:00 pm Ceremonial Room - The Center, 1800 Market St.,SF
· Sat 6/20* 12:00 pm Koret Auditorium - SF Library, 100 Larkin St, SF
· Sat 6/20 3:00 pm Women’s Building Auditorium, 3543 18th St, SF
· Tue 6/23* 8:30 pm Head over Heels, 4701 Doyle St # F, Emeryville
· (Additional sessions will probably be scheduled in San Francisco just before Pride.)
If you can’t join us, Watch on TV
There are four ways to watch the 39th annual San Francisco Pride Parade:
· LIVE Broadcast: On Comcast Digital Channel 99 starting at 10:00 a.m. in all Comcast serviceable areas throughout California.
· LIVE Webcast: Clear Channel Radio on SFPrideLive.com Live & Uncensored from 10:00 a.m. until the end.
· Prime Time: KOFY TV 20/Cable 13, starting at 8:00 p.m.
· Comcast: Comcast Channel 1 On Demand/Local Events starting June 29th at 7:00 p.m. until July 31st
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/pride-mass-pr…
Students protest anti-gay activists
NEW BRITAIN — Students from New Britain High School started their day earlier than usual Wednesday as they engaged in an unplanned class on the constitution, equal rights and free speech.
About 40 students began gathering about a block south of Mill Street and South Main Street at 6:50 a.m. as a small contingent of out-of-town anti-gay protesters arrived.
Joseph Ellzey, a 16-year-old sophomore, said he was shocked to see the group so near the school.
“What they’re doing is an insult and disgusting,” he said, as schoolmates cheered him on. “People have the right to say things, but this is just hate.”
The anti-gay group, members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., is well-known for its virulent attacks on homosexuals, the U.S. Supreme Court and, with the recent codification in the Legislature on a gay marriage law, the state of Connecticut.
See Students protest anti-gay activists
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/students-prot…
200 Supporters of Gay & Lesbian Community March in2009 Los Angeles Chinatown New Year’s Parade
Contingent Organized by API Equality-LA Draws Record Participation
Los Angeles – On Saturday, January 31, 2009, a record 200 people joined the API Equality-LA contingent in the Golden Dragon Parade in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, one of the city’s most popular community event. Saturday marked only the fourth time in the parade’s 110-year history that a contingent representing and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members of the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community has participated in the parade.
“We expected a strong turnout after all of the energy in our community since the November 2008 election, but we were absolutely astounded to welcome 200 participants – nearly three times as many as last year!” said Ericson Herbas, API Equality-LA steering committee member and one of the organizers of the contingent. “Particularly meaningful for all of us, we were also joined this year by same-sex couples who had been able to legally marry before November 2008.”
Wearing bright red t-shirts, the large contingent marched proudly through the streets of Chinatown, carrying banners displaying the six colors of the rainbow. The rainbow is commonly used to represent the pride of the LGBT community and was chosen by the API Equality-LA contingent to also represent the diversity of the coalition’s membership and supporters.
“Our participation in the lunar new year parade each year sends a powerful message of pride, diversity and inclusion,” said Marshall Wong, API Equality-LA co-chair. “Saturday was a wonderful way to enter the Year of the Ox. It is said that the Ox is a sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Fortitude and hard work describe exactly what we need to win back the freedom to marry for the LGBT community. Today we took a short stroll around Chinatown but we’re committed to the long march to full equality.”
The contingent was led by a drum troupe playing traditional Korean drums, comprised of volunteers from the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA). And bringing up the rear of the API Equality-LA contingent was Danza Méxica Cuauhtemoc, a cultural troupe performing traditional Aztec dances, accompanied by Aztec drums and dressed in traditional Aztec clothes and tall feather headdresses.
“API Equality-LA was thrilled to be able to include both Korean and Aztec drums as well as Aztec dancers,” said Eileen Ma, another API Equality-LA steering committee member and organizer of the contingent. “For us, the drummers and dancers reinforced our message of pride in our diversity as a community.”
The diversity of the marchers was also evident in the organizations that officially joined the API Equality-LA contingent, many of whom proudly displayed their own organizational banners as part of the contingent. In addition to API Equality-LA, other organizations who participated in the contingent included: Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC); Asian Pacific Health Care Venture (APHCV); Asian Pacific Islander Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (API PFLAG); ); California Faith for Equality; Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) of San Gabriel Valley; Equal Roots Coalition; Gays United Network (Gays U.N.); Japanese American Citizens League (JACL); Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA); Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC); Love Honor Cherish; OCA-Greater Los Angeles; South Asian Network (SAN); and Asian Pacific Islander Pride Council, which includes Asian American Queer Women Activists (AAQWA), Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT), Chinese Rainbow Association, Gay Asian Pacific Support Network (GAPSN), and Satrang.
(photo credit Ericson Herbas) * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/200-supporter…
Gay band refines performance for inauguration
Members of the Lesbian & Gay Band Association practiced playing their instruments and marching in lockstep Monday in an effort to refine their performance for their parade appearance on Inauguration Day.
The band, which is slated to be the first gay contingent to march in a presidential inaugural parade, had its dress rehearsal at St. Elizabeth’s, a federally operated psychiatric hospital, and marched around the facility’s grounds.
Marita Begley, one of the drum majors for the band, urged marchers to tighten their step during the rehearsal.
“On the turn, if you’re turning right, you guide right!” she shouted. “You got to stay shoulder-to-shoulder on the turn. Don’t swing out!”
See Gay band refines performance for inauguration
Southern Voice, GA
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/gay-band-refi…
San Francisco band to make history at inaugural
San Francisco members of the Lesbian and Gay Band Association and a Saratoga middle school marching band are the only two groups in California tapped to march down Pennsylvania Avenue in what is set to be an historic inauguration parade.
Twenty-six members of the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Freedom Band and Cheer San Franciscowere selected from the Lesbian and Gay Band Association’s thousands of members nationwide to participate in the Jan. 20 event.
“I think it is great that the event is continuing the inclusion of the GLBT community in the important activities of our nation,” said Paul Boneberg, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco. “I say congratulations to Obama for enhancing the visibility of our community by having them march.”
Doug Litwin, a clarinet player in the San Francisco band, said this is the first time an openly gay band has marched, although his band played on the sidelines during both Clinton inauguration parades.
“It was an amazing experience to be openly gay and participate, but this time we get to actually march in the parade,” Litwin said. “It is a bigger deal symbolically to be moving with the contingent.”
More than 1,400 marching bands applied to be in the parade that will follow Barack Obama’s swearing in at the Capitol on Jan. 20. To date, 70 have been selected.
See San Francisco band to make history at inaugural
San Francisco Chronicle, USA
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/san-francisco…
Gay band to march in Presidential inauguration parade
For the first time in American history, a gay group has been asked to march in the Inaugural Parade.
President-elect Obama will take the oath of office on January 20th during an elaborate day of celebrations in Washington DC.
The parade will include the Lesbian and Gay Band Association as a marching contingent.
See Gay band to march in Presidential inauguration parade
PinkNews.co.uk, UK
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/gay-band-to-m…
