Pride (In The Name Of Love)

This is Pride Month for the LGBT community and in cities across the nation and the world queer people will get together and have parades and/or parties. It's all in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots that occurred in New York at the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Inn was raided by the police on June 28th 1969. Raids on gay bars were a common occurrence, in which the bar and it's patrons had developed a protocol for. Yet on that day the patrons had had enough of the harassment. It was mostly the Black and Latino drag queens who fought back, throwing what ever they could at the police. The riots went on for several days.

The Stonewall Riots were not the first act in the fight for gay rights and I don't mean to belittle organizations such as the Mattachine Society, Student Homophile League, and Daughters of Bilitis. But it's the Stonewall Riots that gather attention. The society as a whole is more likely to have heard of the Riots than the Mattachine Society.

Enough of the truncated history lesson.... on to the actual story. I went to our local Pride celebration this past Sunday as I have for many years. This time, I concentrated on the company of my friends instead of the blatant marketing that goes on at any event. It was a refreshing change. In the past I would have visited every vendor and, more likely than not, bought things I didn't need. No doubt, in these rough economic times, its important to support one's community. And I do that as much as I possibly can. Also, I don't think that the drags queens back in 1969 were fighting for my right to buy incense from a street vendor... (who maybe an opportunist looking to make some money off the gay community, you never know). Pride should be about coming together and being ourselves without the threat of violence and ridicule; to be safe.

The day was safe and pleasant. I didn't notice any planes flying overhead this year with erroneous web sites seeking to fix us. I didn't see any protesters lurking on the outskirts. Yet there was one moment that was perhaps even more insidious. Because it lurks in all of our communities.

First some back story: One of my neighbors moved away recently. A gay woman. I didn't know her that well, but she seemed really nice. Friends of mine who live a couple doors down from her, talked to her often and told me that she was Canadian and was here illegally. I thought it was too bad that she left.... she had been living there for years. I heard that she went to live with her daughter in Novi. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye.

So, when I saw her at Pride, I said hi and that was sorry to see her leave the neighborhood. She had heard about the trouble at my house (see my 2 previous posts) and she felt bad for me. The next words out of her mouth made me hope I was truly going deaf.... because I couldn't have heard right. She said, "yeah, I heard that ni**ers moved in." (HOMO SAY WHAT?) You're kidding me right. Am I on candid camera or something?..... But I didn't say those things. What I did say, I think was sorely lacking. I made her repeat herself, because I was sure that I heard wrong. Then I said they're really nice people with the 2 sweetest little kids. Her response, "Well, I'm racist." She said it like she was, well, not proud, but not ashamed at all either. It was matter of fact with no comprehension of how completely evil and ugly she was now. She gave it the same intonation as saying "Well, I have brown hair." I told her that she need to let go of that shit and I walked off.

We are there at Pride, celebrating what the Black and Latino queens did for us in 1969 and she had the gall to spout that shit. Obviously that dyke is too ignorant to know her history. Too ignorant to be considered a valuable human being. She didn't belong at Pride, she did not deserve to be at Pride. She got the hell out of my neighborhood, which now makes me happy. And if she is indeed here illegally, she needs to fuck off out of my country. Does anyone have the number to immigration?