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Darling, I want my gay rights now.



Happy Pride!
Let's take a moment to recognize Marsha P. Johnson, one of the driving forces behind the Stonewall riots. Oh, yes, honey. Riots. Those were not pacific demonstrations by gay men in suits and ties singing Kumbaya by the red and blue lights of a police wagon. Those were drag out, tear down riots initiated by the faggots and the freaks. Shit got destroyed, as riots go and need to be when fighting injustice and police brutality and change needs to be implemented.

Life before Stonewall was not easy for queer people, let alone queer, black, gender non-conforming people, like Marsha. Nevertheless, she persisted. I think many LGBTQ+ people nowadays have no fucking idea what being queer was before Brokeback Mountain would win an Oscar, before Marriage Equality and before Grindr. It was not a walk in the park.

The 1950s ushered in a period of conservatism and growing cultural attention to homosexuality. McCarthyism unleashed a government-sponsored witch hunt against communists, leftists, and inspired a widespread campaign known as "the Lavender Scare" to remove gays and lesbians from government occupations. Meanwhile, police surveillance and repression of gay bars and cruising spots created devastating consequences for those who were caught. As Sherry Wolf describes in her book, 'Sexuality and Socialism', those arrested often had their names and pictures published in newspapers, which often led to being fired from their job and being ostracized by friends and family.

KEEGANOBRIAN

The Stonewall riots took place in a climate where queer people were ostracized, punished, stigmatized and pathologized to an inch of their lives. Literally. But there was a growing visibility to being queer and people all over realized there were OTHERS like them, even if they did not look like Marsha and her friends. There was hope. Many parts of society were opening in American society, but queer people still did not have a sense of community. Many parts of the country, especially in big cities, suffered policing in what concerned sexual and gender expression carried out by... oh, you guessed! The po-po. The fuzz, The Bacon, The Boys, The Donut Patrol, The Five-O, The LEOs, The Police.







Anti-sodomy laws were being enforced all over the place and the U.S. was as bad for queer people as Cuba, Russia or East Germany, which the U.S. i na a fantastic Orwellian display criticized for being 'too harsh'. Hypocrisy, thy name is America. It was in this climate of fear and repression (does it sound familiar?) that The Public Moral Squad in New York was told to close the gay bars and they decided to arrest everybody in Stonewall and close down the bar. That's when Marsha and Sylvia - two trans women of color - and the queer fem boys of color at Stonewall fought the Police. And sparked a revolution.




That's how the queer community discovered that there was a big group of us. Those nights of upheaval and broken windows and burned shit opened the way for marriage equality and the freedom to have booty calls on Grindr and jerk-off parties in Chaturbate.  How's that for a celebration?

Happy Pride, people. And remember, when you are celebrating, how that celebration came because queer people of color decided to free your ass from oppression by breaking windows and throwing rocks at the Police. All of that done while in high heels and some make up. Rioting, darling, was queer.

XOXO

P.S. Also, if you have Netflix, you may have seen a Marsha P. Johnson documentary. Don't watch it. It's tainted:


Instead, watch 'Happy Birthday, Marsha!'








Comments

  1. Happy pride babe! It seems nothing gets done in this country without upheaval. Even from the founding of the country itself. And once again POC are at the forefront of the demand for change.

    The LGBTQ+ community found a voice that day, and though change was slow and painful, it did come. But we have to continue to fight to hold onto and expand those rights.

    Happy pride, indeed!

    XOXO 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happy Pride!
      And yes, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Funny and tragic that it has to be minorities, who pushed to their limits, break shit to draw attention to their pledge.

      XOXO

      Delete
  2. I remember a time when I wished gay people would just stay quiet but finally one day I realized that we would gain nothing without making a lot of noise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, nothing is gained without a lot of noise. The idea is that minorities (and here all minorities are included) should kind of stay silent and get the crumbs of freedom the dominant paradigm throws their way. You know, the BIPOC should 'know' their place and the gays stay in the closet.
      Well, thank goddess that's not the case anymore.

      XOXO

      Delete
  3. Feeling the pride every time I think of Marsha!

    ReplyDelete
  4. PRIDE DAY IS EVERY DAY! get up, stand up, stand up for your rights! and not "special rights", but moral/just/normal/american rights!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And this is correct!
      Pride is every day. It's funny how, especially the religious wrong, think that any right to be treated equally to them is 'special'.
      Fuck them all.

      XOXO

      Delete
  5. Ok.....I'm going to date myself. I came out in a time when drag queens/trans people were not welcome in gay bars. They drew attention and the police. Now, we know that if it wasn't for the drag and trans people, we would not be where we are today as gay folk in the world. Another lesson in how to grow better as an adult.
    HAPPY PRIDE, Six!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Jimmy.
      As recently as the early nineties drag queens and trans people were not welcome in gay bars. They were 'too much' for the Banana Republic gays. They wanted their picket fences and their button down shirts and suck dick in dark alleys. Drag queens and Trans women -especially Trans women of color- have always been at the forefront of the fight. And have paid the price.
      Happy Pride, Jimmy!

      XOXO

      Delete
  6. Pearly and I just watched this while here in Ptown. I thought it was very well done. Kudos to Victoria Cruz for getting to the bottom of some of these facts when other didn't care. The part that got to me was the scene at a gay protest where Sylvia Rivera was booed and jeered!!!! The gay community had no idea what she and Marsha did and were starting. It's also why I'm leery of the jocks, gym bunnies and masculine men...there the first cry babies and big pussies to go running, yet they want the rights!!! FUCK EM!

    I very seldom can talk about Sylvia and Marsha without getting upset or emotional, so you have me teary eyed with this excellent post damn you. It's racoon time. But a excellent post none the less!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had no idea about the netflicks docu being tainted. I had wondered about some of the facts. The Happy Birthday Marsha is much better I agree, I have seen that also.

      Delete
    2. I was overseas when Stonewall happened and didn't hear about it until years later.

      Delete
    3. OMG Maddie. I also watched that documentary, before I learned it was tainted. The guy who created it basically stole the idea. From a Black Trans woman, of course. But Victoria was right. And this is connected to what Jimmy was saying: Sylvia Rivera was booed because the white gays thought she was 'too much', when she was one of the forces behind the upheaval. The Masc 4 Masc crowd: the more things change, the more they stay the same. And you and I, Maddie, you and I go racoon time because we feel their pledge.

      And Dave. That was in 1969!!! Whoa.

      XOXO

      Delete
  7. Rights. Now. Mhm! 👏🏻

    And yes, happy Pride ya'll! 🖤💜🧡💛💚💙

    ReplyDelete
  8. Amen. Thanks for posting this. When that horrible movie came out with all those pretty white boys leading the charge? I was spitting blood at the screen. Don't fuck with my history, Hollywood. You've whitewashed your last revolution. Love your blog, btw.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes! Stonewall made me mad. One of the few gay-themed films that had to wait until it went into streaming for me to watch. And they I almost threw my popcorn to the screen. How dared they? And this connects to what Jimmy and Maddie were saying about the erasure of BIPOC by the white establishment.
      OMG thanks! Glad you enjoy the blog!!

      XOXO

      Delete
  9. Anonymous6/28/2020

    Quick historical aside: McCarthyism was fringe in the 50s. Yeah, 94 senators censured McCarthy, the exception being Kennedy, who was in the hospital at the time. Even as the 60s went on, Goldwater (who did censure McCarthy, so, somewhat less insane than McCarthy at any rate) was seen as a loony because of his extreme hawkish views. (He was the original "better dead than red".)

    The extreme represented by McCarthy and the John Birchers was mostly popular in the Southeast (where communism was just code for integration) and the West (mostly California and Arizona).

    So, why do we remember it differently? Firat, shows like Happy Days and All in the Family (the latter being merely a different flavor of right-wing propaganda, mind, All in the Family says racism is bad because it's a sign of poor "breeding", never mind the racist etymology of that word, so basically proto-basicness) sort of exaggerated everything about the 50s. Secondly, Ronald Reagan resurrected the ghost of McCarthyism (and many other retrograde ideas from the 50s, but not the 91% marginal tax rate) as a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is fantastic. Thanks for the note!
      What does not escape me is that communism was and still is code for integration in the Southeast. The more things change...
      And yes, we have always been fed right wing propaganda, because the status quo needed to be preserved. And fuck Reagan. He let my people die of a plague and didn't do anything until it was too late. Just like IMPOTUS is doing now.

      XOXO

      Delete
  10. Wait. What??? My comment didn't publish??? WTF? Oh, well....

    ReplyDelete

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