Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJune 28th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA (Ours):
“A Missionary Position”: Los Angeles, CA. Ugandan-American playwright and actor Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s A Missionary Position,which premiered last night at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex, continues its run tonight. According to the press release: “A Missionary Position …incorporates raw video footage and still photography—gathered over recent months on the front lines of the African nation’s LGBT movement—and layers this documentary material with his portrayal of riveting figures drawn from in-person interviews. A Missionary Position reveals Uganda’s LGBT community as seen through the eyes of a Ugandan government official, a transgender sex worker, a gay priest and a lesbian activist, and creates a complex investigation of the burgeoning resistance to state-supported oppression.”
The curtain raises this evening at 8:30 p.m. this evening, with additional performances on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $20-$25 for general admission, with discounts available for students and groups. You can find more information here.
Press Conference To Counter Exodus International: St. Paul, MN. Truth Wins Out will hold a press conference to counter the Exodus International’s annual “Freedom Conference,” which is taking place this week in St. Paul, Minnesota [see “Today’s Agenda (Theirs)” below]. TWO’s John Becker will be joined by Jeffry G. Ford, a psychologist and former leader of a Minnesota ex-gay group, and by Monica Meyer of OutFront Minnesota. The press conference takes place today at noon CDT at St. Paul Reformation Lutheran Church, 100 Oxford St. N. in St Paul.
Police Chief, State Officials Join Panel Discussion on Rainbow Lounge Raid: Dallas, TX. On June 28, 2009 — the thirtieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising — Fort Worth police conducted a raid on the Rainbow Lounge with agents from the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission. Several customers were detained and one customer, Chad Gibson, received a severe brain injury after agents slammed him against the club’s concrete floor of the bar. Tonight, there will be a screening of Robert Carmina’s documentary, Raid of the Rainbow Lounge, at Dallas’s Magnolia Theater. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Fort Worth police Chief Jeffrey Halstead, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Capt. Charlie Cloud, TABC agent and LGBT liaison Leigh Ann Wiggins, Queer LiberAction founder Blake Wilkinson, Fairness Fort Worth spokesman Jon Nelson and Camina himself. Tickets are $12 and doors open at 7 p.m. The screening begins at 7:30.
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Albuquerque, NM; Arraial, Portugal; Bangor, ME; Barcelona, Spain; Cagliari Italy; Cincinnati, OH; Delémont, Switzerland; Dublin, Ireland; Edinburgh; UK; Helsinki, Finland; Istanbul, Turkey; Lexington, KY; London, UK (World Pride); Madrid, Spain; Naples, Italy; Omaha, NE; Oslo, Norway; Paris, France; St. Petersburg, FL; Salem, MA; Sofia, Bulgaria; Swansea, UK; Toronto, ON; and Winnipeg, MB.
Other Events This Weekend: Canadian Rockies International Rodeo, Strathmore, AB; Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding The AIDS Memorial Quilt, Washington, D.C. Eurogames 2012, Budapest, Hungary.
TODAY’S AGENDA (Theirs):
Exodus Freedom Conference: St. Paul, MN. Today is the first full day of Exodus International’s annual Freedom Conference on the campus of Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is an annual gathering of real, honest-to-goodness ex-gays — or “strugglers” was they call themselves. You can think of this as Burning Man for guys who no longer want to burn for men. Except there’s women here too, so… okay, I don’t have anything pithy for them. Sorry. It’s late and I’m tired after a long day of traveling. Traveling, because I came here for the conference, meeting new people, making friends, and soaking up the vibes. It’s how I’m spending my summer vacation. If by chance you here also, give me a shout via Twitter (@jfburroway) and say hi. The conference continues through Saturday.
Stonewall, 1969
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Stonewall: 1969. What can I possibly tell you about Stonewall that you don’t already know? It has become our Gettysburg, the iconic battle that represents a significant turning point. As the Civil War has been divided to two eras before Gettysburg and after, so, too, has our history been identified as pre-Stonewall and post-Stonewall. As with the civil war, there were gay rights confrontations before Stonewall, and there have been police raids after, but Stonewall remains the fulcrum on which the weight of gay history shifts from unmitigated fear and oppression to a confident and unrelenting push for dignity and full citizenship.
Stonewall, 2011
Americans made little note of small village of Gettysburg before 1863, and today the minutia of that great battle is mostly left to Civil War buffs. For the rest of us, Gettysburg is our collective shorthand for the ideal of human sacrifice and valor, and of freedom. And so it is also with Stonewall. It used to be a little-known place, and then it was an event. But more so today Stonewall is an idea, one that was partially fulfilled in New York with the enactment of marriage equality last year. But that is only one part of the idea. The higher idea of dignity and the full rights and privileges of citizenship remains elusive for too many people. The promise of Stonewall has not been fulfilled for them — or even for us who live and work where discrimination in its many forms remains perfectly legal. But because of Stonewall and what it has come to mean, we know that there is no turning back. There is only movement forward. Stonewall demands nothing less.
First Gay Pride March to Commemorate Stonewall: 1970. The actual Stonewall uprising received scant attention in the media when it actually happened. There were very few reporters there and only a bare handful of photos taken of the uprising as it occurred. By in the space of a year, Stonewall had already become a singly word that meant more than just a run down bar in the Village. One of the more interesting articles to appear in the mainstream media was a brief description of the parade up Christopher Street on June 28, 1970 that appeared in July 11 edition of The New Yorker:
A number of policemen were standout around, looking benevolent and keeping an eye on things. Many of the marchers were carrying banners that identified them as members of homosexual organizations, like the Gay Liberation Front, the Mattachine Society, and the Gay Acivists Alliance. The symbol of the G.A.A. is a lambda, which physicists use as a symbol for wavelength, and many of the kids were wearing purple T-shirts with yellow lambdas on them.
Most of the marchers chatted in anticipatory tones, and a few reporters were among them looking for interviews. One approached two boys standing together and asked them the question that reporters always ask: “How do you feel?”
One of the boys said, “I feel proud.”
At the head of the parade, one boy stood carrying the American flag. Near him stood a man talking to another man. “Homosexuals are very silly,” said the first man. “They congregate in certain areas and then spend all other time walking up and down the street ignoring each other.”
That first march wasn’t called “Gay Pride.” It was called the Christopher Street Day. But in that participant’s response, you can already see the sense that most people had that “pride” would be the operative word for the day. The author (whose name is not given) reported that marchers carried signs reading “Homosexual is not a four letter word,” “Latent Homosexuals Unite!” and “Hi Mom!” Anti-gay protesters were there as well, one with a sign reading simply “Sodom + Gomorra.” All in all, the parade was not just a success, but cathartic for some:
An eighteen-year-old boy from Long Island who was marching in the middle of the parade with his arms around two friends said, “I’ve been up since six-thirty, I was so excited I couldn’t sleep. I wasn’t going to come, but then I figured I’m gay and I might as well support my people. So here I is!” Sometimes the marchers addressed the onlookers. “Join us!” they called, and “Come on in, the water’s fine!” They got a few grins for this, and once or twice somebody did step out from the crowd to join the parade. These people were roundly cheered by the marchers. Just south of Central Park, a well-dressed middle-aged woman on the sidewalk flashed a V-sign. A marcher, a young man with a mustache, shouted to a cop, also a young man with a mustache, “It isn’t so bad, is it?” The cop shouted back, “No!”
As the parade entered the Park, a young marcher said, “Would you believe it! It looks like an invading army. It’s a gay Woodstock. And after all those years I spent in psychotherapy!”
A friend of his laughed and said, “What will your shrink do without you? He’s dependent on your for the payments on his car.”
The Village Voice has another first-person account of the 1970 celebration.
[Thanks to BTB reader Rob for providing a copy of the New Yorker article.]
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:
John Inman: 1935.The quintessential British poofter known for his role as Mr. Humphries in Are You Being Served? He was also a pantomime dame, a distinctly British form of drag performance (Dame Edna is actually Australian, but think of her and you get the idea.) “I’m a tits and feathers man,” he once said in explaining his love for show business. His character’s high camp and trademark high-pitched “I’m free!” in Are You Being Served? became a catchphrase in Britain.
Not everyone was amused. He was picketed by the Campaign for Homosexual Equality because they charged that his character posed a bad image for gay men. Inman said, “they thought I was over exaggerating the gay character. But I don’t think I do. In fact there are people far more camp than Mr. Humphries walking around this country. Anyway, I know for a fact that an enormous number of viewers like Mr. Humphries and don’t really care whether he’s camp or not. So far from doing harm to the homosexual image, I feel I might be doing some good.” In December 2005 he and his partner of 35 years, Ron Lynch, took part in a civil partnership ceremony at London’s Westminster Register Office. Inman died in 2007.
Jim Kolbe: 1942. He is the former Republican Congressman for Arizona’s 8th congressional district — the district more recently held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords before she resigned after being seriously injured in a 2011 shooting. Kolbe was outed in 1996 after voting for the Defense of Marriage Act. He was reelected to his seat in 1998, and in 2000, he became the first openly gay person to address the Republican National Convention, although his speech did not address gay rights. He also continued to defend his vote for DOMA. “My vote on the Defense of Marriage Act was cast because of my view that states should be allowed to make that decision, about whether or not they would recognize gay marriages,” he said. “Certainly, I belive that states should have the right, as Vermont did, to provide for protections for such unions.” He voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006.
By the time he was wrapping up his congressional service in 2006, Kolbe was a supporter of same-sex marriage, telling local audiences in Tucson that “in a few years,” same-sex marriage would be normal and uncontroversial. In 2008, his good friend Tim Bee, who was the state Senate Majority Leader, announced that he would run against Giffords for Congress, Kolbe agreed to serve in Bee’s election campaign. Kolbe withdrew his support however when Bee cast his tie-breaking vote to place the proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the ballot.
David Kopay: 1942. A former American football running back in the National Football League before retiring in 1972, Davud Kopay became one of the first professional male athletes to come out as gay in 1975. His 1977 biography, David Kopay Story
In 2007, Kopay announced he would leave an endowment of $1 million to the his alma mater University of Washington’s Q Center, a resource and support center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and faculty. He has said that it is one of the most important efforts he will ever undertake.
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And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?
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Tony
June 28th, 2012
Are we supposed to forgive people like Jim Kolbe? His own personal struggle has caused harm to millions of people. Where is the cut-off?
Charles
June 28th, 2012
“Are we supposed to forgive people like Jim Kolbe? His own personal struggle has caused harm to millions of people. Where is the cut-off?’ – Tony
My guess is that you came of age when being homosexual was no longer on the list of mental disorders that needed treatment. I was born in 1951. Homosexuality was on that list until 1973. It is up to you to forgive him or not. You have to remember the times that he grew up in and the inner struggle that he must have gone through.
Tony
June 28th, 2012
“I’m sad about who I am so I’m going to conflict my pain on millions”. I understand that it was a different time, but I don’t think it should be an excuse for doing what you know in your heart is the wrong thing.
Chris McCoy
June 28th, 2012
Tony said:
Forgiveness does not mean telling someone that was they did was OK. Forgiveness is about realizing that people are not perfect, and they make mistakes.
Forgiveness is about letting go of the past. You can’t change what happened. But you can change how you let what happened in the past affect how you deal with the present.
Soren456
June 28th, 2012
Persons born mid-century and earlier had a much different experience of homosexuality than I have had, born July 1, 1988.
But since Stonewall in 1969, homosexuality in one aspect or another has never been out of the news. And much of that news has concerned the emerging truth about homosexuality, about us and who we really are. It has all been good news.
Thus persons born mid-century and earlier have had 40-plus YEARS of good, new, positive information with which to inform themselves, and against which to compare and assess themselves as persons of undoubted worth. Many — most? — have done so, and have routed the “curse” of their homosexuality.
But others have not, and in some cases have not even seemed to try. I think of a figure like Larry Craig, who despite 40 years of good news about his sexual orientation, simply refused to admit even a sentence of it into his self image, and took the public path we all know that he, and others, take.
It’s one thing to grow up different and ashamed, but it’s another to refuse all information that erases the shame. That refusal is what I can’t forgive.
Pat
June 28th, 2012
Pretty big day in history, including the birthdays. David Kopay was pretty brave being one of the first major professional sports players (even thought retired) to come out. The environment to come out while still active was hostile then, and still is today in the NFL, and other sports. I had the please of meeting Esera Tuaolo a few years back, and he echoed this point, as he also waited after retirement.
The NFL has made strides in terms of improving the environment, but this was mostly in administrative and front offices, not for players. What is disheartening is that the previous NFL commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, has a son who is gay, and personally is supportive of gay rights, but showed zero leadership in improving the environment for any gay players.
Charles
June 28th, 2012
“It’s one thing to grow up different and ashamed, but it’s another to refuse all information that erases the shame. That refusal is what I can’t forgive.” – Soren456
That is an easy remark to be made by someone who was born in 1988.
As I have said, I was born in 1951 and grew ashamed of my sexual orientation, celibate, quite about sexual matters and filled with anxiety and suffered from depression for 40 plus years. Five years ago I had a bout of major depression and nearly took my own life. I isolated myself for around four days and I played Russian roulette with a nine shot revolver. I cheated, but don’t how in hell I did not screw up and pull the trigger on a live round. My family intervened and I was committed to a mental hospital. Then I finally came out …………. at the age of 55, and I am still dealing with it all. I wish I had come out many, many years ago, but I didn’t. I had bought into the thinking the era of youth that homosexuality was a mental disorder and or something that just went away if you gave it time.
Tony
June 29th, 2012
@Charles “That’s an easy remark made by someone who was born in 1988.”
That’s when I stopped reading. Nothing else you say even matters to me. If you are going to use his age to prove him wrong, then your words are nothing.
Charles
June 29th, 2012
“@Charles “That’s an easy remark made by someone who was born in 1988.â€
That’s when I stopped reading. Nothing else you say even matters to me. If you are going to use his age to prove him wrong, then your words are nothing.” – Tony
If that is when you stopped reading then you stopped thinking. Time did not begin when I was born in 1951 and time did not begin when Soren456 was born in 1988……….or whenever you were born. My actions were dictated by what I was taught and learned in my youth …….. and came to believe. From the time of my youth to now, more has ever happened than I thought would ever happen on the issue of gay rights and understanding of people with same sex attraction. If you want to remain angry and pass judgement at gay people who grew up in a much more different world, so be it. That is your right. But, I think your anger and unwillingness to forgive is misplaced.
Let me end by quoting what Chris McKoy said about your initial post on this thread, “Forgiveness does not mean telling someone that was they did was OK. Forgiveness is about realizing that people are not perfect, and they make mistakes.
Forgiveness is about letting go of the past. You can’t change what happened. But you can change how you let what happened in the past affect how you deal with the present.”
Soren456
June 30th, 2012
I don’t quite know what Charles is grasping for, but if he will wipe away the tears, he might notice that I don’t blame him for his birthdate, nor do I claim that history begins with mine.
Most important, he might notice that I said almost exactly what he says: that his generation experienced their homosexuality differently than mine does, but that in its lifetime, his generation has seen a great flow of positive new information about themselves, and most have used it to adjust their self perceptions accordingly.
I observed that a figure like Larry Craig (and George Rekers, Ted Haggard and others) had access to the same information but refused to use it.
Having refused, Craig and others went on to disrupt and destroy.
The point is, I can see where Craig comes from, and can find no blame in it. But I also see uncounted new opportunities in his lifetime to adjust his thoughts about himself and his cohort — opportunities that he refused. Considering the damage that resulted, I find his refusal hard to forgive.
I can forgive, however, when I use my own definition of forgiveness, which is to hand the problem back to the person who made it, expecting that he will fix it. Thus, forgiveness is complete (and of use) only when a change is made. With Craig, et. al., I’m still waiting.
Charles
July 1st, 2012
“I can forgive, however, when I use my own definition of forgiveness, which is to hand the problem back to the person who made it, expecting that he will fix it. Thus, forgiveness is complete (and of use) only when a change is made. With Craig, et. al., I’m still waiting.” – Soren456
You are wasting your time and I think living a very bitter life. Don’t let the bitterness destroy you. Life is too short. Get on with your life and learn to put a smile on another person’s face each and every day. I find that is the best therapy for myself.
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