The best part of working with Don Slater and others in the movement...

I have been trying to understand and deal with what is obvious—a generic issue—that young people don’t know the history of our nation or the movement go gain civil rights for homosexual (now GLBT) Americans.  I think that I don’t care for giving credit, but think that if they don’t know how much work had to be done then they might not know that they now have to do some more work, not just to keep what we have given them, but to keep it from being reversed.

Much time in ONE’s offices was spent, obviously, on practical things: putting together the next issue of the magazine, having committee meetings, doing the monthly lectures, preparing for the yearly business meeting, doing the banking, answering letters, etc.  BUT while we were doing these tasks, we also could talk and discuss things.  I don’t remember covering this issue, but it seems to me it will help us philosophically and emotionally to understand that, even though young people will not know or care what we have done, what the founders of the nation and this movement have done each succeeding generation, they have a right to enjoy the results. They can use the phone without knowing who injented it or how.

But there seems to me to be a valid reason for preserving the history of the nation and the movement. It is good to not worry about having the right to freedom of speech, press, etc. But if young people assume the rights came about with no work, and will always be there, they are mistaken.  That is why education is necessary.  I see TIME magazine is advertising you can get copies of the covers of their magazines, starting with the very first issue.  I’m not sure the covers of ONE magazine will tell people much—we didn’t have pictures of the current celebrities or events.  But a glance at the index, starting with the very first issue, will tell historians that we covered every issue of homosexuality that is being discussed today.  Since Lawrence vs. Texas, and the ending of DADT, perhaps some think we have nothing more to worry about.  But a glance at the local newspapers, while they still exist, will show that there are constant attacks on the same issues—some Republicans want to return DADT, and many law enforcement agents still try to arrest people for sex.

As Obama has said, and the Republicans have distorted, we are where we are because previous generations built roads, fought and died in wars, and gave us the Internet. As we enjoy the TV tonight, we are foolish if we don’t appreciate how good things are and want to work to keep them that way and make them even better for the next generations.

Harry Hay mention in yesterday's L. A. TIMES

Thanks, Jeanne Barney, for finding this article about Woody Guthrie in yesterday’s newspaper....       

LaChapelle details his discovery of these tracks on two 78 rpm discs residing in obscurity in the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research in South Central L.A. They’d been donated long ago to the library along with other old records by longtime L.A./Hollywood political activist Harry Hay, who met Guthrie through their mutual friend, actor Will Geer.

Wow, that is interesting.  The hope is that people will want to use such archives—especially people writing and studying such a subject/person, etc.  Thanks for this.  I am not sure I know what archive this is.

Maria Cole dies (GLAAD should honor her as she was a celebrity who supported us in the late 1960s)

As Natalie Cole announces she is coming to a casino in Shreveport on September 1, we learn than her mother has died.  

I wonder if she knows that not only her dad, Nat King Cole, supported black civil rights efforts but that her mother, Maria, supported LGBT civil rights efforts in the late 1960s. She invited Don Slater, ONE and HIC co-founder, to co-host a week of discussions on homosexuality on her talk show on KHJ-TV.  (She had a co-host whose name I can’t remember).

Where are they now?

To Karen Ocamb:

I am aiming this thought at you since you are there in what I consider ground zero of the movement. I see Lesbian Connection and find it does coverage that I don’t see in men's publications.  I had also just seen the Program for a ONE event in 1997, and it lists many names of people who helped put on the event.  I wonder where they are today—it could be that I just don't hear from them as I am not in L. A.  But one name was, I think, in both publications:  Karen Quinn.  In the LC (Elsie) there is a note of a donation in her memory, by Sally in Lansing—so it could be a different Quinn.  In the Program it says the Annual Ball was produced by Karin Quinn.  I see the Karen/Karin, but it did make me wonder.  

And where are the others who worked on the Ball?  Gail Conrad, Carol Carpenter, Carlos Brown, Robert Chambers, Kathryn Korniloff?  How are some others doing?  Lily Tomlin, Bruce Vilanch, Mimi Gonzales, Paris Poirier, Karen Kiss—we may neglect earlier celebrities for the latest newcomer.

And are the ONE people listed still active?  Robert Arthaud, Flo Fleischman (do we honor them still?) Karen Quimby, Ernie Potvin (same question), Pat Allen, Jesse Jacobs, Sylvia Rhue, Mischa Schutt?  And I don't hear from some of the Advisory Board, what are Brenda and Wanda Henson doing, are they still in MS?  Sadly many are gone-morris, Frank, Vern Bullough, but at least Mark Segal, Robin Tyler, Urvashi Vaid et al. are still going, as is Troy Perry.

I even wonder about the advertisers.  How are the Women of Ojai?  And how are the writers doing?  Patricia Nell Warren, Robin Podolsky, Aleida Rodriguez, Terry Wolverton, Steve Johnson, et al.  I know how Stuart Timmons is doing as he was covered in the Harry Hay celebration.  And John Woo? And the Schutrum-Pitco Foundation?  

Back to LC—they give listings for new resources, such as a Coastal Hearts (.com) in the Santa Barbara/Ventura area.  And there is an effort by OLOC to honor lesbians who were involved in the civil rights movement in the 1950s, in connection with the pan by the National Black Justice Coalition to mark the hundred years of Bayard Rustin.  But the deadline is June 30.

Just some thoughts.  I know, having just seen a repeat of the PBS show on the internet that we all now have short attention spans and may not have time for history.

Gay Pride in the Military

Regarding Patriot Post article on Obama and gay pride in the military:

Ron Tate writes:

As we discuss this issue about gays in the military, I couldn’t help but notice this article posted by a former high school classmate’s Facebook page regarding celebrating gays in the military.  It is a long read but gives insight into how still so many view gays in the military. 
They will not let this issue die a dignified death.  My classmate served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force and grew up in Arkansas.
Need I say more?

Obviously there is only one answer needed for this man and the others—they said the same in 1948 when truman integrated the military.  And I notice the use of a “medical term” about homosexuality.  It is not valid, it wasn’t when it was used, and is not now.  But I did not know Obama told the military they had to “celebrate” Pride month.  I don’t celebrate it—so am opposed to that, or any other special group or cause.

Exteremists come in all flavors-but the "leftists" is worse than the right

As I logged onto the computer, the opening age of Yahoo links to a story (I did not bother to read it) that a former law professor Obama says he is not liberal enough, so should not be reelected.
 
I think the right-wingers are right-we need to get rid of most of the college professors, (protected by tenure which I once thought was a good thing) as they live in a false world.  
 
While I am concerned that young LGBT people will not know the past of the community/movement, and understand that there is still work to b done, I am now concerned that too many of us who worked “in the early and exciting days when what we have today was only a hope and dream” will forget the facts.  

College professors, preachers, psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers and most institutions were our enemy.  The government was our enemy.  While we can be happy that the courts have given us freedom from the sodomy laws (Lawrence v Texas) and the psychiatrists and psychiatrists have admitted that they had bee wrong and we are NOT sick, mentally troubled, etc., don’t forget that, as Mattachine co-founder Harry Hay pointed out, these same “friends” under pressure may change their minds tomorrow. That is why most of those at ONE and the HIC did not spend most of our time being friends with politicians. The politicians that we would have been cozy with are gone.
 
Ours is a nation of laws, and the danger that remains (we are no longer criminals or sick) is religion. And what is so hard to understand is that the extremist Christians who want to control laws about our sexuality, etc., don’t understand that if we let them make the laws today based on their personal religious beliefs, tomorrow it will be the Muslims and we will have Sharia law. This is why LGBT people are more aware of the dangers of relying only on even laws to get our equal/civil rights.  We must continually educate ourselves and the general population. 
 
And, no matter how much money the fanatic Republicans can come up with, it is those who VOTE who will decide.  And so we too should want honest counting of the votes.
 
BUT a note to that law professor: Whom do you want to make the next Supreme Court appointments??

OutSmart’s June 2012 Pride issue, coverage of the people honored in the parade, etc. (19th Pride Issue)

You rightly can be proud of the Pride issue.  I am trying to write from memory (I’m at a library computer) but the main thought is Brandon Wolf’s articles on the honored people.  What I find interesting is how they got into the movement/community (including the non-gay ones) and that most ended up in Houston but came from such places as Wisconsin, Oregon  and Canada.  Even the ones from Texas came from small towns but moved to the big city.

I do wonder, since it is mentioned, what happened to the publication Texas Triangle and its publishers and writers?  I think you covered one a few years ago, but forget.  And I wonder, considering your last two governors, how  we understand how Ann Richards was there and dear Molly Ivins got by for so long.

Has anyone wondered, as I do, how, as far as I know, Houston has your great publication and no newspaper, and Dallas has the good Dallas Voice, but no magazine?  Some of us are inbetween in the Ark-La-Tex area east of dallas and north of Houston, so wish we got more of your good community works.