Sometimes the government is good and sometimes bad.

That was Always what we at Mattachine/ONE/HIC have thought. We of all people had no reason to trust any part of the government-we were treated (and entrapped) as criminals (laws probably based on relgion), shuned as sinners (by all religions), and of course probably following the religious thinking, labeled as mentally ill by the psychologists and psychiatrists-who testified against us in court and made money off of "curing" us (and apparently are still putting young people into "care centers" to change them).

Working with the system we, the community/movement, from 1950 on have essentially changed all of this, so now the bigots are accusing the courts, which one were anti-us and were making decisions THEY liked, of being activist, because the decisions are going against the them. Most of the media that once attacked us, is now neutral or gay-friendly.

Same with racial issues. Only someone who lived when the preachers, politicians and newspapers were saying terrible things about black Americans and any white Americans who supported their efforts to gain civil/equal rights, would know how much better the world is today. That is now more true for women and homosexuals.

Now in a sense the government and other institutions (except religious ones) are on our side. But, as Harry Hay warned till the end of his life-look at what happened in Germany. We must be constantly alert to people and groups that would reverse our gains. The founders of this movement did their job, and each generation since has, so now it is up to the young homosexual men and women of today to hold what we have given them and build on it an even better nation, for us and all Americans.