Some LGBT people first entered into civil rights through the black movement

I always like to hear what others are thinking on issues that may affect our community. I am not sure what I would do, for instance, if I could make the decision on what to do about the Russian laws, the Olympics, etc.

In regard to the “issue” in Bay Windows, if I even understand it, there can be misunderstanding between male and female homosexuals and black and white homosexuals. It is time to stop allowing bigots, even those who are not anti-gay, to make a distinction among civil rights groups/fights.

I  got involved in a small way over the issue of racial segregation in Lousiana in the late 1940s as a teenager—long before I was aware of civil rights issues for homosexuals. Many of us had not even heard the terms or thought of us as a community.

This is example of how no issue is simple.  I, like most LGBT people, consider religion as our greatest enemy—Christian, much less Islam, etc. But, it was religious groups that formed my view of why discrimination is wrong.  The YMCA had student organizations in high schools (H-Y) clubs, and students, boys, who went to their summer camp worked and lived in an interracial place for the first time.

Then, starting in 1950, LSU dealt with the issue when it started integration under court order. To help students start dealing with the end of racial segregation, the YM/YWCA and, in my case, the Methodist Church/Wesley Foundation, started hosting meetings between students of LSU and Southern. We did small things such as writing letters to businesses urging them to not discriminate. This is the same time when the first bus boycott took place, in Baton Rouge.

Most of us now know of the problem black homosexuals faced, Bayard Rustin being a great example.  But many of us who had to choose, decided to work in the effort to gain civil/equal rights for homosexual Americans.  We supported womens’ rights, black Americans’ rights, etc. Our main movement co-founder, Harry Hay, found time to work for the rights of American Indians/Native Americans/tribal rights.

With millions of us working for the cause, there is now no problem with specializing: lesbian issues, religious issues, legal issues, health issues, which we could not do when there were only two or three groups in our movement. What we can never afford is for one LGBT group to fight the work of another, or to undercut one effort, such as marriage equality, fearing that it gets more publicity and support than another issue, such as equal employment, etc.  And there is no excuse for us to fight over gender issues.

A "marriage/relationship" issue I had not known

The article in the current issue of Windy City Times about how others view relationships of trans/lesbian/hetero couples is a “problem of terms and judgements” and confusion I had not heard. We spend so much time fussing about which term to use for homosexual people, much less bi and trans, that this is a silly issue, but one that is hurtful when some of the people in our own community/movement seem to find it objectionable that, for instance, a former lesbian couple stays “gay” when one partner becomes trans and in a sense it is a hetero couple.

And it seems so wasteful to spend time arguing over who is welcome at a “gay” event, such as who is really a woman, as at  women’s music festival. To be successful it probably is necessary for events to be public, but it does seem fair for some groups, even based on gender, to hold private events.

I hear some restaurants are trying a policy of not allowing families with children to be guests after a certain time, as kids usually get cranky and disturb other guests, etc. Diversity does not mean that everyone is welcome at some events or places, and  if someone doesn't like such a rule, then they are free to start their own event, or cafe, etc. There seems to have been a time when a few gay bars were so entertaining that heterosexuals started coming. While at first that was good, sooner or later some anti-gay heteros seem to have started coming and ironically, objected to the bar being “so gay.” Wasn't there a similar problem with hetero women coming as a group to gay bars having semi-nude male contests?  This disturbed the gay men and made the “scene” uncomfortable.

This is not the same issue as some bars, even gay bars, not welcoming some racial group or only welcoming members of a racial group—a bar for Asians may be unwelcoming to non-Asians who come for wrong reasons.  There have been jokes in movies of some unpleasant person going to a Chinese restaurant and wanting non-chinese food.

Transgender Archives Conference

Dallas Denny writes:

There’s a conference on transgender archives next year in Victoria, British Columbia—the first ever. I'll be speaking there. I hope one thing that will come out of it will be some sort of alliance or group so the various libraries and archives can communicate with one another and share duplicate copies. There are more gay/lesbian/bisexual archives than trans conferences. I hope something similar will happen. 

I’m trying to visit the trans archives as I can. Last year I visited the LGBT community center in New York. I hope to make trips to Houston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in the next few years, as I can afford it.

That is great good news—and glad you are speaking and visiting our community archives.  I think some rich LGBT people should set up a fund to fund someone to get groups connected—such as archives, centers.  I hope the meeting gts coverage and our media gives us the results.

Equality Circle ad in current issue of Equality: "From Stonewall..."???

I only say this for the record, as it in a practical sense is irrelevant, since those you who want to leave HRC funds in their wills will not even be of an age that would think of those BEFORE Stonewall.

BUT, this movement started before Stonewall, in 1950 in fact, in Los Angeles, with the founders of early Mattachine, and continued with the members who moved on to ONE, Inc, etc.

So I think for accuracy it is important to say that your ad misleads information on just whose “shoulders of the pioneers of our movement” you mean.  Apparently you ignore those who worked before the New York media discovered the movement at Stonewall.  I would hope serious people (LGBT and non-LGBT) would know that this movement did not suddenly start that night.

 It is irresponsible to ignore the pioneers who worked before Stonewall, just as it is nonsense to ignore people who served this nation in the military BEFORE WWII and in some cases after—I think of the silence on those who were in the Korean War.

Library of Congress’s acquisition of the papers of Lilli Vincenz...

Regarding this article in the Advocate regarding the archives of Lilli Vincenz:

Good.  I wonder if there is a list of LGBT people/organizations whose material is at the library of Congress?

Guest blogger Lee Mentley, remembering Coretta Scott King

In my last conversation with Coretta Scott King, she told me that all of her husband’s worst fears had come true in Florida when the people did not take to the streets the night they stole the election from Al Gore. 

I can’t help but wonder what she would say now that a Florida jury of six women have said it is okay to kill Treyvon Martin thus all of our children...? I wonder what she would say about the a War on Women, War on Workers Rights,War on the Unemployed, War on Renters, War on the Poor, War on Immigrants, War on Education, War on Science, War on The Bill of Rights, War on Veterans, War on the Environment, War on Voting Rights & the Democratic Process, that food is being taken away from the poor, and that there are Endless Wars across the globe by a Black President...? 

What would she say to a President who has ordered spying not only on our enemies but all U.S. Citizens... and indeed killing innocent civilians around the world with drones from his perch in the White House?

President Obama has declared War on Peace Makers, Journalists, and Truth Tellers arresting and hunting down anyone who dares to blow the whistle on War Crimes in the Bush/Cheney Administration and his own. Banksters, Corporate Raiders, War Criminals, and racists go free while Bradley Manning is on trial for his life. Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are in hiding while our children are incarcerated for small infractions in grade school introducing them to a Private Prison system bent on profit filled with the poor who used small amounts of marijuana...?

So many people have told me they are too busy for politics, to busy to pick up a phone or write a letter, or go to a demonstration..., that there is nothing they can do but hold good thoughts, because they have their own life to live...? Last night all of your children were placed in the crosshairs...! 

Do you have the time now or are we already over it...?

What we need is a Bastille Day...!

DSM discussed on C-SPAN- based on The Book of Woe, by Gary Greenberg

I was impressed with what the author, Gary Greenberg, said about the psychiatrists’ bible, as he writes about in Book of Woe.  

As was charged by bigots, and thanks to work of many in our movement/community, the APA had dropped homosexuality as a mental disorder—as I understand it-and they charge that it IS and was dropped by politics. But of course that was how it got listed. AND he said the same thing happened with…I think it was Aspergers Syndrome(??)  It was adopted and became sort of an identity by some people, and they were angry when it was later dropped—they were cured overnight. They had used it, as had the therapists and pharmaceutical companies. They had almost become part of a community.

Equally interesting is his thought that the DSM’s main use-even by those who don’t believe it is good—is so they can list something and charge for the services of the therapist. BUT they use ruse terms as most therapists do not want to say a patient is mentally ill, as it will harm his life, work, etc.

He says we need to stop trying to excuse/explain criminals by calling them mentally ill when they are simply evil.  And the only “growing” psychiatric segment are/is children and it is a mistake to put them on medication in most cases.  He tried a pill prescribed for his son, and it made even him ill. The son is grown now and did ok without it.