Jul 02, 2004  |  By: Cyd Zeigler Jr.  | COMMENTS     

NEW YORK — Call them “fairy princesses.” Call them “friends of friends of Dorothy.” Just don’t call them fag hags. Or so says Robecca Glover, a spokesperson for a growing group of fag hags, er, straight women in support of homos.

Aptly named SWISH, the group of mostly (though not entirely) straight women has been stumping for gay rights since founder (and president) Sue Sena attended Gay Pride with several friends in 2002. The idea for the group came when, seeing all the extravagant floats in that year’s Pride parade, she decided she wanted to have a float.

A year later, they announced their own “coming out” at the 2003 parade. “The response was overwhelmingly supportive,” says Sena, describing the float as “lots of pink” with a rainbow in the middle and, of course, a DJ. Heritage of Pride even gave them an award for Outstanding Marching Contingent.

The group’s signature event in New York for 2004 was their newly annual Gay-Straight Date Auction, held on Feb. 10 to honor Valentine’s Day — and those who didn’t have dates for it.

The event, a fund-raiser for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, auctioned off dates with straight women, gay men and even three straight men. The bidding was free-flowing — and more than one straight guy got his first (we assume) date with a dude.

Even with all the fun, they are intensely focused on raising awareness of gay issues, and raising money to help fight for gay rights. They now count 200 people from 20 states and Great Britain as members.

With their successful fund-raising efforts over the last year, Sena said they plan on writing some grants this year and pursuing corporate sponsors.

They just rolled out a new campaign in support of same-sex marriage — their Pride float this year, with a Caribbean twist, reflected that.
They have also begun distributing postcards in New York City and 10 other cities, including Boston, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco, promoting gay-marriage rights.

The captions on the postcards reflect the fun attitude SWISH takes toward the whole movement: “SWISH on gay marriage: let’s hope they have better luck with it than the straights,” and “SWISH on gay marriage: think about how fabulous the bridesmaids dresses will be.”

Glover said each member of SWISH has her own reasons for joining the group. Hers stems from the death of her mother from AIDS a couple years ago. She contracted the disease from her boyfriend.

“The most helpful organizations were organizations that were set up to provide services to gay men,” she says. “These were the agencies I was able to go to and talk to someone.”

For Sena, too, the specter of AIDS is still alive in her mind and the minds of many of their members.

“Many of us have lost gay friends and family before their time to AIDS, and it is their spirit, creativity, flair for the dramatic, and love of life on which SWISH thrives,” Sena says in her online welcome letter. “Our first public outing on June 29th in the 2003 PrideMarch honored them. We know they were watching us, all dolled up, from the big Pride parade in the sky.”

As for the “fag hag” moniker, some say kill it; some say live it. “I’m not a huge fan of the term,” Glover says. “But, it exists. When people see straight women active in the gay rights movement, it’s automatically what people think.”

She has no problem being called a “hag” (ask her again in 15 years). Her problem is with the “fag” half of the term “for the same reason I’m not crazy about black people who call other black people the N word. I’m just not crazy about it.”