Jun 12, 2009  |  By: Peter Rosenstein  | COMMENTS     

ON JUNE 27, 1969 the Stonewall Riots ignited the modern gay rights movement. A group of drag queens fought the police in New York’s Greenwich Village and stood up for all of us.

As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Stonewall we are proud of how far we have come, but know we still have far to go. We still dream of the future when we will have all our rights.

As the saying goes, “You’ve come a long way baby.” But we are still far from the finish line. It still depends on where you live whether you can feel safe as an “out” member of the LGBT community. Congress still hasn’t passed a hate crimes bill to make beating us up a federal crime. We can’t serve openly in the military even if we want to risk our lives for the nation. We don’t have the right to marry in 44 states and even in the six where we do, we don’t get the benefits the federal government gives to married heterosexuals.

Despite this, at Pride festivals across the nation we party. We celebrate each other and how far we have come. For a few days we forget the slights and show the rest of the world that we are out and proud. We show off dykes on bikes, lesbians and gay men parading the streets without their shirts on, and we cheer colorful floats showing off our organizations, gay-owned businesses and those businesses and politicians that want us to shop with them or vote for them.

It is always with mixed feelings that I participate. I think of Matthew Shepard and my friends who have suffered violence. I remember friends who have died of AIDS when the HIV/AIDS service organization floats go by. But I also think of the fun times I have had over the years with friends at various bars and clubs when their floats go by. I occasionally get depressed seeing a politician I supported who after being elected didn’t keep their promises.



I WAS LIVING a closeted life in New York 40 years ago when Stonewall took place. I knew nothing about the gay community or what they were dealing with. I only began to learn about that a few years later when I went to work for Bella Abzug (D-N.Y.), an icon to the community. I was the closeted young staffer, considered cute back then, who in 1976 drove her to take the ferry to Fire Island for a fundraiser in the Pines. I stayed in the background, surreptitiously eyeing the beautiful men and not daring to speak to any of them. I watched as Larry Kramer dove naked into a pool and immediately agreed with Bella’s husband that it was time for us to head home.

Both the movement and I have clearly changed. We both came through the worst of the AIDS epidemic. We both have come out of the closet in a big way. The movement and I have both grown up.



WE NOW HAVE hundreds of LGBT elected officials and role models like Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin and Jared Polis in Congress. We have two gay D.C. Council members and will have the chance to elect a third in 2010. We helped elect a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president who say they support us and will fight for our rights. Our president has issued an LGBT Pride month proclamation calling for action on just about everything we want except for marriage equality.

So in 2009, we should be celebrating. We can cheer each other at the parade, party through the night and then enjoy the festival on the nation’s Main Street, Pennsylvania Avenue.

Maybe if we cheer loud enough we can bottle that energy and use it during the coming year to make some of the promises come true. We need to hold our politicians’ feet to the fire even while we thank them this year for their supportive words. We must demand action by the time Pride 2010 comes along. Next year, a proclamation with the same promises won’t be enough.

The 2010 presidential Pride proclamation will have to cite some real accomplishments. It will need to state minimally that the president was proud to have invited the LGBT community to the Rose Garden for the signing of the Matthew Shepard Act and ENDA, and that he expects to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the coming year.

So enjoy this weekend. But on Monday be ready for the hard work still ahead.