Fifty years on

Happy Pride month to everyone! This June commemorates the Stonewall riots 50 years ago that helped catalyze increased rights for LGBT people in the US. It also commemorates four years since marriage equality was upheld by the Supreme Court.

I’m fortunate to live in a time and place where I can be relatively out in my personal and professional life and can live without threat of physical harm or routine verbal assaults. That unfortunately isn’t the case for everyone, and I’ve become aware of quite a few instances of outright homophobia and violence against LGBT people over the last month. For example:

-   A police officer and pastor in Tennessee expressed his vile opinion that LGBT people should be executed by the government.

-   Pastors in Florida organized a “Make America Straight Again” rally where speakers included virulent anti-LGBT positions.

-   A young gay scientist on Twitter reported that his partner had been surrounded and verbally taunted by 5 teenagers in a bathroom in Dallas, Texas.

-   There have been over 10 reported murders of transgender people this calendar year, and transgender people of color have been particularly targeted.

-   There has been a decline in the percentage of young adults comfortable with LGBT people over the last few years.

These instances of homophobia and intolerance are indicative of pervasive discrimination against LGBT people. Marriage equality notwithstanding, we are far from equal treatment of all people regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, either across the US or across the world. Consider that:

-   In the majority of US states, it is still perfectly legal to fire an LGBT person or deny them housing because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

-   There is no federal law to protect LGBT people from discrimination although the US House has recently passed the Equality Act.

-   Although LGBT people comprise only about 4% of the population, FBI statistics from 2017 show that they are the target of over 16% of documented hate crimes in the US.

-   The current US administration has successfully implemented a ban on transgender individuals in the military, reversing recent progress made regarding inclusion in the armed forces.

-   Homosexual activity is illegal in almost half of the nations on Earth, with severe punishments such as death in some cases.

The Stonewall riots 50 years ago in New York occurred because LGBT people had reached a breaking point. I don’t condone violence, but human beings will act in self defense when oppression becomes severe enough. Annual pride celebrations emerged as reminders of the Stonewall riots, and though they have become overridden with commercial opportunism as much as anything recently, they are still a powerful opportunity for LGBT people to gather with allies and celebrate the advances that have been made.

In light of how much anti-LGBT sentiment still exists in the world, perhaps the lesson 50 years after Stonewall is that we can never take progress on civil rights for granted. The US is seeing a resurgence in all manner of regressive attitudes, including racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and political intolerance. To build a prosperous society, we must resist the pull of xenophobia and intolerance, and advocate for a world in which differences are seen as enriching our collective humanity.

The San Francisco Pride parade in 2015, just days after marriage equality was affirmed by the US Supreme Court.

This is why pride

When I was in the closet years ago, I may have sympathized with those who voiced criticism of gay pride celebrations. 'Why do they need to flaunt their sexuality?'. 'I don't care what they do in private, but they don't need to be public about it'. Personally, I kept as quiet as possible about gay issues for the many years I tried to suppress being gay, but these were the dominant kinds of voices I heard growing up. It must have been true - gay people are selfish and perverted. Sadly there are many people that still feel that way. There are even a few, drunk in their own deluding hatred, who believe that gay people are worthy of death.

What is the point of gay pride parades, which usually occur around this time of year? They were born of events at the Stonewall Inn decades ago, where police violently cracked down on a gay club, and LGBT people fought back over the course of several nights. The events at a New York bar helped galvanize the modern gay rights movement and led to the first LGBT pride parades in the country which were held on the first anniversary of the riots.

A different gay club was again in the news in a huge way this weekend. In Orlando Florida, early this morning, a gunman terrorized hundreds of people at Pulse, killing and injuring scores. At this early juncture, motives and details aren't fully known, but it is said to be the greatest mass killing by a gunman in American history. The gunman appears to have had links to the terror group ISIS and was reported to have reacted to the sight of two men kissing several weeks earlier. He may have been specifically seeking out LGBT establishments for the attack.

Terror is often no respecter of persons, indiscriminate in its victims. Sometimes it is directed at specific groups of people like the innocent black parishioners worshiping in a Charleston, South Carolina church. Violence is the extreme end of a spectrum of prejudice and injustice that many minority groups, including LGBT people, have faced for decades.

Only one man pulled the trigger early this morning to inflict horrible violence on dozens of people. But there are others in our society responsible for perpetuating prejudice and misinformation about LGBT people, who enable an environment where even more extreme views or acts can take root. There are some who use language to incite discrimination or even violence. There are a few religious leaders that betray their sacred trust to inspire people and, in their bigotry against LGBT people, ignore the most fundamental precepts of their religion.

Pride is our community's response to oppression. Pride exists for the LGBT community to throw off the crippling burden of shame that society has long wanted us to live with. Pride serves as a reminder that LGBT people are a part of every corner of society - they are teachers, law enforcement, artists, scientists and business leaders. And as I read in an on-line comment earlier today, pride exists to let people in the closet know that they are not alone.

This June I imagine that pride celebrations across the country will feel more muted. There will be sadness that so much progress not-withstanding, there is still much hatred of LGBT people in the world. There will be some mourning that America is not one bit closer to solving her problem with gun violence. There may be a little more fear of a possible attack in the places where gay people meet. But pride also reminds us how far gay rights have progressed, especially over the last decade. It reminds us of the resilience of LGBT people and all they've faced as a community. In the tragedy of Orlando there can be a chance for greater compassion and greater understanding if we are open to that invitation. That can be the flower that grows from the ashes of this tragedy.

San Francisco Pride

Squid hats!

San Francisco was a sea of rainbows on Sunday. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many LGBT people in one place, let alone people period. There were flags on street poles, flags in the parade, flags in the crowd and visible gestures of happy pride from San Francisco businesses. There were even rainbow squid hats!

Over a million people were estimated to have attended the pride festivities this weekend. The parade lasted for some six hours. Civic Center was closed off for blocks and large crowds listened to music on several stages. Most of the day was celebratory and peaceful. Given a gathering of that magnitude (and that it was pride in San Francisco), there were also a few obligatory nude folks (it’s almost never the people one wants to see naked that are the self-appointed exhibitioners, right?), and a few other annoyances like excessive trash on the streets.

Some photos: 

Panorama of parade attendees along Market Street.

Jim Obergefell, who was the lead plaintiff in last week's Supreme Court case.

Civic Center

Many welcome signs.

Steve Grand performing at the main stage at Civic Center.

The Apple contingent in the parade They must have had 5000 marchers. It went on forever.

Happy pride!

Seattle pride

Two weekends, two pride parades. I don’t want to give the impression that I am on some sort of tour; it just happened to be convenient to attend pride in Seattle in coordination with family visits last weekend. My oldest son (10 yrs old) also attended the parade and a breakfast gathering of gay Mormons held before hand. I didn’t do any explaining prior to the parade, but he is a smart kid and must have answered any imperative questions for himself.  I explained that dad is gay earlier in the year. This news he took in stride. At the parade, he seemed most excited to collect the myriad free items tossed into the crowd.

Pride parades evolved in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots that took place in New York 43 years ago. While the riots were a violent assertion of gay frustration and pride, today’s parades are peaceful (if sometimes boisterous and highly suggestive) celebrations with an eclectic mix of corporatism, music, dancing, politics and a lot of color. In my ignorance about almost all things gay for such a long time, I had no knowledge of the events that occurred at Stonewall until very recently. I found this excellent American Experience program on-line and highly recommend it for some historical perspective.

Portland pride

On Sunday, I attended only my second pride event. It was a parade in downtown Portland. And…I not only attended, but marched in the parade as well. My friend Jon (who blogs here) and another person invited me to march with other Latter-day Saints under the auspices of the Mormons for Marriage group. I was hesitant for a while because I consider myself pretty distant from the Church lately, but our group actually ended up being a mix of (probably) mostly straight Mormons in more Church-like dress and some gay (ex)Mormons. I just dressed casually and waved a rainbow flag.

The crowd was generally very welcoming and cheered our group of a few dozen marchers. The cheers were properly for the brave LDS folks supporting us gays, but once in the parade you have to smile and march. There were a variety of expressions from the crowd – a few tears, smiles and, I’m sure, some looks of incredulity. The straight allies who marched in our group really deserve kudos for having the courage to support same-sex marriage publicly, or at least to show their love and support to LGBT people if they personally don’t support gay marriage.

This is a picture of the banner that led our group.

This was one of the best signs by far and received audible comments from the crowd.

Here is a short video I took as we marched (evidently, I am not so good multi-tasking):