pseudorandom thoughts from duane williams

Jul 05 2009 ∞
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To the Editor:

The 40th anniversary of gay young people fighting back against the police at the Stonewall bar is something worth celebrating. And next year’s 60th anniversary of the gay civil rights movement will be worth celebrating, too — despite the persistent myth, often repeated in the pages of The New York Times, that it all began at Stonewall. It didn’t.

The gay civil rights movement was founded in 1950 in Los Angeles by eight men who had the crazy idea (certainly crazy in 1950) that gay people deserved to live free from vilification and discrimination. Stating that it began at Stonewall would be akin to saying the black civil rights movement began with Rosa Parks’s refusing to give up her seat.

Both of these brave and inspiring key moments in history are important, potent symbols, even pivotal — the start of something, but certainly not the birth of the movements they helped to energize.

Eric Marcus
New York, June 28, 2009 

The writer is the author of “Making Gay History,” a history of the gay civil rights movement.
— Letters - Gays Left Waiting and Wondering - NYTimes.com
Jun 29 2009 ∞

Texas gay community outraged at nightclub raid (Stonewall déjà vu)

Early Sunday morning, on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Fort Worth police, accompanied by agents of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, raided the Rainbow Lounge, a newly-opened gay club in Fort Worth.

Jun 28 2009 ∞

40 Years Later, Still Second-Class Americans

“Gay Americans aren’t just another political special interest group. They are Americans who are actively discriminated against by federal laws.” - Frank Rich

“There’s a perception in Washington that you can throw little bits of partial equality to gay people and that gay people will be satisfied with that,” said Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter who won an Oscar for “Milk,” last year’s movie about Harvey Milk, the pioneering gay civil rights politician of the 1970s. Such “crumbs,” Black added, cannot substitute for “full and equal rights in all matters of civil law in all 50 states.”

Jun 17 2009 ∞

National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs: Report on Anti-LGBT Violence Available

“The total number of victims reporting anti-LGBT violence to NCAVP in 2008 was 2,424 which represent a 2% increase over the total number of victims reported in 2007 and a 26% increase over a two year period. Known anti-LGBT murders rose 28% from 2007 to 2008 and are at the highest level since 1999.”

Jun 14 2009 ∞

The Other Side of Justice

In this article, Harvard constitutional scholar Laurence H. Tribe explains why he would like the ninth circuit court to dismiss the Smelt v. United States lawsuit challenging DOMA.  In brief, he thinks it’s likely to fail and also that there’s a stronger challenge being brought by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders in a federal district court in Massachusetts.

+ ∞

Adam Lambert Interview on 20/20 (via GlambertsUnited)

Adam tells 20/20 that he’s gay, which was already pretty well known, and, at the end of the interview, that he’s “bi curious.”  Is that the truth or just a ploy to keep women buying his songs.

Jun 09 2009 ∞

Prop 8 is Gay (via RNSOL)

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The Liberation of Adam Lambert : Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily

“I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader,” says Adam Lambert. Did anyone ask him to be a civil rights leader? On the other hand, being a singer doesn’t preclude him from having and occasionally expressing his views on civil rights.  The cover photographer for this issue of RS is weird. Why would he think it necessary to include a green snake?

Jun 05 2009 ∞

Knowing someone gay improves attitudes towards gay people

“The Gallup Poll data … show conclusively that many views toward gay and lesbian issues are related — in some instances, strongly so — to personal experience with individuals who are gay or lesbian. There are two plausible explanations for this relationship. One is that exposure to gays and lesbians leads to greater acceptance, regardless of one’s ideological leanings. The second is that people who are more accepting of gays and lesbians are more likely to put themselves into situations in which they are exposed to gays and lesbians — in terms of cities and regions of residence, as well as workplace and social choices. Both of these processes are at work, though it is difficult to say which is more important.”

Jun 04 2009 ∞

Failure of Democracy

At the Cultural Diplomacy Press Symposium held in Bass Hall in Fort Worth this morning there were comments about democracy in music.  A music critic from CA who was in the audience spoke up to say that democracy can lead to bad decisions when there is widespread ignorance.  He used as his example the voter approval of Prop 8 in CA.  He mentioned that he and his male partner have been married twice in CA.

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