In the sixties the police have the right to harass, beat up and jail lesbians and drag queens. These are not wanton acts of violence by rogue cops. The laws of the time clearly state that "sodomy" is a crime. Gay bars stay open by giving free drinks and payoff cash to cops. Our protectors are the mafia.
In the seventies lesbians who are married and have been enlightened and are getting a divorce, face the probable loss of custody of their children on the basis that lesbians are unfit mothers just because they are lesbian. Some lesbians of the time stay married just to be able to keep their children.
In the seventies Harvey Milk is shot to death by a cop turned council member. He is arrested and goes to trial. The infamous Twinkie Defense gets him off thereby igniting a large gay riot in San Francisco. That defense is acceptable in large part because Harvey is gay and Moscone is a gay sympathizer.
In the eighties a man I work with at a women's bar in Oakland is murdered in Concord. When there are large parties at Ollie's, he shows up in a black cocktail waitress skirt, complete with frilly white apron. Our current governor would probably call him a girlie man. This Black Cherokee gay man who survived the Indian reclaiming of Alcatraz is found hanging from a tree in Concord. No one is ever arrested because his death is ruled a suicide. I still cannot imagine how he hangs himself with a backpack strap or how while choking he manages to scream.
Around the turn of the millenium there is a case brought to trial regarding the murder of a young Oakland Bay Area transgendered man/woman. The defense is that the young boys who are involved in doing the fatal beating should be forgiven by the rationale that they are duped and then embarrassed to find out they've been intimate with a man's body. There is still socially acceptable justification for the murderers of gays. The jurors still struggle with the issues because the murder of someone gay is different than the murder of someone who is nongay.
About the same time Arcata high school administration bars Spare Change from doing presentations in part because of the frankness of their presentations about sexuality. There are some including a school board member who loathe the idea that the group also includes intentional information about the "disgusting lifestyle" meaning those disgusting queers. Underscore: this is said in Arcata not just in Myers Flat.
In 2005 locally there is a politician whose sons make sport of harassing two neighboring lesbians. He says of his sons that they are just "boys being boys." There are young queers being disowned by their families or afraid to come out because they still justifiably fear being cast out by their families.
In 2006 there will be scores of teenage lives ended by their own hands because the pressure of being queer in high school is too great. They will be harassed either because they are gay or their parents are. It may even be because of the more benign seeming but pervasive trend among teens to tag anything or anyone odd as being "so gay".
I would like to believe that all this happens in a red state. Truth is the acts of deadly violence and spirit killing happen everywhere, even in the annoyingly self proclaimed "progressive" city of Arcata. The savage cruelties of the persistent loathing of gays is still pervasive.
We have come a long way from the sixties. It is now nearly forty years since the spark that ignited the fire of gay liberation, of our passion for the pursuit of life, liberty, happiness and freedom. We are one nation and queer folk are vital living people of this nation.
In our rush for rights it is important to know that these rights are useful only to the living and those who are murdered will not enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is important to remember those we know and those we will know who are killed because they are gay. May their memory be for a blessing.
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