For every movement there is an antecedent. People think that the gay rights movement just spontaneously ignited the night of the Stonewall riots. There were people who were pushing for their rights waaaay before that.
Magnus Hirschfeld, for instance, who was a doctor and psychologist in pre-30's Berlin and died under the Hitler regime. The incredibly gifted Christopher Isherwood, whose books influenced me, especially the autobiographies, and who led an amazing life. The poet W. H. Auden. Even Walt Whitman in a way. They and so many others were influential, and knew EVERYONE who was anyone. They built a foundation for what came later.
In America, there was Harry Hay, who formed the Mattachine Society to better conditions for gays in the US. One of his members and an activist all his life was Frank Kameny. Mr. Kameny just passed on at age 86.
In MY corner of the world, when I was a kid and teen and young adult, the local rag and the only daily 'newpaper' in the state, vilified the Mattachine S0ciety as a bunch of pedophiles. (It's always the easiest thing to do, isn't it?) They weren't. They fought for equality. They said, 'this isn't right.' And they fought.
If you were to ask any young gay or lesbian person today, they would tell you the gay rights movement came about like... oh god, brain fart... some god springing out of Jupiter or Zeus' head. Or cite Harvey Milk, who was assassinated, and I don't even want to get INTO the Twinkie defense, that absolute low-life Dan White.
People laid the groundwork. People were jailed. People were killed for what they believed was right. People suffered and were still able to fight.
And THAT, my Precioussessssss... is what is needed now in a very different context. Vote next time. Examine your conscience. It won't be about gay rights. It will be about your reproductive rights, and many other things.
Rachel gave a fitting tribute to Mr. Kameny. It's to the point.
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Am not sure, but I think when I embed these there are commercials from Mobil Exxon and Goldman Sachs first, which drive me totally crazy.
Especially Mobil Exxon, and that pock-marked Eric Oswald and his 'reassuring' message on fracking... (all praise HD) and saying it is so safe, well, I usually yell 'Tell THAT to the people who can take a Bic and light their tap water on fire, you git!' But that's just me... Everything has a price, doesn't it...
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