Posts Tagged ‘pride’

We’re a little bleary-eyed this morning; call it a hangover from the big weekend.

San Jose Pride was a blast — we sent interns from San Francisco to build support and collect postcards in favor of SB 1172 and they did a great job. The rest of the field staff was out in Boyle Heights having Breakthrough Conversations about marriage.

Then we had the Los Angeles Equality Awards (see some photos here) where we got to hang out with folks like Jane Lynch, Jonathan Capeheart and a (shirtless!) Wilson Cruz. Because we’re great big nerds, it was just as much fun to see people like Assemblymember Betsy Butler and State Senator Ted Lieu. Oh, and Dolores Huerta “just happened” to be wearing her Congressional Medal of Freedom.

We’ve got an exciting week ahead of us too, not least because SB 1172 is likely to be voted on sometime in the next few days: A little background here, and Towleroad has some of the opposition, while The Examiner focuses on the precedent that banning this damaging and deceptive so-called “therapy” could have.

Other briefs: San Francisco approves largest LGBT low-income senior housing in America; Madonna speaks out against homophobia in Russia and is sued by nine homophobes, a Nevada hospital reminds us again why domestic partnerships aren’t the same as the freedom to marry, and MetaFilter covers Baltimore’s FemmeCon.

And for fun, a new season of Husbands is up, about an accidentally-married couple of guys determined to make it work.

“It was done as what we called the Annual Reminder Day, on Independence Day, July 4th, to remind the public that there is still a significant minority of Americans who do not benefit from the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Barbara Gittings, founding member of the Daughters of Bilitis.

From 1965 to 1969, the East Coast Homophile Organizations, or ECHO, bussed activists from the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis in to politely protest in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall in favor of equality, opportunity and dignity. The 37 who marched the first day included Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, Kay Tobin, Jack Nichols and Craig Rodwell — all important forces in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality movement.

An ad in the Village Voice on July 3, 1969, read in part: “The demonstration — a lawful, orderly, dignified one — is intended to remind the American public that in its 16,000,000 homosexual citizens, male and female, there is still one large minority of our people who are not benefiting by the high ideals so solemnly proclaimed for all on July 4, 1776.”

Round trip fare was $5.

The Annual Reminder Day was transformed in 1970 — the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) voted to make the annual celebration more relevant in order to reach more people by moving the time and location to commemorate the Stonewall Riots as Christopher Street Liberation Day. In 2005, Philadelphia commemorated the first march with their first LGBT historical marker.

But let today be our annual reminder that despite the amazing advances we have made, there are still millions of Americans, and Californians, who do not enjoy the full dignity, opportunity and equality that we as a nation aspire to.

Video of Barbara Gittings interviewed about the Annual Reminder by Vito Russo

Village Voice ad for bus trip to Annual Reminder

Philadelphia historical marker

Jack Nichols with sign

Pride Pride Pride! We were at SF (scroll down), George Takei was in NY as were couples celebrating their paper anniversary with placards. In Chicago, it was about diversity, Minnesota’s same-sex marriage struggle made theirs about politics (and we’re looking OK so far), and OccuPride crashed SF’s march. Google even hid a Pride easter egg

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the first same-sex civil union was held on a military base, and it looked a lot like a wedding, with an Evangelical Lutheran Chaplain officiating, a couple in formal dress and mothers crying.

Even as anti-equality marriage foes qualify in Maryland, one of the main proponents of our Prop 8 has changed his views. It’s an important piece to read, and one of the things to keep in mind is that we win by increment, not by shock and awe. That David Blankenhorn clings to unwarranted assumptions about the differences between same sex and mixed sex unions shouldn’t overwhelm lines like, “I do believe, with growing numbers of Americans, that the time for denigrating or stigmatizing same-sex relationships is over,” or his references to the “equal dignity of homosexual love,” or “Whatever one’s definition of marriage, legally recognizing gay and lesbian couples and their children is a victory for basic fairness.” It is frustrating that it took Blankenhorn so long to acknowledge something so basic to so many of our lives, but recognize his support of comity and fairness will be more convincing to those still stuck on the other side of the fence than all of the obvious (to us) civil rights arguments we can muster. He also helps us reinforce the message that much of the resistance to equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people does stem from homophobic animus. That he recognizes this may make it easier for those lagging in the moveable middle to accept that as well. As per always, we recommend the excellent Movement Advancement Project series on Talking About LGBT Issues.  Read the rest of this entry »

More than 75 dedicated staffers, interns and volunteers came out to support the work of Equality California during the 2012 Pride festivities in San Francisco.

More than 1,000 signatures were collected in support of SB 1172, a bill that would ban licensed therapists from subjecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth to dangerous and discriminatory sexual orientation change efforts. A great number of volunteers also joined in early Sunday morning as we marched alongside other grassroots organizations in the Pride Parade down Market Street.

A big thank you to everyone who made this weekend possible and to everyone who took the time to talk with an EQCA representative and sign their support! Didn’t get to sign a post card in support of SB 1172 at Pride, send an email to your representative here.