Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    Re .0, I'm afraid I have to admit that Stonewall doesn't ring a
    bell.  What was it?  
    
    Lorna
    

    I was going with a friend.  She was going with a relative.  He was
    going with a friend.  My walking shoes are frantic!
    
    If there is a =wn= group, it would be great.
    
    As "you know who" always says, "Strength in Unity". 
    
    M   

    Well, I'm in for this one too.
    
    "Stonewall", Lorna, refers to the "Stonewall Riots", which occurred in
    Greenwich Village in, um, let's see, 20 years ago is, ah...1969? They
    were called that because they started at the Stonewall (Bar?) by some
    gay men who finally decided that they'd been rousted by the cops one
    time too often.  They fought back and I guess there was hell to pay for
    about three days.
    
    (I hope I haven't made too much hash of this explanation.  Somebody
    help me out?)
    
    						=maggie 

    
    
    I thought Pride Day was June 10?
    
    
    
    --nancy
    

MAJOR CORRECTION!! MAJOR CORRECTION!! MAJOR CORRECTION!! MAJOR CORRECTION!!!

			Boston Gay Pride is 

		      **** JUNE 10, 1989 ****, 

		NOT June 18th as previously reported.  

It's a Saturday.  Assembly is usually at City Hall, around noontime, but
specific details will follow.

Sincere apologies.

RE: Loran and Stonewall... 

Sit back, my dear, and I will tell you a wonderful story!

	It is 1969.  Men are wearing their hair long, women, their skirts short.Our involvement in the war in Vietnam had secretly spilled over into Cambodia.
Dan Quayle, at 21, has just entered the National Guard, while thousands of men
flee to Canada and thousands others die in the jungle.  In Washington, Nixon
is president.  In New York City, Lindsey is mayor.
	It is the third weekend in June.  New York is hot and muggy, and 
people's tempers are short.  Those with money or friends or priviledge have
already fleed to the Hamptons or the Birkshires or Fire Island.  In Greenwich
Village, all who are left are those who can't leave.
	The Village had been gay for time immemorial.  No one, in 1969, could
remember when it had first been known as an enclave.  But now, in the summer,
Christopher Street (the heart of the Village) was full with society's parriahs:
drag queens, street queens, kids on dope, kids on smack, men looking for their
lives, and men looking for that which only the village, the bathrooms in the
Museaum of Natural History, and secretly zoned selections of Central Park may
offer.
	Uptown, Lindsey is fulfilling a campaign pledge.  He was a liberal
mayor, and had had difficulty with his reelection the previous year.  Like
so many before him, he talked of "cleaning up the city".  The electorate took
him at his word, and voted him into office.  Now he was making plans to 
shore up his record with the poliece department.  
	Most people, in the summer of 1969, think Lindsey is a good man, who
occaisionally has to do what politicians in large urban centers have to do.
So when he ordered the raid on the Stonewall Inn, no one expected anything
out of the ordinary.  Politicians had been ordering raids on the bars on 
Christopher Street for years.  Then, at election time, they could point to
their records as 'Law and Order' candidates.  This is how politics is played
in New York in 1969.
	In the past, the raids had all been rather mundane.  The police would
arrive at a bar on Christopher Street with a paddy wagon, enter a bar, and
arrest the owner and employees.  Each of the patrons would be asked for
identification.  If they showed an ID, their names would be recorded.  If they
didn't, they were arrested.  The next day, the names of those who had avoided
arrest by showing their ID's would be published in the news.  There, under
the headline, COPS RAID HOMOSEXUAL HAUNT IN VILLAGE would be the names of
lawyers, clerks, construction workers and secretaries, all of whom would
strangely loose their jobs in the ensuing weeks for "poor performance."
	But something *is* different this time.  Last week, there had been
a raid on a bar in the village.  A man who had refused to give identification
had been arrested and brought to the poliece station.  There, subject to
the jeers and taunts of the NYCPD, knowing that his employer, his family,
his friends would all eventually find out *why* he had been arrested, he was
overcome with grief and shame.  He jumped from a second story window, landing
on the spike of a rod iron fence, impaling himself.  He later died.
	And now, something is *different*.  There is an air of anger and 
rebellion forming.  People in the village are beginning to say he was pushed.
Not by the hand of a cop, mind you, but by the hand of society.  Our great
country pushed that poor man out the window to his death.  
	Now he was not the first.  Gay men had been committing suicide since
there had been gay men.  But still, something was *new* in the Village.  In
the times that had brought us civil rights and women's rights, the men of the
Village were beginning to think it was time for *their* rights too.  No more
would they jump to their deaths silently and alone.  If they were going to
die, they were becoming ready to pull their assailants down with them.
	In this environment of anger and frustration and violence, the poliece
drove their paddy wagon up to the entrance of the Stonewall Inn.
	The Stonewall was a seedy dive.  Mostly known as a street bar, it was
populated mostly by drag queens and street people.  All gay, all 
disenfranchised.  It was drab and dark, and a wholly unspectacular splotch on
the face of the earth.  Until, of course, that night when the poliece arrived.
	No one knows how it happened.  There was confusion and pushing and
glass breaking.  There was shouting and a great deal of activity all in the
space of a very short time.  No one could see the importance of the event, at
the time, no one could fortell the impact it would have on later generations.
All these men knew then was that they had had enough, they had nothing left
to loose.  And in the space of five minutes, the learned how to say, "NO!"
	No, I won't go quietly.
	No, I won't give you my name.
	No, I won't leave this bar.
	No, I won't allow you to use me as a pawn in the workings of the city
government uptown.
	No, I won't accept the status of victom.
	No one knows how it happened, but a riot broke out.  Within five 
minutes, the police, those fierce men in blue with the riot sticks and guns
and badges and the *approval* of the society at large behind them were 
barricading themselves *inside* the Stonewall Inn desperately calling for
reinforcements while outside, the patrons of the bar and the thousands of 
people who began gathering on the street were jeering and taunting and 
threatening them.  Someone shouted to burn the place down.  A trash can flew
through the window into the bar.  Someone shouted to kill them.  The crowd
cheered...
	When the reinforcements came, the crowd dispersed.  It had grown to
an enormous size by then, and throughout the night people met in Washington
Square, at the Path dock, in the East Village to talk about what had happened.
Electricity seized the Village.  For the entire weekend, there were small
riots whenever and where ever the police dared show up.
	The Gay Liberation Movement had been born.  Gay men had learned how
to say, "We are people, and we are worthy, and we have rights, and *we* *will*
*not* *allow* *ourselves* *to* *be* *victoms* *any* *longer*!

	That, my dear, is why the Gay Pride march is held on the third
Saturday of every June.  It is a celebration of the Stonewall Riots.  It is
a celebration of the first of us (drag queens, mind you!) who said,
	
	"I am what I am
	I don't need praise,
	I don't need pity.
	I bang my own drum
	Some call it noise,
	I call it pretty.
	And so what if I love each bauble and each bangle,
	Why not try to see things from a different angle?
	Your life is a sham
	'Till you can shout out,
	'I am what I am!'

	I am what I am
	And what I am
	Needs no excuses.
	I deal my own deck,
	Sometimes the ace
	Sometimes the duces.
	You've one life
	And there's no return and no deposit.
	One life!
	So it's time to open up that closet!
	Life's not worth a damn,
	'Till you can say, 'hay, world,
	I am what I am!'"

		- La Cage Aux Folles

    That should get people's blood moving!
    
    						=maggie

    WOW! Interesting story. Interestingly written. Thanks Gale.
    
    1) Will there be speakers? If so, who?
    
    2) Who is sponsoring this?
    
    3) Is this really political? I mean are gay issues going to come
    up like the "gay rights bill" and AIDS<---I know it effects many
    others.
                     
    4) Is it merely social?
    
    In other words, what do the gay/lesbian community hope to gain by
    this march? To use an accounting term- where is the value added?
    
    Thanks for tolerating my naivity (sp)
    
    Kate
    
    

some answers to 557.8:
    
    1) Will there be speakers? If so, who?

	Yes, there will be speeches on Boston Common, performers, etc.
	I don't know who is lined up for this year.
    
    2) Who is sponsoring this?

	No one in particular, although there is a Pride Committee that is 
	responsible for organizing it.  There are periodic fundraisers, 
	various gay orgs and businesses especially contribute, and 
	pretty much anyone the Pride folks can put an arm on.
	For the last two years, Digital	has been one of the sponsors.

    3) Is this really political? I mean are gay issues going to come
    up like the "gay rights bill" and AIDS<---I know it effects many
    others.

	It is a Gay Pride celebration, so it is not political in the 
	strictest sense, although being gay in public is a political act in our 
	society.  There will be political groups there, some like ACT UP 
	more dramatic than others, and some of the speakers will be quite 
	political.  Mostly it is a chance for the gay & lesbian community to be 
	itself in all its diversity -- the dykes on bykes will shine up their 
	chrome and oil their black leather, the drag queens will all have
	special new outfits for the occasion, there will be marching bands and
	lesbian scientists and radical faeries and gay Republicans and the 
	AIDS Action Committee and ACT UP and ACT OUT and nine zillion
	gay and lesbian neighborhood associations and on and on and on... 
                     
    4) Is it merely social?

	It's one of the gay high holidays! And how could 50,000 gay,
	lesbian, and bisexual people in one place be *merely* social?

    Kate, I think there is a very political message in this Gay Pride
    march.  At least, from my point of view.  And as a strate, supporting
    in public as well as private those I have come to know within the
    gay community, I am making a very political statement by being in
    this march.
    
    And what I am saying is this:  I demand that my local, state and
    federal government officials treat every American the same.  That
    they enforce all laws equally; that one's sexual preferences has
    no more importance than the color of one's eyes in the Eye of the
    Law. 

    By showing support for the gay community and our gay friends and
    family members, we are very definitely giving our government officials
    a message.  And the more strates that write letters of protest whenever
    they see/read or know of rights abuses, and the more publicly
    supportive they find us, it is to be fervently hoped that they will
    pass every Gay Rights legislation that is being pushed.  
    
    AND THE ERA, for heavens sake!  
    
    M
    

    <--(.10)  *WELL* said, Marilyn!

    
    Pride is many things. It is a celebration of our being who we are.
    
    In terms of being there, it is a political statement and a strong one
    at that. We are there and we are out in large numbers. We are not an
    abstract, slightly visible minority, we become an undeniable reality.
    
    Its an affirmation that we are a community to ourselves and to the
    strate community. Count me in.
    
    
    Renee
    

The plans so far:

There will be folks in Digital T-shirts hanging around the Government 
Center T-stop (Blue/Green line) to direct folks to wherever it is that 
the Digital contingent will be assembling, from about 11:00 onward.  
The march itself starts at 12:00 noon from City Hall Plaza to the Boston 
Common.  It is highly recommended that you take the subway to get to 
City Hall, as parking is expensive and difficult.

There will be a Digital banner (lavender and pink, "Digital Values All 
Its Employees"), the Womannotes banner, and at least one more banner.


Subway directions:

From Alewife (located on Rt 2 in Cambridge):

Take the Red Line to Park Station.  Change to the Green Line (headed 
towards Lechmere) and get off at Government Center.

From Riverside (near route 9 in Newton):

Green Line inbound all the way to Government Center.

From Malden Center (on Route 60):

Orange Line inbound to Haymarket.  You can get off here and walk to City 
Hall very easily (there are signs).  Alternatively, take Orange Line to
State, change to Blue Line and get off at Government Center. 

All of these stations have parking for commuters. 

    At the From All Walks last week, I noticed stickers all over the place
    saying "The first Gay Pride was a RIOT!" with the O in "riot" being
    formed of a pair of handcuffs.  Considering that Pride dates from the
    Stonewall Riots, I thought the pun hysterically funny and that it would
    make a swell conference notice to point up the event.  
    
    
    
    I hope we can field a good turnout in support of our lesbian sisters
    and gay brothers tomorrow; it's scary to do something like marching
    because of all the homophobia lurking in the weeds and the high social
    price still attached to being labelled "queer" even by mistake, but as
    we learned--I hope!--from the civil rights and anti-war marches of the
    60s, we have to pay our dues if we want a world in which we're all free
    to be our harmless selves.  
    
    Come march with us?
    
                       				=maggie
             

latest info:

Registration of groups and such will begin at 10:00 at City Hall Plaza.  
Entertainment, speeches, etc. will begin at 10:30.  March gets off at 12:00.

There will be someone in a Digital T-shirt near the Government Center 
T-stop to help folks find their way.  According to the Pride Guide that 
came out last night, "professional groups", which is where the Digital 
contingent will be most likely (rather that than "Businesses and Bars"
I think), will be mustering at two possible locations in the parade 
order ("F" and "I").  Both are more or less on the side of City Hall
Plaza near the JFK building.  The =womannotes= banner will be unfurled
there as visibly as possible, along with other Digital banners. 

    The march and rally afterward were great!  The weather actually
    cooperated after an unpromising start, and all went well.  
    
    Our banner now has another set of commemorative ribbons, and I'm told
    will be carried again next saturday at New Hampshire Pride (at which
    DEC's own Barbara Walker will be a speaker on valuing differences,
    btw).
    
    						=maggie
    
    (Oh, and oor Marilyn now has a great story to tell about seeing someone
    she knows from another context!)                                                   
    

=maggie,

The -wm- banner is starting to get heavy from all those ribbons! ;-)

It's great to see all the -wm- at the marches, especially the ones at
every march.  It was a wonderful and festive march and the Digital
contingent got great applause the whole way!  I wonder if they are
customers or what?  I heard more than a few folks ask if they could
come work for us.  And we made the front page of the Globe yesterday
in a list of groups marching.

john

        I  had  the honor of addressing the rally on the Commons after
        the  parade.  I had some of my =wn= friends provide me feedback
        on the speech as I was writing and revising. This helped me  to
        deliver a more inclusive speech. 

        It  was  einligteing to rediscover my love for public speaking.
        And yes, I am interested in politics. :-) 

        Thanks to those of you who helped me out..

        							Roger


        	I am Roger Carter with Katheryn , member of the Lesbian
        and Gay Council of the Rainbow Coalition. As we peer over the
        myriad of familiar faces, it is with great PRIDE that I
        celebrate with my gay brothers and sisters the strides we have
        made towards our common goals of gay liberation and equality for
        all.

        	We know that gays,lesbians,bisexuals and transpersons
        exist everywhere and in all facets of life. Tens of thousand
        plus strong, we have done a fine job of showing our strength and
        unity. Our community has shown that we have the fortitude to 
        see one another through some rough times. We have risen to the
        occasion when AIDS and repressive political measures that
        followed it threatened our community. While our President sat by
        unresponsive and ignorant, we bonded together, lesbian, gay man,
        bisexual, strate, African-American, white,  red, old, young,
        pink collar, blue collar, white collar. Collectively, we have
        demanded more humane research, faster drug trials, more
        education, better health care. And in doing so we aided not only
        ourselves but many other communities that would have been
        helplessly crippled had we passively accepted the President's
        passive stance.


        	With this compassion and rage, we marched on Washington
        to combat AIDS and fight for our Civil Rights. We marched there
        again with hundreds of thousands this Spring to eradicate
        sexism, misogyny and homophobia, and to defend women's control
        over their own bodies. As we have affirmed our lesbian and gay
        pride, we have celebrated diversity. Ours is one of the more
        sensitive, diverse and inclusive of all communities. And amidst
        this diversity we  are challenged to confront the less rosy
        realities of life.



        	There are an awful lot of gays and lesbians and
        bisexuals who just aren't here today. The average Latino,
        African-American  male under thirty in this crowd is probably
        middle-class and college educated. The average Latino,
        African-American under thirty in the country at large is not
        only not middle class, but confronts a possibility of death at
        an early age three times greater than his white counterparts.
        Seventy gay men and lesbians were murdered last year in anti-gay
        attacks in this country. How many more members of our community
        died in urban communities stripped of economic resources,
        political support and hope? What percentage of the growing
        number of women in poverty are lesbians, including those raising
        children?

        	Racism, poverty, homelessness, inadequate health care,
        sexism, ageism, misogyny, reproductive freedom, Apartheid,
        inaccessibility for the differently abled are all gay, lesbian
        and bisexual issues because they are all contributing factors to
        the oppression of people everywhere. And there are gays and
        lesbians who remain invisible still, not just to society at
        large, but in our daily lives, our political organizations and
        our social groups. There are Blacks, Latinos, Asians and other
        people of color here today, but no where near the number that
        would be truly representative of our prevalence within the
        lesbian and gay community. We can never consider ourselves truly
        free until all of our brothers and sisters are free to rejoice
        with us (if they so choose.). NO matter how many civil rights
        bills are passed -- and we fight to pass the Massachusetts Gay
        Rights Bill-- we won't really have equality until we have it
        amongst ourselves.

*******************************************************************************

        	Six years ago, the Rainbow Coalition was born right here
        in Boston. Lesbians and gay men joined tens of thousands of
        Bostons in affirming dignity and access for all in a campaign to
        elect Mel King Mayor. That campaign brought people together from
        every neighborhood in the city. A vibrant Lesbian and Gay
        committee campaigned throughout the Boston area. Boston's
        Rainbow coalition captured the imagination of people across the
        country who had been locked out. And after a visit to Boston,
        the Reverend Jesse Jackson took the Rainbow Coalition national.

        	Last year, as you know, seven million voters got behind
        the Rainbow Coalition's program of social and economic justice
        and hope. On the podium of the Democratic National convention,
        Jesse Jackson called for equal rights for lesbian and gay men,
        and people who are HIV positive. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts
        governor continued to do all he could to strike our issues from
        the platform. The Gay/Lesbian council of the Rainbow coalition,
        here in Boston, and across the country has demanded that
        leadership earn support of our community, not be default but
        rather, through being accountable to the needs and vision of the
        diverse lesbian and gay community. What good is it that
        politicians say they will support a gay and lesbian civil rights
        bill when they can't even utter the words in public gay,
        lesbian, bisexual or people living with AIDS?

        	The Lesbian and Gay council of the Rainbow coalition
        invites you to join us in strengthening our voice and
        heightening the awareness of gay, lesbian and bisexual issues as
        we continue to work to end the triple oppression of homophobia
        and racism and sexism. At 4:00 today, we would like every one of
        you to come to the annual city-wide meeting of the Rainbow
        Coalition where the coming year's agenda will be set. The
        meeting begins at 4:00 pm at the Roxbury Community College.
        Before partying tonight, put your Pride to work. This coming
        year, let's win the gay rights bill, overturn the bigoted foster
        car policy and establish and anti-racist response to AIDS.

    Indeed, what a great day it was!!!! Whilst amoung the many paraders
    there was a lot of literature distributed about other important
    events and protests taking place. 
    
    The Aids Coalition To Unleash Power - ACT UP is sponsoring a 
    protest in Westboro MA. on Thursday June 15 from 4-6PM at 
    ASTRA Pharmaceuticals on Otis St. ASTRA has refused to
    market a potential life saving & site saving AIDS treatment 
    called Sarsconan (spelling?). I think it's caught up in the
    FDA approval thing and ASTRA has refussed to even market it
    as an experimental treatment and allowing victims a choice.
    I'll be there and for more information contact ACT UP 
    @617-492-2887.
               
    The other event was the grand re-opening week end of Club West 
    (gay bar & great resturant) here in Marlboro Mass. Thursday June 15 
    - Hot Male Dancers, Friday June 16 - Beach Party, Saturday June 17 - 
    Prom Night and Sunday June 18 - "WOMENS NIGHT" Wendy Soble in concert 
    at 6PM (no cover).  
    
    Directions: Take the RT 20 east Exit off Rt 495 go down
    Main St. approx 2 mile and at the intersection where the Police
    Station is, at the lights there take a right and it's the gray
    contemporay immediatly on the left. For more info call the 
    club @481-3400.
               
    to another busy week, 
    
    Deborah
    

    
    The pride rally in Concord, NH last Friday made the front page of
    the Concord Monitor.
    
    If anyone would like a copy of the article, forward your mailstop
    and I'll send a copy to you.
    
    
    						-nancy