Flowers for Sa F   isco:

one person’s gesture of support became,aniinteri1ationa§ movement

BY NoéL LYNNE FIGART

e marriages in San Francisco have
I taken all of our attention over the
past couple of months: the legal
aspects, the political infighting, the media
reaction, the popular voice, the flowers.
Yes, the flowers. It started in
Minnesota. Greg Scanlan and Timothy
Holtz of Minneapolis were discussing the
marriages in San Francisco, and Holtz com-
mented that he would really love to show
his support. Scanlan said, Well, you can.
always send flowers.
The idea spread, as ideas often do,

across the Internet. Scanlan and Holtz
emailed friends andfamily to encourage
them to follow suit. In a LiveJournal
(www.livejoumal.com) forum Mary
VanLaecken posted what her co-workers
were doing, and asked that people spread
the word. Wouldn t that be cool,

, VanLaecken said, if people from all over

the country - "gay, straight and otherwise,
started sending flowers to the people wait-
ing in line to get married?

' Suddenly orders flooded a San
Francisco flower shop that sported a rain-

bow flag on its website. As the orders piled
up, other gay-friendly flower shops were
called and brought intothe business of giv-
ing out flowers to the newlywed couples.

This is a brilliant idea, said
Darren Barefoot, a technical writer from
Vancouver, BC, but I immediately recog-
nized a problem. The flower shops appar-
ently charge about U.S. $45 to deliver these
flowers. That s probably market value, but
it s a bit steep for individuals who might
want to help out (particularly if they re
paying in Canadian dollars or other weaker
currencies) but cant spare fifty bucks.
' Barefoot then proceeded to create
a fund that sought donations for the pur-

. chase and delivery of flowers to the cou-

ples waiting in line to be married. As of
mid-March, when the marriages were halt-
ed by a California court, the fund had col-
lected and distributed over $14,000 dollars.
Eleanor Lang, a resident of New
York, heard of the campaign and decided
that instead of buying a new raincoat, she
would send flowers. Unexpectedly, she .
received a thank you note a few days later.
It was so great, Lang said. I got‘ a letter
with a return address I did not recognize,
and it turned out to be a thank you note

from a newlywed couple. The couple had
been standing in the rain for three hours
when they received the flowers, then had to
wait another eight before it was their turn
to be married. They told Lang that the
flowers gave them a lot of support during
that time. Two pictures accompanied the
thank you note - one of the couple standing
in the rain, and another of the newlyweds
in their dresses.

They were just beautiful, Lang
said. They didn t look like they had been
standing in the rain for all that time. Lang
found herself in tears upon reading the let-
ter. But the funny part, shesaid, Was
when my 15 year old found me. She said,

What s with you? I handed her the letter
and afier reading it, she also cried.

It wasn t only residents of urban
liberal areas that got into the act. Messages
came from North Carolina, Georgia, and
the Midwest. As reported on Sfgate.com,
one couple received this message: I m an
87-year-old grandmother wishing you
well.

Because of the overwhelming
workload, many San Francisco natives vol-
unteered to help with the deliveries. Josh
Jasper, a bi activist living in San Francisco,

 

helped with the flower delivery. Instead,gf'
going -to a high-end florist,» he wer'_it'to3 
flower wholesaler and brought ‘seivera-1 _ pu.
quets to be handed out. I I e '
It was amazing._ The Civic Center
_is titanic and the line stretched around
building. There were families, people
dressed in anime-style clothing, some in
drag, some in fancy dress. But most people
were dressed conservatively, like people
would for a wedding. They seemed to be
dressed in whatever they could find quick-

ly.

 

Jasper commented that protesters
were gathered in one comer to keep them
from milling around among the people in
line and creating a disruption, though, you
could still hear them scream obscenities.

Flowers weren t the only thing
being handed out. Many of Jasper s family.
and friends helped pass out coffee and tea
from a local company.

I felt like I _was witnessing histo-
ry, Jasper said. I wish people would look
at the faces of the people getting married
and see them as individuals. I wish they

"would just talk to them one on one and
hear their stories. V i I

No I F igart lives and writes in Fairlee. She
can be reached at n0el@pentide.com.

Information Please: New England Queer Resource Guide Online

. new electronic guide to glbt
resources and organizations
in northern New England is

now available online. This is the
third edition of the guide, collected
and compiled by Rainbow
Resources of NH, Inc. and the Gay
Info Line of New Hampshire, but
the first directory to be published .
exclusively on the intemet as an

Just under 600 organiza-
tions, agencies and businesses are
listed in this directory with electron-
ic, phone and mail contact informa-

tion plus a 50-word description for _

each entry. The Lifeline PDF guides
are available for free download to
anyone or any organization that
requests them. Hard copies of the
directory are available for $10 to
cover printing and shipping costs.

. Rainbow Resources of

NH, Inc is a nonprofit organization
founded to provide free access to
current information for and about
the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-
gender community of New
Hampshire. Any business, organiza-
tion or group in NH, VT, ME, and
northern MA can be listed in future

editions of the Lifeline at no charge.

The information is organ-

ized into 41 categories, from social
to support groups, from‘spiritual
groups and churches to publications
and event organizers, from bars and
restaurants to therapists, from real
estate services to civil rights advo-
cates, from domestic and sexual vio-
lence agencies to gift and retail
stores, among others. Within each
category resources are listed by
state, town and then listed alphabeti-

cally by name.

OITM participated in col-
lecting information and distributing
copies of the second edition of the
guide in 1998.

For further information go
to the Rainbow Resources site at , .
www.rainbowresources-nh.org, reply
to this email, or write them at 26
South Main St, Box 181, Concord,
NH 03301. V

Adobe PDF document.

 
   
   

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