by Larry Wolf

I just don’t get it when people (gay and
lesbian people) tell me that they don’t go to
Gay Pride events because it’s too political
for them. Politics has nothing to do with it.
Gay Pride is a chance to surround yourself
with a positive community without having
to go to a ghetto. It allows you to enjoy the
opportunity to presume, if only for the day,
that all the people you meet are supportive
of who you are.

I thank Queer Nation for daring to
presume that we can be ourselves — any day,
anywhere — and organizing kiss-ins at
shopping malls where couples kiss in pub-
lie, or invading straight bars, or otherwise
acting like we really do have all the social
rights of heterosexuals. By being on the
edge, they help move the middle ground for
all of us.

It’s not just the radical fringe or those
with nothing to lose who can share in this.
Many of us ordinary folk have experienced
the same thing. It happened in Washington,
DC in 1987 all Columbus Day Weekend,
when half a million gays, lesbians, and our
supporters arrived (as many people as live
in all of Verrnontl).

Riding on the Washington DC Metro
you could presume that the woman across
from you was lesbian, that the man was gay,

Fine
Interior
Finishing
pointing/staining
goster patching

DING

old/new construction
exterior finishing

I I O O I

SANDRA ADAMS
1-802-482-31 15

The Right to Presume

and best of all, be correct! It was wonderful
when the couples standing in front of the
Lincoln Memorial having their pictures
taken were all same-sex couples. It was al-
most inconceivable that you could walk
down the Mall holding hands with your
lover and be cheered rather than jeered.

It happens, to a lesser extent, every
year on Pride Day in June (different days in
different cities so that you can go to more
than one). What’s so powerful about the
experience is not that it’s sexual, but that
suddenly the entire world appears to have
gone gay, just like you and me.

It also happens here in Vermont. Last
year in Montpelier it poured all morning;
the roads turned to rivers, yet several
hundred people paraded through the
streets. People showed up not with their
picnic baskets, but with hot pink umbrellas
and waterproof boom-boxes to cavort
through the streets. Onlookers waved from
the stopped cars. Everyone was smiling.
We must have looked ridiculous out there
in the rain.

Later (after the sun had come out and
dried up all the rain), sitting in a cafe with
friends, you could share a knowing grin of
recognition when others came in to cat.
That night you could see Longtime
Companion at the Savoy, the movie house
filled with more of those faces — people
who knew when to laugh and when to cry.

Contrast that with our more usual
experiences. Last weekend, my partner
Craig dared to wearaT-shirt with the words

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL

June 1991

 

“Safe Sex” on it. He became a lighming rod
for hatred, attracting verbal abuse from a
couple of preppy jocks out for Spring Fling.
They shouted, “I don’t care what they say,
you’re still a freak!”

Sunday afternoon, walking down
Church Street (remember how beautiful
Mother’s Day was? Warm. Sunny. Who
could feel anything but love for his or her
fellow human beings?), there was more
abuse, this time from three black men.

It makes me blind with rage that while
people of color are occupying the office of
the President of UVM (including gay
people of color — or has everyone forgotten
that last year a black man was rejected by a
fraternity for being gay) and insisting that
the university provide more cultural diver-
sity in its academic and social programs,
members of our community continue to be
harrassed.

Burlington is not often a safe place for
gay people. But for one day it will be, at
least when we celebrate the twenty-second
anniversary of the Stonewall riots, when
the drag queens who turned on the cops
because there’d been one too many raids on
a gay bar started the modern gay move-
ment.

Pride Day is not just a chance to pick
up someone new or to bump into an old
friend, but a chance to be open about your
sexual orientation and rewarded for that
openness.

Come and join the party. The good
feelings may help you get through the year.

Partners in Recovery and Growth Inc., Therapists

Erica Marks, S.A.C., A.C.H., Director
Giita Clark, Associate
ii Sherry Hunt, B.A., A.C.H., Associate

Sexuality, Substance Abuse, Spirituality, Parenting, Gestalt, T.A.,
Hypnosis, Individuals, Couples, Families, Groups

182 Main St.
Burlington, VT 05401
Sliding fee scale ‘Phone: 865-2403

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

21