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by Byron McCrae .

I started GLBT Pride l997 with a fashion crisis. I
had about 10 minutes to get to the Dyke March in front
of City Hall, but could not find my wire rimmed
sunglasses. Dare 1 search and be late‘? Well, at l0: 14 I
arrived at City Hall with my metallic green sunglasses.
The Dyke March, like most of the day’s activities, was
running a little behind schedule.

The actual marching started at 10:24. I learned
quickly, though, that the story wasn't with the marchers
as much as it was with a group of teenagers watching
closeby. One of the fold ran over t() her three friends
hanging out on a bench next to me, she was excited that
she had donated a dollar to the march. Her boyfriend
wondered aloud what their parents would think.

When the Trans Truck started up with Annie Lennox
and the dykes started whistling and hooting their way up
Church Street, another one of the girls turned defiant.
“I’m not following this,” she said, angrily chewing a straw.

But as the parade made it’s way up Church Street, so
did the teens. They followed the parade, allbeit at a
distance until the Trans Truck stopped. The marching
dykes continued, and the teens stood and watched, our
would-be dyke seemingly transfixed by the spectacle.

“Did she put her ann around you‘!,” she asked her
friend who had donated a dollar to the Dyke March permit
fund. Her friend then gleefully recounted her close
encounter with lesbianism. The Trans Truck and the
parade crossed Bank Street and the teens finally turned
away.

The Pride Report

By the time the Dyke March crossed onto Pearl Street,
the Trans Truck was belting Neneh Cherry. A large man
with a walkie-talkie came running out of the Post Office.
With a big smile, he reported to the person on the other
end of the walkie-talkie about what was going on. When
the March has finally gone down the road a ways, he
bent over with laughter and slapped his knee. Spotting
me across the street, be pleasantly waved as I scribbled
all that had just transpired onto my pad.

I followed the parade down Pearl, past Leonardo’s
where a group of women nodded their heads in
disapprovement. “You suit your own, I guess,” one of
them said. '

The Dyke March and the Trans Truck pulled into
Battery Park to the tune of Madonna’s “Fever.” A sizeable
crowd had gathered for the Rally, scheduled for l 1. I hit
up the Free Press writer for info on the Dyke March—
she estimated that about 75 people participated, the
majority being lesbians with a handful offolks identifying
as transgendered also marching.

By I l, I had been mistaken for Craig Mitchell three
times. I would be mistaken for Craig again no less than
8 other times during the day, including one time by an
African—American woman in front of Pearl's, once by the
really cute tall guy who works at The Gap, and once by a
tuba (or some other big horn/instrument) player on Church
Street. A

/The proclivity for so many people to mistake me for
Craig Mitchell_is problematic, especially on a Pride Day
when many of the speakers urged their audience to

Out in the Mountains

appreciate the diversity of our community and take up
the challenge of battling racism. Of the people who
mistook me for Craig, only the lesbians took an interest
in actually asking my name and getting to know a little
about me. You can’t battle racism or appreciate diversity
if you allow yourself to become complacent or even smug
in knowing one Black person.

Sure, the first couple of times were funny, maybe
even a little flattering. But as the day went on, it became
evident that more people of color need to be out and active
in our community (there were less than a dozen I saw at
the rally or part of the March down Church Street) and
that people interested in ending racism and promoting
diversity need to take advantage of their opportunities to
meet, interact, and get to know GLBT brothers and sisters
of different races.

The highlight of the Rally was an angry, honest, and
direct speech by Peggy Luhrs, who warned us against
assimilating into heterosexual culture and envying and
emulating the rights to marriage and family. “I want us
to have it all,” she said, but feared that the GLBT
community risks, “making ourselves more like straights.”
Luhrs, like many of the other speakers, urged that we be
proud of our differences and embraces our community’s
queemess in all of its forms.

Other speakers included Jess Bell, David Curtis,
Deborah Lashman, the youth of Outright Vermont, and
Keith Goslant. The Freedom Choir was on hand, and
proclamations from the governor and the mayor were read
by Goslant and Cherie Tartt, respectively.

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