On June 28th, 1969, I was a 9 year old boy, living with my family in Dallas, Texas. This was a summer like many other summers, but like any summer, there was something different too. Three weeks later, Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon. In less than 6 months, we would become the first members of our family to live anywhere north of the Mason Dixon line since our first ancestors came over in the 1700s. This was a monumental thing to me, I remember praying, asking God to protect me from the yankees. I was a smart kid, maybe I was wrong about the godless heathens up north (still working that out), but I knew that this change was going to be a turning point in my life. What I didn’t know in those wee, early morning hours of that long ago warm summer day, was that 1500 miles away, in a bar run by the Mafia in New York city, events were happening that were eventually going to shape my life. The Stonewall Inn was a run down Gay bar in the heart of Greenwich village. It was the only bar in all of New York that allowed Gay men and women to dance. This particular evening, the police raided the bar, like they had thousands of times before. These raids could lead to beatings, public exposure, and sometimes worse. Jobs were lost, families broken up, and sometimes lives were lost. Something was different this night, however, for the first time ever, the Gay men, the Lesbians, the drag queens, the ones who could pass for straight, fought back. This was the day of the Stonewall riots: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots I knew none of this back home in Texas. I didn’t start knowing I was different till a couple of years later, the bullying started shortly after. Compared to some I was lucky, I managed to find some friends in the midst of my troubles, and it was enough to keep me going. Others weren’t so lucky. I know that life didn’t immediately become better, I know that even today in the midst of court victory after court victory, there are still battles to be fought, kids to be saved. But without those brave men & women on that July day 45 years ago, the world would be a lot darker place. Thank you to those of them who are still around, thank you to the memory of those who have passed.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 01:50:11 +0000
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