Pride in New York
It's the Empire State Building with its gay-pride colors on, but this celebration is special. New York City's gay-pride events were already scheduled for this weekend but they are a bigger-than-ever party celebrating the arrival, late Friday night, 24 June 2011, of marriage equality in the state of New York. The New York assembly has handily passed a marriage-equality bill several times in the past two years; the Republican-dominated Senate finally did so Friday night by a vote of 33 to 29. They join Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the District of Columbia as jurisdictions where same-sex couples may now marry legally. California, as you certainly know, is in marriage-equality limbo but presumably on its way back. Maryland, I might note (since that's where I live) nearly managed to join the small but growing crowd earlier this year but balked, giving the initiative to New York, which I hope will gall our assembly so much that they get over themselves next session.
There was, rather quietly, some movement on the marriage-equality front in Maryland this past week as well, as a friend (BR) pointed out. The background is that last year (2010) in Maryland our attorney general, Doug Gansler, wrote a legal opinion in which he said that our current state laws required the recognition, in Maryland, of any marriage entered into legally in any other jurisdiction; specifically, this was directed as same-sex marriages. It was one reason Isaac and I decided that the time had come for us to commit our own marriage. That idea had not, however been tested in court until this past week when the question came up in a Circuit-Court case in Maryland. It arose in a case involving a couple, two women, who had been legally married in Washington, DC. At issue was whether one of the couple could be compelled to testify against the other. The court found that, because of state law and in light of Gansler's opinion, that the privilege of not testifying against a spouse applied (details in this story). This feels very significant to me.
Most people I hear, both in favor of and opposed (for inscrutable reasons), seem to feel that New York's move marks the tipping point in favor of marriage equality in this country. I do think that. Marriage-equality foes have been fighting the "inevitability meme" with all their might and money, but The People — basically a Fair People — have heard the arguments (endlessly!), or perhaps more precisely "tired platitudes", and see them for the empty fear-mongering in the name of some religious righteousness that they are. When I was listening to the unhappy, distinctly non-gay groups making their threats of retribution over Friday's vote in New York, it sounded to me like the roar of an old tiger that's lost its teeth. Beyond this point all the secret money from the Catholic and Mormon churches can't keep these party poopers from becoming ever more marginalized.
The bill in New York passed after lots of "compromise" negotiation went on over the issue of "religious exemptions". There are several written into the legislation, most of which covers issues that were already addressed in other laws, but a few of which may prove useful in the future for lawyers looking for work. I rather like the attitude of the Friendly Atheist who wrote about them,
You know what? I’m fine with the exemption. Years from now, it’ll be proof that while the majority of the public — and the majority of NY senators — was in support of marriage equality, certain religious groups wanted to hold back progress. They wanted their bigotry enshrined in the law.
I have to say it reminds me mostly of the Boy Scouts who fought loudly and publicly for their right to discriminate against gay people (NB: the Girl Scouts have always taken a much more inclusive attitude) until the Supreme Court said they were free to hate and exclude gay people as much as they wanted. It was definitely a Pyrrhic victory : have the Boy Scouts ever been less a social force in America than they are today? Vehemently hating on gay and lesbian people has been a losing proposition for some years now but the news is slow to get to the ones who need to hear it most.
I do get upset by the anti-gay forces who try, in the face of their own hateful rhetoric and actions, to pretend that gay and lesbian people do not face any discrimination, are not hated and feared, are not marginalized, and are not in need of "special rights", as they try to brand moves toward equality. They seem to suffer no intimations of irony as they try to convince that some of their best friends are gay and that they really have no problem with gay people if we just wouldn't keep flaunting it. It's not like straight people have straight-pride parades, after all.
As I wrote once here:
Forty years ago, in this country, within my lifetime, homosexuality was both a mental illness and a crime. That has changed slowly through the intervening decades–at least in law if not entirely in attitude–because of the courage and sacrifices of untold numbers of gays and lesbians and other sexual outlaws, people whose persecution was violent, bloody, often fatal. Too much of it still continues to this day.
In the 1950s and 1960s gay and lesbian people, while looking for routes that might lead to some social respect, were a relatively low-profile group. I hate to sound childish about this whole "in your face" gay thing but we didn't start it. Despite the innocent expression on the faces of the haters, they just couldn't leave us alone. Societal disapprobation, persecution, raids on queer bars, oppressive laws, shock treatment as "therapy" — there was a limit to it all.
If you think I'm making up this pervasive anti-gay attitude, let's take a quick look at this paragraph from a 1964 essay, "Homosexuality in America", from the pages of Life magazine (quoted here) :
Homosexuality shears across the spectrum of American life — the professions, the arts, business and labor. It always has. But today, especially in big cities, homosexuals are discarding their furtive ways and openly admitting, even flaunting, their deviation. Homosexuals have their won drinking places, their special assignation streets, even their own organizations. And for every obvious homosexual, there are probably nine nearly impossible to detect. This social disorder, which society tries to suppress, has forced itself into the public eye because it does present a problem — and parents especially are concerned. The myth and misconception with which homosexuality has so long been clothed must be cleared away, not to condone it but to cope with it.
This would appear to be a "friendly" article, despite that suggestion that we were "flaunting our deviation". You can see that gays and lesbians had become the scapegoats representing the demimonde, to blame for everything that had caused all the most idyllic aspects of the fondly remembered 1950s — fondly remembered by the white middle- and upper-class — to start melting away, leading American society into an abyss from which it might never be freed. Not only that but apparently we were expected to accept this role without demur.
Well, sooner or later that pot was bound to boil over, and boil over it did on the night of 27 June 1968 outside the Stonewall Inn in New York City, a night noted as a riot of drag queens. There's a lot written about "Stonewall", as we refer to it today. There's a fair amount of myth that swirls about, but we needed some myth, and the reality is a lot more than some people would like to admit. It's very hard these days to imagine the oppressive milieu in which the Stonewall riots took place–it just doesn't seem credible. If you find it incredible, read (here at Joe.My.God) this reprint of the news article "HOMO NEST RAIDED – QUEEN BEES ARE STINGING MAD", by Jerry Lisker, New York Daily News, July 6th 1969. This contemporary account was thought to be news reporting!
You see what happened that night at Stonewall : the shame under which we were supposed to cower, knowing our place, accepting our fate, started to be replaced by pride, pride in accepting who we are and what we are and pride in finally knowing that we are all human beings worthy of respect.
If you've wondered why there are all these "Pride" events going on around the country in June, there's your reason : they started, and they continue, as commemorations of events outside the Stonewall Inn on 27 June 1969.
If you want to know why these celebrations are called "Pride" events, there's your answer.
That's part of the answer, too, why the events this past week in New York seem like such a big deal, because we've been traveling a long way and it's nice to have a spot where we can rest our tired, weary selves awhile.
In: All, Current Events, Faaabulosity, Personal Notebook
One Response
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Leave a Reply
To thwart spam, comments by new people are held for moderation; give me a bit of time and your comment will show up.
I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.
on Thursday, 30 June 2011 at 20.56
Permalink
As a native of New York state, I'm proud its state assembly and governor passed this legislation. Massachusetts and the other states that have OK'd marriage equality are doing fine, and New York will as well.
I'm happy for you that Maryland is on the brink, with the prospect you can now, or soon, follow what your heart and head tell you is right for you. Heterosexuals who've always had that freedom and that right should join in saying: "This is right and good, so let it be"
Americans are at their best, living up to the ideal so many have sacrificed, fought and died for, when they summon the courage and conviction to come down on the side of extending fairness to all. Gay and lesbian marriages take nothing from anyone while adding fairness for all.