What s to happen after Stonewall 50 & World Pride? The
Playwrights Sanctuary under direction of Dr Larry Myers
is mentoring works by newer & younger dramatists penning works about LGBTQIA & human rights concerns. Dr. Myers 30 years lately of St John's University & an additional 10 years of University teaching directs this tri coastal theater foundation. Myers is hands on activist.
Coney Island remains a joy. Weather permitting, we will be spending a day next Saturday, watching a game, enjoying the amusement park and the boardwalk. My wife and I are both from Sunset Park, so it is going home.
Coney is a marvel of diversity. Ethnic groups playing their music and fishing from the pier. A full boardwalk with multiple languages being spoken simultaneously. Our current home in the Hudson Valley is a nice place with nice people, but only in NYC do you see different races and cultures so comfortable together. Where I am now people will smile and mean well, but they often do not make eye contact when passing on the street, and then look at the another group after they have passed. Not at Coney, as everyone sits close to the other on the beach, and used the same facilities without thinking anything of it.
Coney Island is a joy.
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I still think that gay rights has a long way to go especially since there are still places in the world that continue to discriminate or persecute the gays. Let's keep in mind that some of those who say gay rights and marriage hurts their way of life are probably no different from those who didn't want other equal rights either. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them used their religious claims to prevent those rights from occurring as well. Nonetheless, I'm proud about what has been already accomplished by the gay community.
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After going steady / cohabiting X's 34 years...I am going down to city hall for a marriage license this week; As a straight man / couple, I/we congratulate ALL couples / thruples so, inclined!
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"If the main events are too crowded for your liking, consider a breezy ferry ride to Staten Island to the Alice Austen House."
Or avoid the crowds and take in musicals from Stonewall on:
Just for Pride Week, our take on musicals from Stonewall June 1969 forward, celebrated in "I'm Still Queer"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=annglp-XKhw
I planned to update this, but despite gay marriage, it feels like a less hopeful place in 2019 than in 2009. When we did this for Stonewall's 40th, gleefully finding lots of rainbow flags, things looked so much more hopeful. We never saw Pence coming, and he's the reason Trump being removed has felt problematic, that his being replaced by the more dignified Pence could be much scarier in terms of rights.
And now, we have the first serious gay candidate for President, raising hopes - yet it's feeling clear this weekend that the African-American cries that even he cares enough to work to change the law for his/our own minority, but had been insisting on the strict letter of the law in South Bend for other minorities! Praying for 20/20 vision in November 2020.
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I'm starting to grow weary of the mass merchandising of Pride events as it turns from being a life statement into just another money-making venture.
And the question that I keep asking aloud is where were you 30 years ago?, 20 years ago?, or even 10?-- before it became one big extravaganza and the community was facing a silent killer?
Many folks dancing around in rainbow colors these days don't even realize that Pride is more than the next party and parade, it's also a celebration of life after so many have passed on from HIV/AIDS.
March for them too.
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“I gave her the book.” Now that’s a love story! Love appears in so many places, often unexpected. Thank you for the beautiful diary entry, sharing one of the millions of New York moments.
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