Marching for Pride, retirees recall an era when being gay was forbidden
I see a name I recognize in the article.
Marching for Pride, retirees recall an era when being gay was forbidden
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Marching for Pride, retirees recall an era when being gay was forbidden
By Tara Bahrampour
June 21, 2021 at 8:30 p.m. EDT
On Monday morning, a bus stopped at Fort Ward Park in Alexandria and dropped off a group of passengers with mostly white hair, a few walking sticks and rainbows on their T-shirts. ... The day already felt like a steam bath, but they had slathered on sunblock and put on hats to participate in what for many was their first Pride parade. Goodwin House, their retirement community, organized the march for residents at its Alexandria location, after doing one earlier this month at its Baileys Crossroads location, both for the first time.
“I love the sign,” James Hoben, 79, said to a woman holding a placard with a rainbow-striped heart. “ ‘Love Wins’ — there you go.” ... For Hoben, a retired federal government employee, joining his first Pride march had personal significance. ... “I have an older brother who’s transsexual, and he did face all this discrimination,” Hoben said. “He had to live a double life, and that was strenuous. . . . By the time he was 10, he knew . . . and at that time, my parents didn’t understand it or accept it. They just took an attitude like a lot of other people: ‘Just change.’ ”
The U.S. government and society in general had a similar attitude; in the 1950s, the government covertly investigated employees’ sexual orientation and fired thousands of gay and lesbian employees. The American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance.
Now as LGBTQ people who fought for equality and acceptance in the 20th century have aged, facilities catering to them have become more welcoming.
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By Tara Bahrampour
Tara Bahrampour, a staff writer based in Washington, D.C., writes about aging, generations and demography. She has also covered immigration and education and has reported from the Middle East and North Africa, and from the republic of Georgia. Twitter https://twitter.com/TaraBahrampour
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How soon people forget what staunch allies Bill and Hillary Clinton had been to the LGBT community and how hard they fought during their White House years (and today) for funding for HIV/AIDS. Clinton was steadfast in fighting for money for finding a cure for this horrible disease and just like today, he had to battle a hostile Republican Congress to get funding for these programs.
Without Bill and Hillary Clinton’s leadership in the 1990’s, there are likely millions of people who would not be alive today.
Bill Clinton’s administration increased funding for AIDS programs by 358% for one department and 150% for another.
They initiated a multitude of programs to provide drugs and housing and against discrimination.
Bill Clinton might not have won his battle to open the military to openly gay service, as he set out to do, but his compromise policy known as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell banned the military from asking soldiers whether they were gay and he also ended the ban on LGBT security clearances and he appointed the first openly gay federal judges. He did all this despite a hostile Republican Congress.
Before President Clinton, no US President gave a damn about gay rights or the mounting death toll in the LGBT community from AIDS. This changed dramatically in 1992 upon the election of Bill Clinton.
Clinton set the tone for his presidency by inviting the N.A.M.E.S. Project to include sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in his 1993 inaugural parade. In his two terms in office, Bill Clinton never wavered in wrangling money in his budgets for programs caring for the sick or to preserve vital research funding for effective treatments and to find a cure.
When the AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed in the National Mall in 1992 it contained 40,000 panels and covered 24 football fields
Here’s a photo from NPR of the President and First Lady viewing one of the panels.
HERE'S THE STORY:
by johnsmithchicago
In 1996, for the very last time, the AIDS Memorial Quilt in all its entirety was laid out across the Washington Mall. It has since grown too large to be displayed all in one place.
My friend Keith Molter shares his story of being at the Quilt in Washington DC in 1996 when by chance he witnessed Bill and Hillary Clinton visit the Quilt seeking out a specific quilt made in honor of a longtime friend of hers. Keith recalls:
It was stone silent on the vast Washington Mall. No fanfare. No hoopla. They simply went and we had stumbled upon it.
Silence. Stillness. They got out of their motorcade hand in hand and walked through the Quilt.
It was THE first time it was ever acknowledged by anyone of any higher level in government. They stood. They prayed. They looked at a few other panels. They wiped tears. We were 100 feet away. As they turned to leave, the still silence was broken by a squelching sound, like an animal in deep pain.
It was me screaming “Thank you!” through my sobs, my voice cracking. They both turned. He put his hand up in a still wave and nodded his head -his mouth doing that mouth/chin thing he does. They turned and left."
"I was there. They were there – maybe too late for some that we lost. But they were there as soon as they could – once the country elected two people who actually cared."
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Hillary Clinton had been a leader on LGBT issues in both the Senate and in the State Department. Some folks seem to focus on marriage equality as if that was the only item on the LGBT agenda. What about Hate Crimes? Hillary was there fighting to get LGBT included. What about ENDA – the Employee Non Discrimination Act?
She was there fighting for this long overdue bill to prohibit LGBT discrimination in all federal employment and contracting. Hillary Clinton twice sponsored adding LGBT to the Civil Rights Act alongside race and religion as protected categories.
Thank you Bill & Hillary Clinton ~
Thank you for his moving story, Budi.
i live in an area where i have to be careful to whom i talk to about it. most of the time i dont .thank you to those who came before us.