Progress has revealed itself as one of the themes in this, the June 2009 issue of Stereotypd. It has shown up in subtle and overt ways as a thread connecting our writers, their articles and current events in a synergistic fashion. And progress is a good topic for LGBTQ Pride Month, especially during the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that are the generally accepted starting point of the contemporary lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer rights movement.

Yes, there was an earlier gay rights movement but it had a different tone and style about it. Respectably dressed men and women picketed quietly and organizations like the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis gathered quietly and were rarely found in the headlines of major mainstream newspapers.  Towards the end of the 1960s, that quiet, respectful, often academic approach dissipated. Small resistances began happening, like the one at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco, protesting harassment and discrimination against gay clientele. What started as a simple picket line turned into two nights of riots triggered by a transwoman throwing her coffee in the face of a police officer attempting to arrest her.

At the time, San Francisco’s Police Department already had a liaison to the “homophile” community.  Sergeant Elliott Blackstone held that designation since 1962.  Blackstone became a San Francisco police officer in 1949 and was a pioneer in community policing. Through the course of his career, Blackstone was an advocate for the lesbian, gay and transgender community in San Francisco.  He worked within the department to change unjust and oppressive policies and procedures directed at the queer community, such as restroom entrapment of gay men. Blackstone worked closely with local LGBT groups including the National NTCU.

The Compton’s Riots and the trannies and queers who fought for progress there are not completely forgotten.  In fact, they are documented in a 2005 film by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman, Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria.  Sergeant Elliott Blackstone was also featured in the film.  He may have been a straight man but he is one of the unsung heroes of the LGBTQ Rights Movement.  When asked at the premiere of Screaming Queens why he worked so long and hard for LGBT rights, he answered simply, “Because my religion teaches me to love everybody.”

It’s a shame not everyone’s religion teaches that. 

Some local missionaries stopped by our front porch a couple of weeks ago to see if they could help us find the Lord.  As we chatted with them, that old conflicted adage reared its pinhead, “love the sinner but hate the sin.” Unfortunately, the sin(s) associated with the LGBTQ community are integral to our identity.  If you hate the sin, you hate the sinner.  Somewhere they have misunderstood or lost the radically progressive concept that Jesus tried desperately to teach: Love. He was a progressive, for sure. He associated with everyone and anyone who was an outcast, unclean or just an outsider. But there are those who are trapped in the idea of “biblical inerrancy” whose conservative, backwards ways are narrowing their minds, hardening their hearts and turning them into followers of a new form of religion light-years removed from anything resembling Christianity.

Those are the kind of people who picket Gay Pride celebrations, shout hateful and disturbing recriminations at queers as they celebrate their identities in community with other queers and allies, and make laws limiting our rights. In the 40 years since the drag queens, dykes and fags resisted arrest at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village sparking three days of riots, the conservative religious rhetoric has never changed.  They don’t like our community and probably never will.  They don’t like us upsetting their apple cart but maybe they shouldn’t have left it parked in the path of our parade.

I think, if we don’t like being oppressed or being used as a political whipping post, we need to honor the memories of the brave queers who forty years ago, or more, told the conservatives to shove off; we deserve a little progress around here.  How can we do that? There are many ways. An easy way to start is by visiting www.thedallaspriniciples.org.  What are the Dallas Principles, you ask? You can find out by reading this issue or visiting the Web site.

Until next month, have a great LGBTQ Pride Month.