Gay and Lesbian Freedom was about… freedom until 1996, the freedom to not be harassed and arrested for associating with someone of the same sex in a bar, or walking down the street holding hands without assault.
Yes, earlier in the Nineties we organized to fight anti-gay ballot measures in Oregon and California that had been launched by activists from the religious right. There were several anti-gay measures presented a couple of years apart, so we had to come up with a lot of money repeatedly to defeat them. The private parties that were organized to raise funds were a great source of pride in themselves. Gay men opened their fabulous homes with their internationally renowned gardens, and a small group of attendees would come up with tens of thousands of dollars per party.
On a more negative note, I shudder when I recall the local Democratic politicians who were also invited to these events. They were there to seek our support for their campaigns and our votes at election time. They did stand by us and I suppose we mostly did vote for them and endorse them, so it was all in good faith at the time. But the Democratic worm turned, and now it is destroying us more aggressively and successfully than the religious right ever managed to do.
I don't know about the exact year, but during the 70s it was called variously Gay Freedom Day, Christopher Street Liberation Day and possibly other thngs before different places settled on Gay Pride. I think it's analogous to how Memorial Day/Decoration Day was started by multiple communities under different names after the Civil War.
This article really hits the nail squarely on the head many times. The following paragraph describes so accurately the reality of someone trying to live as the sex they are not, for so many who attempt it:
"A life posing as something you are not is extraordinarily difficult. Ask any former closet case. To build your life around becoming something you can never actually be is likely to bring heartache."
I have seen this permanent ongoing struggle, and resultant anxiety, in many people who transitioned. The difficulties of life-long posing is never addressed in "affirmation only" therapy. Add to that the grim reality of the surgeries and how they negatively impact health and normal function, and the most likely result is a far more difficult life, compared to finding acceptance with one's natural body and sex.
It is refreshing to read that the anonymous writer of this essay is a therapist. He goes on to say:
"For that reason, I believe resolving gender dysphoria psychologically, where possible, is far healthier than attempting to appease it by radically restructuring the body into a facsimile of something it can never be."
When transsexual transitions and surgeries firsst became more widely publicized and promoted in the 1960's, Dr. Harry Benjamin with his book, The Transsexual Phenomenon, declared (and others follwed suit) that therapy was not effective in dissuading cross gender identification.
More recently, Dr. Az Hakeem showed that therapy for cross sex identified people to accept one's birth sex was very effective, when he brought those who regretted transition and surgery together with those who were just starting on that path.
Going forward it's imperative that we recognize and expose how inherently damaging the "affirmation only" treatment of gender dysphoric people is, and instead, embrace therapies that treat and heal the underlying traumas that cause gender dysphoria.
The opposite of pride is acceptance. I wish Pride Day had been called Acceptance Day. While any lesbian, gay man or bisexual individual who lived through the worst of the discrimination can be pretty proud of getting through those tough times, that is where the pride lives - in overcoming societal prejudice and harm with emotional strength and grit. One need not be proud of being lesbian or gay or bisexual any more than one is proud of being straight.
In any event, your point, that "Trans Pride" - or rather celebrating the rejection of one's own body and, in many cases, chemically and/or surgically altering that body into a body that is less healthy, and, if one is living stealth, lying about one's body to the world, and expecting those who know the truth to lie about it - is nothing like what Pride Day was meant to be is so true.
Pride Day meant accepting your same-sex attraction, acknowledging that same-sex attraction, while unusual, is not worse than being opposite-sex attracted, and nobody should be ashamed of this naturally occurring attraction. That's it.
It didn't require anyone to lie, and in fact encouraged people to be truthful. It didn't require body hatred or bodily harm. And it wasn't endorsed by major corporations and governmental entities, which is why the marching was necessary in the first place.
A beautiful message. Society, instead of colluding in and supporting denial and retreat into fantasy (and excommunicating heretics) could usefully offer compassion and a route back to reality for the dysphoric.
Children who are unusual for their gender or who are same-sex attracted are not learning to love themselves, they are being taught to hate themselves by El Jibitique. The most dangerous room on campus for a proto-lesbian is the one with all the little flags. Queer is if you add politics to gayness and then take away the gaiety. There's just an aggressive, hateful attitude, and a cheapening of human experience left over, the sanctification of sleaze. Trans starts with a claim of self acceptance, but then destroys the self, and all that's left is forcing other people to accept it. How can these kids grow up happy when the people who claim to support them want to tear them apart? I think it's worse for gay kids than it was decades ago - at least then they could escape mainstream society and find places they were loved for themselves. Today the real peril starts when they think they've found a safe place.
As you note, Pride in the '80s had very few corporate sponsors. And for good reasons —there's not much of a corporate profit motive in people just being who they are, whether that be LGB or some other inherent thing.
"Trans" on the other hand, not only claims that people can be (or become) who they aren't—but also that that goal is fundamentally something available for purchase at a [not so] Low Low Price! from the medical, pharmaceutical, clothing. and NGO/nonprofit industries. (Don't underestimate the last of those as a commercial market entity right along with the other three. NGOs/nonprofits aren't just big money—they also traffick in huge numbers of essentially fake jobs/"careers" for "activists" who are essentially unemployable in jobs that produce actual economic value. The Low Low Price™ in this case is paid by actual value-producing corporations through the shakedown called ESG, where as much as 40 percent of a corporation's "sustainability" score depends on the extent to which it sponsors parasitic NGOs, covers "transition" costs for employees and their spouses and children, etc.)
My Harvey Milk branch of SF libraries does Queer History during pride, a term Milk would never have used to describe himself, and gives out free children's books extolling "be your authentic self". All done in Milk's name.
Oh, beautifully report. I particularly appreciate you comment that Pride "must once again become a celebration of self-acceptance rather than self-rejection, of reality rather than wishful thinking, and of the quiet courage to be exactly who we are." I would add only that the first national Pride march in 1979 was after the assassination of Harvey Milk, so the political element was front and center. I'd like to see more politics in these celebrations.
It’s a shame the writer, apparently by necessity, is anonymous. But it’s understandable, given the viciousness of some trans activists, which rivals the hatefulness of the anti-gay crowd decades ago.
Self-acceptance, as the writer says, is key. It can be hard as hell. And it rejects claiming to be something you’re not. There needs to be a term equivalent to “closet case” for people who haven’t seriously tried to work through their gender dysphoria — a syndrome I suspect is often fueled more by the desire to be accepted by the cool kids, whatever their age, than by actual, personal angst.
LGB people need to declare their independence from the alphabet soup of letters that trans activists have been allowed to tack on after those three letters. They have vanishingly little in common.
I came out in 1974. I moved across the country the next year and marched in Seattle. I signed up for notifications of future marches.
Then I saw the news coverage of the march; the crudest and most offensive marchers got all of it; the bondage buddies, the pantomimed analingus. I didn't see the gay firemen or military.
The next year I received my notification, which encouraged me to dress as lewdly and offensively as I could; "they can't arrest all of us (titter titter)." I attended but did not march, and I never attended again.
Excellent article, calling out the essential distinction. Nevertheless I feel obligated to call out a few points with which I take issue.
An assertion of pride can at best carry the subtext of "we're almost as worthy as you are," so I agree with the other reply that Acceptance would have been a better approach. I'm no more proud of being gay than I am ashamed, it is a characteristic as neutral as which hand I write with and only a stigma because of others.
Second, I do not believe gender dysphoria is real. Where homosexuality and transsexualism go back to prehistory, "trans" for all intents and purposes did not exist before 2011 and is bui;lt on a towering edifice of lies: suicide without affirmation, zero regret, And tyranny. People get fired for using biologically accurate pronouns.
All the evidence I have tells me that "trans" is an extension of the replacement of achievement with attention as the currency of authenticity. I've dated transsexuals, people whose malady was real and they were friends I cared about.
Gay and Lesbian Freedom was about… freedom until 1996, the freedom to not be harassed and arrested for associating with someone of the same sex in a bar, or walking down the street holding hands without assault.
Not pride, but freedom day.
https://www.bolerium.com/pages/books/19386/lesbian-gay-freedom-day-committee/1987-san-francisco-lesbian-gay-freedom-day-parade-and-celebration-proud-strong-united-parade-87
What do you see as having changed in 76? What is this magazine you link to?
My apologies I was trying for 1997. That’s when freedom what’s wholesale replaced by pride.
Yes, earlier in the Nineties we organized to fight anti-gay ballot measures in Oregon and California that had been launched by activists from the religious right. There were several anti-gay measures presented a couple of years apart, so we had to come up with a lot of money repeatedly to defeat them. The private parties that were organized to raise funds were a great source of pride in themselves. Gay men opened their fabulous homes with their internationally renowned gardens, and a small group of attendees would come up with tens of thousands of dollars per party.
On a more negative note, I shudder when I recall the local Democratic politicians who were also invited to these events. They were there to seek our support for their campaigns and our votes at election time. They did stand by us and I suppose we mostly did vote for them and endorse them, so it was all in good faith at the time. But the Democratic worm turned, and now it is destroying us more aggressively and successfully than the religious right ever managed to do.
https://noon9remembered.org/stories/ballot-measure-9/
I don't know about the exact year, but during the 70s it was called variously Gay Freedom Day, Christopher Street Liberation Day and possibly other thngs before different places settled on Gay Pride. I think it's analogous to how Memorial Day/Decoration Day was started by multiple communities under different names after the Civil War.
Yep! It was handmade and genuinely about gay liberation - lambda was often the symbol.
After the late 70’s early 80’s it started going downhill
Those were the days, my friend ......
This article really hits the nail squarely on the head many times. The following paragraph describes so accurately the reality of someone trying to live as the sex they are not, for so many who attempt it:
"A life posing as something you are not is extraordinarily difficult. Ask any former closet case. To build your life around becoming something you can never actually be is likely to bring heartache."
I have seen this permanent ongoing struggle, and resultant anxiety, in many people who transitioned. The difficulties of life-long posing is never addressed in "affirmation only" therapy. Add to that the grim reality of the surgeries and how they negatively impact health and normal function, and the most likely result is a far more difficult life, compared to finding acceptance with one's natural body and sex.
It is refreshing to read that the anonymous writer of this essay is a therapist. He goes on to say:
"For that reason, I believe resolving gender dysphoria psychologically, where possible, is far healthier than attempting to appease it by radically restructuring the body into a facsimile of something it can never be."
When transsexual transitions and surgeries firsst became more widely publicized and promoted in the 1960's, Dr. Harry Benjamin with his book, The Transsexual Phenomenon, declared (and others follwed suit) that therapy was not effective in dissuading cross gender identification.
More recently, Dr. Az Hakeem showed that therapy for cross sex identified people to accept one's birth sex was very effective, when he brought those who regretted transition and surgery together with those who were just starting on that path.
Going forward it's imperative that we recognize and expose how inherently damaging the "affirmation only" treatment of gender dysphoric people is, and instead, embrace therapies that treat and heal the underlying traumas that cause gender dysphoria.
The opposite of pride is acceptance. I wish Pride Day had been called Acceptance Day. While any lesbian, gay man or bisexual individual who lived through the worst of the discrimination can be pretty proud of getting through those tough times, that is where the pride lives - in overcoming societal prejudice and harm with emotional strength and grit. One need not be proud of being lesbian or gay or bisexual any more than one is proud of being straight.
In any event, your point, that "Trans Pride" - or rather celebrating the rejection of one's own body and, in many cases, chemically and/or surgically altering that body into a body that is less healthy, and, if one is living stealth, lying about one's body to the world, and expecting those who know the truth to lie about it - is nothing like what Pride Day was meant to be is so true.
Pride Day meant accepting your same-sex attraction, acknowledging that same-sex attraction, while unusual, is not worse than being opposite-sex attracted, and nobody should be ashamed of this naturally occurring attraction. That's it.
It didn't require anyone to lie, and in fact encouraged people to be truthful. It didn't require body hatred or bodily harm. And it wasn't endorsed by major corporations and governmental entities, which is why the marching was necessary in the first place.
A beautiful message. Society, instead of colluding in and supporting denial and retreat into fantasy (and excommunicating heretics) could usefully offer compassion and a route back to reality for the dysphoric.
Children who are unusual for their gender or who are same-sex attracted are not learning to love themselves, they are being taught to hate themselves by El Jibitique. The most dangerous room on campus for a proto-lesbian is the one with all the little flags. Queer is if you add politics to gayness and then take away the gaiety. There's just an aggressive, hateful attitude, and a cheapening of human experience left over, the sanctification of sleaze. Trans starts with a claim of self acceptance, but then destroys the self, and all that's left is forcing other people to accept it. How can these kids grow up happy when the people who claim to support them want to tear them apart? I think it's worse for gay kids than it was decades ago - at least then they could escape mainstream society and find places they were loved for themselves. Today the real peril starts when they think they've found a safe place.
As you note, Pride in the '80s had very few corporate sponsors. And for good reasons —there's not much of a corporate profit motive in people just being who they are, whether that be LGB or some other inherent thing.
"Trans" on the other hand, not only claims that people can be (or become) who they aren't—but also that that goal is fundamentally something available for purchase at a [not so] Low Low Price! from the medical, pharmaceutical, clothing. and NGO/nonprofit industries. (Don't underestimate the last of those as a commercial market entity right along with the other three. NGOs/nonprofits aren't just big money—they also traffick in huge numbers of essentially fake jobs/"careers" for "activists" who are essentially unemployable in jobs that produce actual economic value. The Low Low Price™ in this case is paid by actual value-producing corporations through the shakedown called ESG, where as much as 40 percent of a corporation's "sustainability" score depends on the extent to which it sponsors parasitic NGOs, covers "transition" costs for employees and their spouses and children, etc.)
My Harvey Milk branch of SF libraries does Queer History during pride, a term Milk would never have used to describe himself, and gives out free children's books extolling "be your authentic self". All done in Milk's name.
Oh, beautifully report. I particularly appreciate you comment that Pride "must once again become a celebration of self-acceptance rather than self-rejection, of reality rather than wishful thinking, and of the quiet courage to be exactly who we are." I would add only that the first national Pride march in 1979 was after the assassination of Harvey Milk, so the political element was front and center. I'd like to see more politics in these celebrations.
It’s a shame the writer, apparently by necessity, is anonymous. But it’s understandable, given the viciousness of some trans activists, which rivals the hatefulness of the anti-gay crowd decades ago.
Self-acceptance, as the writer says, is key. It can be hard as hell. And it rejects claiming to be something you’re not. There needs to be a term equivalent to “closet case” for people who haven’t seriously tried to work through their gender dysphoria — a syndrome I suspect is often fueled more by the desire to be accepted by the cool kids, whatever their age, than by actual, personal angst.
LGB people need to declare their independence from the alphabet soup of letters that trans activists have been allowed to tack on after those three letters. They have vanishingly little in common.
I came out in 1974. I moved across the country the next year and marched in Seattle. I signed up for notifications of future marches.
Then I saw the news coverage of the march; the crudest and most offensive marchers got all of it; the bondage buddies, the pantomimed analingus. I didn't see the gay firemen or military.
The next year I received my notification, which encouraged me to dress as lewdly and offensively as I could; "they can't arrest all of us (titter titter)." I attended but did not march, and I never attended again.
That was not pride. It was disgusting.
Excellent article, calling out the essential distinction. Nevertheless I feel obligated to call out a few points with which I take issue.
An assertion of pride can at best carry the subtext of "we're almost as worthy as you are," so I agree with the other reply that Acceptance would have been a better approach. I'm no more proud of being gay than I am ashamed, it is a characteristic as neutral as which hand I write with and only a stigma because of others.
Second, I do not believe gender dysphoria is real. Where homosexuality and transsexualism go back to prehistory, "trans" for all intents and purposes did not exist before 2011 and is bui;lt on a towering edifice of lies: suicide without affirmation, zero regret, And tyranny. People get fired for using biologically accurate pronouns.
All the evidence I have tells me that "trans" is an extension of the replacement of achievement with attention as the currency of authenticity. I've dated transsexuals, people whose malady was real and they were friends I cared about.