Remembering Stonewall and Celebrating Pride at Bsb - How sad!

[stowe1]

Webster's defines an egoist as someone who has excessive concern for oneself with or without exaggerated feelings of self-importance. Webster's also defines egocentric as concerned or overly concerned with the self. Although you don't know me and thus have to take it on faith, if there is anyone to whom these words don't apply, it is I. You need to know this before you read what I am posting here:

On 6/5, I posted a thread suggesting the we celebrate pride and commemorate Stonewall by changing our avatars to a gay pride theme from June 27-29, the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion and the foundiung of the gay civil rights movement. In that thread there were posts by people who changed there avatars then. There were others who came up with their own gay pride avatars rather than the ones Scorpio created for the Broke Straight Boys site.

On 6/22, I started a new thread reminding everyone about this campaign, especially as we approached the anniversary of Stonewall.

It is now 6/28 and I would like to thank Beth, Lovelumps, rrhill, another1,

webmonkey, Buckeye1, JLipps4U, peterh6308, markymark, rrj3md, and tampa 24

for joining this effort. (If there is any one I missed, I'm sorry. I scanned the recent threads and these are the posters I saw.) Together this small band of brothers and sister paid homage to the bravery of those who lit the flame of freedom 43 years ago in the West Village.

I had a long diatribe planned. But why waste the time. The feeling of community within the GLBT community has lessened as we have become more mainstreamed. But I thought here, on this site, where we come together to appreciate something we all have in common, there would be a greater sense of togetherness, community if you will.

In the more than a year I've been on the forum, there have been several who have talked about the forum as a type of family. I myself bought into that, and have extolled that from time to time. Not so much for me now. Because to me family comes together in times of happiness, grief, sorrow, joy, and observance. But yet only a handful of us came together in admittedly a small way to celebrate something so significant to us as a community, a family.

So forgive me if the next time somebody posts about the forum as a family or anything of that nature, I don't agree.


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[cumrag27]

The Fight Goes On...

Webster's defines an egoist as someone who has excessive concern for oneself with or without exaggerated feelings of self-importance. Webster's also defines egocentric as concerned or overly concerned with the self. Although you don't know me and thus have to take it on faith, if there is anyone to whom these words don't apply, it is I. You need to know this before you read what I am posting here:

On 6/5, I posted a thread suggesting the we celebrate pride and commemorate Stonewall by changing our avatars to a gay pride theme from June 27-29, the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion and the foundiung of the gay civil rights movement. In that thread there were posts by people who changed there avatars then. There were others who came up with their own gay pride avatars rather than the ones Scorpio created for the Broke Straight Boys site.

On 6/22, I started a new thread reminding everyone about this campaign, especially as we approached the anniversary of Stonewall.

It is now 6/28 and I would like to thank Beth, Lovelumps, rrhill, another1,

webmonkey, Buckeye1, JLipps4U, peterh6308, markymark, rrj3md, and tampa 24

for joining this effort. (If there is any one I missed, I'm sorry. I scanned the recent threads and these are the posters I saw.) Together this small band of brothers and sister paid homage to the bravery of those who lit the flame of freedom 43 years ago in the West Village.

I had a long diatribe planned. But why waste the time. The feeling of community within the GLBT community has lessened as we have become more mainstreamed. But I thought here, on this site, where we come together to appreciate something we all have in common, there would be a greater sense of togetherness, community if you will.

In the more than a year I've been on the forum, there have been several who have talked about the forum as a type of family. I myself bought into that, and have extolled that from time to time. Not so much for me now. Because to me family comes together in times of happiness, grief, sorrow, joy, and observance. But yet only a handful of us came together in admittedly a small way to celebrate something so significant to us as a community, a family.

So forgive me if the next time somebody posts about the forum as a family or anything of that nature, I don't agree.


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Dear Stowe1,

I do not wish to demean you by trying to convence you that others like me, really care but somehow your perception is too harsh! That is not the point of my response. You are 100% entitled to your personal interpretation, whether it is positive or negative. I would not ever tell you you are somehow wrong in your opinion!

I can really sense your "level of frustration" in your earlier response. I too want justice for all, regardless of one's sexual orientation. Just like in bumper to bumper traffic, when cars are lined up and attempting to turn within the time alloted and, no matter what, some drivers will make jump starts and others will sit asleep at the wheel while dead to the world. This lack of responsiveness is holding everyone behind that "sleeping driver", that much more back and everybody is now similarly penalized and less likely to get through the specific intersection. My point being not to insult you with this rather lame example!Instead, regardless of how much you and the other like-minded forumites value the Stonewall Rebellion, somehow the rest of this forum has not responded in like fashion, thus failing to become fully participatory in this significant historical moment, while rededicating each of us to what resulted in relation to promoting fully, legally recognized National Gay Rights for our evolving democracy - dealing finally with any all relevant pressing issues we each face, that you may care to describe.

Just like during WWII, American housewives contributed in a myriad of seemingly unrelated diverse ways toward the war effort without necessarily being on the "front lines". Not all of us are cut out to be on the front lines or even simply counted for being present. Yet, in countless less-direct ways, I feel each Broke Straight Boys member can further the cause of extending full Gay Rights to us all! There is necessarily great diversity among us, and it follows that there might be many valid but less direct ways to respond to this call! Please I implore you, don't paint everyone with the same "hopeless brush, thinking no one else really cares for this noble purpose! That is exactly what the "Status-Quo Arch-conservatives on Social Issues want!!! Rather, it is precisely for those who can to continue the "Noble Fight", plugging forever onward until victory is finally declared!


Sincerely,


Stimpy

PS Thank you for reminding us all to become part of your worthy concerns!

 

[stowe1]

Dear Stowe1,

I do not wish to demean you by trying to convence you that others like me, really care but somehow your perception is too harsh! That is not the point of my response. You are 100% entitled to your personal interpretation, whether it is positive or negative. I would not ever tell you you are somehow wrong in your opinion!

I can really sense your "level of frustration" in your earlier response. I too want justice for all, regardless of one's sexual orientation. Just like in bumper to bumper traffic, when cars are lined up and attempting to turn within the time alloted and, no matter what, some drivers will make jump starts and others will sit asleep at the wheel while dead to the world. This lack of responsiveness is holding everyone behind that "sleeping driver", that much more back and everybody is now similarly penalized and less likely to get through the specific intersection. My point being not to insult you with this rather lame example!Instead, regardless of how much you and the other like-minded forumites value the Stonewall Rebellion, somehow the rest of this forum has not responded in like fashion, thus failing to become fully participatory in this significant historical moment, while rededicating each of us to what resulted in relation to promoting fully, legally recognized National Gay Rights for our evolving democracy - dealing finally with any all relevant pressing issues we each face, that you may care to describe.

Just like during WWII, American housewives contributed in a myriad of seemingly unrelated diverse ways toward the war effort without necessarily being on the "front lines". Not all of us are cut out to be on the front lines or even simply counted for being present. Yet, in countless less-direct ways, I feel each Broke Straight Boys member can further the cause of extending full Gay Rights to us all! There is necessarily great diversity among us, and it follows that there might be many valid but less direct ways to respond to this call! Please I implore you, don't paint everyone with the same "hopeless brush, thinking no one else really cares for this noble purpose! That is exactly what the "Status-Quo Arch-conservatives on Social Issues want!!! Rather, it is precisely for those who can to continue the "Noble Fight", plugging forever onward until victory is finally declared!


Sincerely,


Stimpy

PS Thank you for reminding us all to become part of your worthy concerns!

My dearest Stimpy:

The concerns are not mine alone, but should be all of ours. And I trust that is true.

I did not state nor did I imply that just because one didn't participate in this small outward sign of GLBT unity that one doesn't share in the concerns and doesn't do in his or her own way what they can to help in the fight for full equality for us.

You cite the housewives of WWII. Yes, they did participate in their own ways. Some worked in factories, some on the homefront keeping the home fires burning, still others volunteered at the USO, as nurses aides at hospitals, etc. There are a myriad of Hollywood WWII movies which extoll that, one of the best and my favorite is "Since You Went Away" with Claudette Colbert, Monty Wooley, and Soda the dog. But be it in those films which mirrored the real world or in that world itself, there were outward signs of unity of purpose amongst the diversity. Gold Star Mothers banners that hung in windows, Rosie the Riveter signs all over, We Recycle signs, Buy War Bond signs, etc. - all aimed at communal unity of purpose.

I just happen to be a believer in appropriate outward manifestations of purpose especially when as a community we are beginning to lose that sense of togetherness as we have become more mainstreamed.

I thought this would be a fun thing to do here, while bringing us together for a few days around a common theme. Obviously, most did not wish to participate. That doesn't mean I can't be disappointed, though.



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[rrhill]

Happy gay pride day to you Stowe...

Browsing the threads on Broke Straight Boys, members find one rainbow flag after another; so many avatars went rainbow... Enough to make visitors wonder why this is?

And many of them will find this thread, read that's it about remembering the Stonewall incidents, and the origins of gay pride.

My compliments Stowe, with a job well done!

​

The Stonewall Inn, taken September 1969. The sign in the window reads: "We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The demonstrations are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the homosexual community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.
read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots

 

[stowe1]

Browsing the threads on Broke Straight Boys, members find one rainbow flag after another; so many avatars went rainbow... Enough to make visitors wonder why this is?

And many of them will find this thread, read that's it about remembering the Stonewall incidents, and the origins of gay pride.

My compliments Stowe, with a job well done!

​

The Stonewall Inn, taken September 1969. The sign in the window reads: "We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The demonstrations are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the homosexual community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.
read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots

Thanks, Robert. I thought it was a fun as well as a meaningful thing to do. And I'm glad you reminded me that when avatars are changed, they are changed on all posts on all threads. So it did multiply the effect of our merry little band.

In all this I forgot to ask you, what kind of Pride celebrations do you have in The Netherlands? Would be nice to know about that. Joninliverton has given us info on Stonewall UK so it would be great to hear how the Dutch celebrate Pride!


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[another1]

i believe i listened to reports on what was happening on pacifica radio out of n.y., n.y.

 

[rrhill]

In Amsterdam we have these canals. Yearly we hold a gay pride canal parade...

Your user name Stowe, seems to be inspired by Sto(ne)we(wall)

checkout: https://www.google.com/search?q=can...DQ&biw=888&bih=432&sei=aH_uT6m3LImv8AOg7qD7DA

 

[stowe1]

Thanks, Robert, for sharing those pictures. Looks like a really fun event.

No, my username is actually the name of the township in which I live, just outside of the city of Pittsburgh.



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