The Chair's Opening Speech at Second Pride Festival

Lee McKay's, the Chair of Second Pride, speech at the opening of the Second Pride Festival yesterday.

The Second Pride board, Lee McKay, Bock McMillan & Tootsie Nootan
(missing in the picture is i0n, who is currently on sick-leave.)
Photo by JJ Goodman

"I promise I won’t interrupt the party for long! I want to thank everyone for coming out today for the opening of Second Pride 2019, and the debut of our newly redesigned Second Pride region. We hope you’re ready to have some fun and celebrate Pride!

We’re doing something different this year in that we now consider our region to be a permanent build that will remain in place for the foreseeable future. We are also a Second Life Gateway region and will soon have new people entering Second Life right through our own Gateway in the northeast corner of the region. I hope you’ll go check out the progress on that. It will be opening in the near future. 

If you’re curious about how this build came to be, I was watching a video of Diana Ross performing in Central Park in 1983, and the shots of the park and the buildings in the background just looked and felt inspiring. I showed a really simple mockup of the idea to Bock and to his husband, Tomais, and within days, the building started, spurred on by a very generous donation of all these buildings in the Old NYC collection from Schultz Bros. We thank them for their generosity! This is a build that we want you to explore and enjoy. There are all sort of places to wander, stroll, sit, watch, meditate, reminisce, play, and just be. It’s a walking space, a place to take photos, bring friends, hang out, play games, and more. We will no longer be one or two events per year. We expect to have parties on a regular basis, starting soon.

This year, we are celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, considered to be the catalyzing moment in the push for Gay Rights. With the current political climate and with our rights being slowly but methodically eroded from us once again, there is no better time for us to reflect on the events of that night and the nights that followed, and to consider the battles fought then, and the battles that are to come, because they are coming. We need to draw from the strength of the heroes of that night…Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Storme DeLarverie (Stormy Delahveay), Danny Garvin, and so many others. We honor them for the stand they took that night, and we pledge to continue their fight.

Repost (2015): Remember Stonewall

This is essentially a re-post of a post I have run the last few years, with some minor changes. We must remember our history and the giants whose shoulders we are standing on!

 

Let us always be proud and thankful to the trannies who finally had enough of the harassment and fought back 46 years ago on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn. We owe you, guys and girls!

Read more on Wikipedia Stonewall riots.

Before Stonewall

• a person with homosexual inclinations was considered to be mentally ill, 
• a person taking part in homosexual sexual activity was considered to be a criminal, 
• a person suspected of being homosexual could be abused or harassed without risk of penalty - except in the most extreme cases, 
• a homosexual parent was considered unfit to take care of his/her own children, 
• Civil unions or same-sex marriages were unthinkable. etc., etc. 

All of us should always remember the gratitude we owe the trannies.

----
We must also remember that many of our sisters and brothers worldwide still on a daily basis live with the very real risk of

• being murdered, incarcerated, hospitalized, abused, raped and harassed
• losing custody of their children 
• losing their employment 

simply for being homosexual.

Re-Post: Remember Stonewall (2014)

This is essentially a re-post of a post I have run the last few years, with some minor changes.

 

Let us always be proud and thankful to the trannies who finally had enough of the harassment and fought back 45 years ago on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn. We owe you, guys and girls!

Read more on Wikipedia Stonewall riots.
---

Before Stonewall

• a person with homosexual inclinations was considered to be mentally ill, 
• a person taking part in homosexual sexual activity was considered to be a criminal, 
• a person suspected of being homosexual could be abused or harassed without risk of penalty - except in the most extreme cases, 
• a homosexual parent was considered unfit to take care of his/her own children, 
• Civil unions or same-sex marriages were unthinkable. etc., etc. 

All of us should always remember the gratitude we owe the trannies.

We must also remember that many of our brothers and sisters worldwide still live with the very real risk of

• being murdered, incarcerated or hospitalized, abused, raped and harassed
• losing custody of their children 
• losing their employment 

simply for being homosexual.

Repost: Remember Stonewall

This is essentially a repost of a post I did two years ago and last year, with  a minor update.

 

Let us always be proud and thankful to the trannies who finally had had enough of the harassment and fought back 44 years ago on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn. We owe you, guys and girls!

Read more on Wikipedia Stonewall riots.
---

Before Stonewall

• a person with homosexual inclinations was considered to be mentally ill, 
• a person taking part in homosexual sexual activity was considered to be a criminal, 
• a person suspected of being homosexual could be abused or harassed without risk of penalty - except in the most extreme cases, 
• a homosexual parent was considered unfit to take care of his/her own children, 
• Civil unions or same-sex marriages were unthinkable. 
• etc., etc. 

All of us should always remember the gratitude we owe the trannies.

This important historical event and the birth of the movement for gay liberation and gay rights will be commemorated at the Second Pride Festival this evening with a special party. Please come back for information about this later today, meanwhile check out this post for some info about it Bock in SecondLife; Advance Notice - Second Pride Remembers Stonewall (url).

We should also remember that many of our brothers and sisters worldwide still live with the very real risk of

• being murdered, incarcerated or hospitalized, abused & harassed
• losing custody of their children 
• losing their employment 

simply for being homosexual.

Bonus Trailer for Pride - #10 The Boys in the Band (1970)

Written by Matt Crowley and directed by William Friedkin. Starring: Kenneth Nelson (Michael), Peter White (Alan), Leonard Frey (Harold), Cliff Gorman (Emory), Frederick Combs (Donald), Laurence Luckinbill (Hank), Keith Prentice (Larry), Robert La Tourneaux (Cowboy) and Reuben Greene (Bernard).

To celebrate this years Second Pride I have posted a couple of movie trailers depicting the lives of some rather ordinary gay men in their search for themselves, for acceptance, for happiness and for love.

I have deliberately avoided anything that was pre-Stonewall, activist or mainly concerned with HIV/AIDS, by so doing I do not meant to say that they are not highly relevant but they just did not fit into the concerpt I had in mind. Please note that not a single one of them kill themselves from shame and guilt over being who they are, although one is killed by bigots.

I am making an exception here, after Second Pride has come to an end, and want to share with you all a filmatisation of a pre-Stonewall play (Stonewall occurred while it was being performed.)

The Boys in the Band may feel outdated (it is after all 43 years since it was first released) but is still highly relevant in so many ways to the gay community  today. The characters in the movie may also seem too stereotypical, but they still exist among us to this day.

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" (The more things change, the more they stay the same)

Say his name: MARK CARSON!

Mark Carson (32) did not hide that he was gay, and when he went out on the town he would often head to Greenwich Village, where years before he was born, much of the struggle for gay liberation unfolded. Yet late Friday night, just blocks from the Stonewall Inn, among the most important landmarks of that struggle, he was confronted with a man screaming anti-gay slurs, who then stalked him before pulling out a silver revolver and fatally shooting him, the police said.

“This clearly looks to be a hate crime,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said at a news conference on Saturday. A suspect, later identified as Elliot Morales, 33, was arrested.

Mr. Kelly described a chaotic scene that involved a man seemingly out looking for trouble when he crossed paths with Mr. Carson and ended up shooting him in the face. (The New York Times) 

The Trannies Rebel at SP2012 (Updated)

UPDATE: Police have now identified one of the ringleaders of the riots as being 
Mr. Kip Ashbourne (21), a respected resident of SecondLife but now also a fashion icon.
Photography quoted from Eddi Haskell´s Second Life 

Photography quoted from Eddi Haskell´s Second Life

Yesterday we had the reenactment and celebration of the trannies at Stonewall Inn standing up against harassment and telling the police that "enough is enough is enough", of course I missed it all when I crashed and my camera went on a strike.

For pictures from the event please visit
Eddi Haskell´s Second Life,
Jeff Ellsworth Witnessing A Second Life,
NakedCarl and 
Ziggy on the Edge of Second Life.

The Bullring and DJ InsyX are also covering SP2012 even if they did not blog from the riot. 

The Stonewall Riots at SP2012

This party actually starts already at 4 PM and goes on until 9 PM, so its FIVE HOURS of partying;
4 - 7 PM Stonewall Inn with DJ Hotboy
7 - 9 PM Stonewall Riot with DJ Rocky

Now, what does one wear at a riot, I wonder? Or do you look away from that and simply focus on looking

B-L-O-O-D-Y

F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S ?

SLurl´s to the festival sims

Buenos Aires

London

San Francisco

Sydney

Repost: Remember Stonewall

This is essentially a repost of a post I did last year, with a minor correction and an addition.

 

Let us always be proud and thankful to the trannies who finally had had enough of the harassment and fought back 43 years ago on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn. We owe you, guys and girls!

Read more on Wikipedia Stonewall riots.
---

Before Stonewall

• a person with homosexual inclinations was considered to be mentally ill, 
• a person taking part in homosexual sexual activity was considered to be a criminal, 
• a person suspected of being homosexual could be abused or harassed without risk of penalty - except in the most extreme cases, 
• a homosexual parent was considered unfit to take care of his/her own children, 
• Civil unions or same-sex marriages were unthinkable. 
• etc., etc. 

All of us should always remember the gratitude we owe the trannies.

This important historical event and the birth of the movement for gay liberation and gay rights will be commemorated at the Second Pride Festival this evening with a special party. Please come back for information about this later today, meanwhile check out this post for some info about it Bock in SecondLife; Advance Notice - Second Pride Remembers Stonewall (url).

We should also remember that many of our brothers and sisters worldwide still live with the very real risk of

• being murdered, incarcerated or hospitalized, abused & harassed
• losing custody of their children 
• losing their employment 

simply for being homosexual.

Advance Notice: Second Pride Remembers Stonewall

Remember Stonewall

 

Let us always be proud and thankful for the queens who finally had had enough of the harassment and fought back 42 years ago on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn. We owe you, guys and girls!

Read more on Wikipedia Stonewall riots.

Stonewallupproret - 28 juni 1969

I fönstret på "Stonewall Inn" fanns dagen efter kravallerna ett anslag där det står: "We homosexuals plead with our people  to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village"

Stonewall eller egentligen "Stonewall Inn" var - och är fortfarande - en gaybar i Greenwich Village i New York (53 Christopher Street, New York, NY), som från de tidiga morgontimmarna den 28 juni 1969 och flera dagar därefter blev skådeplats för en serie våldsamma incidenter mellan polisen och barens publik bestående av homosexuella män, huvudsakligen transvestiter.

Det var alltså "dragqueens" som var de första som hade tillräckligt med cojones för att att säga "Enough is enough. We´re not putting up with this anymore!". Detta är ett faktum som inte får glömmas bort när historien berättas.

Händelsen brukar anses vara en vändpunkt för gayrörelsens kamp och den homosexuella frigörelsen, eftersom man spontant slöt sig samman och slog tillbaka mot det heterosexuella förtrycket.

Under 1960-talet var det vanligt i USA med trakasserier av homosexuella från polisen. Kvinnor och män klädda i för manliga respektive för kvinnliga kläder kunde arresteras för "crossdressing". Razzior mot gaytäta klubbar och barer var vanliga, ägarna tvingades ofta betala större summor för att slippa stänga ner sin verksamhet och trots detta stängdes många klubbar. Eftersom gaytäta barer oftare blev utsatta för razzior än andra barer, spreds diskrimineringen. De homo- och transexuella var inga populära kunder utan avhystes allt oftare med påhittade motiveringar, ibland nekades de att handla i baren eller tvingades sitta avskilt med ryggen vänd mot övriga i lokalen.

Den 28 juni 1970 ägde den första Gay Pride-paraden rum i Los Angeles, Chicago och New York till minne av årsdagen av upploppen. Liknande marscher anordnades även i andra amerikanska städer.

Numera hålls Gay Pride-evenemang varje år i hela världen i slutet av juni för att markera Stonewallkravallerna. (OBS! Gäller inte Stockholm som av någon anledning valt att förelägga sitt firande till slutet av juli...)

Stonewallupproret har oftast jämförts med Rosa Parks så kallade bussepisod, då en enda händelse fått stark slagkraft för en hel folkgrupp.

Fotnot: Innehållet i detta inlägg är klippt och klistrat från svenska och engelska Wikipedia och en massa andra webbsidor med en del omskrivningar och egna tillägg .