This coming Sunday, June 11, thousands of LGBT Americans will be marching on Washington, D.C. Over 100 cities across our nation and foreign countries will be holding marches and rallies in solidarity. I have the honor of being an elected national co-chair of this march and will be in our nation’s capital for over a week, returning next Wednesday.
As many of you know, I have also had the honor of having been elected to the National Executive committees for all six LGBT marches on Washington, the first being in 1979. Trust me, this is my last national march as I have learned from this experience that I am just too old and can’t handle the stress on my mind and body. It is certainly this old queen’s last hurrah on the national scene. And while I am involved in the “Stonewall 50” to be held in New York in 2019, I will not be a national co-chair as I was for “Stonewall 25.” I am finally going to listen to my doctors and slow and rest at my senior housing (aka Shady Pines).
To me the success of this coming Sunday will be the marches and rallies held locally across the country, including San Diego. (Please contact San Diego Pride or The LGBT Center for more information on Sunday’s San Diego march.)
Saturday will also be a special day for me as I will be a grand marshal for Washington, D.C.’s annual Pride parade, which attracts over 150,000 people every year to its parade and festival. My co-grand marshals are true LGBT icons: Jim Obergefell, Mandy Carter and Marshall Edith Windsor. The four of us will also be honored with Capital Pride’s Heroes and Engendered Spirits Awards. It kind of feels like we are the four “Golden Girls” that are being recognized and I will not comment on our ages, but will say that if you combined all of our ages you would be nearing 400!
Among San Diegans going to Washington will be an LGBT veteran advocate, who has been helping me with a special salute to America’s LGBT veterans that I proposed. Please support the local San Diego march June 11 and I hope to give you a full report when I return.
Lillian Faderman – renowned LGBT scholar
Did you know that San Diego is now the home of one of our community’s most known and prolific authors? She is an internationally renowned scholar of LGBT history and literature. Her name is Lillian Faderman and she has written several award-winning books on LGBT history and our civil rights movement. Her books have been named by The New York Times as “Notable Books of the Year.”
Her most recent book The Gay Revolution is the story of our LGBT civil rights struggle and was described by The Washington Post as “The history of the gay and lesbian movement that we have been waiting for.”
The San Diego Lambda Archives recently named Lillian Faderman as its first “Historian in Residence.” Last week I attended a first reading of her next book The Lives and Death of Harvey Milk, which will be out on Harvey’s birthday, May 22 of next year. Trust me, this book will be a best seller and I believe one of the best books written about Harvey Milk; a must read.
