The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/141816
The Diversity Scene | By Kevin Eggleston Who are we if we're not defined by struggle? Once upon a time, "gay" meant happy, but the path to gay equality has been a trail of tears. On June 24, 1973, a man set the Upstairs Lounge, the nation's first gay church, ablaze, killing 32 in the deadliest fire in New Orleans history. News outlets refused to cover the story, shamed families refused to claim their dead, and churches refused to bury them. The following day, a radio host joked: "What do we bury them in? Fruit jars?" On Oct. 15, 1982, Ronald Reagan's press secretary Larry Speakes gave a press conference in which he was asked about the new killer disease known as AIDS. "What's AIDS?" he replied. "I don't have it, do you?" The response: laughter. This was the reaction to hate crimes and tragedy in the LGBT community a few decades ago. Now, the previously unfathomable idea of gay marriage has been constitutionally upheld by the Supreme Court, just 17 years after passage of the federal Defense of Marriage act. Celebration is called for, as well as perhaps some weddings. This rapid progress is unprecedented. The history of the cause is infused with courage and compassion, from the Stonewall Riots in 1969 to the ACT-UP civil disobedience demonstrations in the late 80s, to the AIDS quilt, to the political triumphs of the past decade. The LGBT community, powered by the combustible chemicals of love and anger, faced down fear, ignorance and cruelty. Today the force of truth has nearly overcome. We now find ourselves in an odd transition into a world in which the monster of hate is finally shrinking into the shadows. The old methods of disruption, so powerful and necessary in the past, seem over-the-top. Screaming at Ronald Reagan is one thing; heckling Michele Obama is quite another. There is a strong and lasting residual anger from a time when gays were thought better off dead. But such anger is no longer as useful in an America that now requires more subtle nudging, in a society that is increasingly on our side. For many years, a gay person has had a path laid out for them: resist societal prejudice, leave the closet, own a personal truth, and find a mission in the cause of your identity. Simply being gay was important, was watched, was integral to the zeitgeist. Having opposition canm a blessing. The need to fight is also the gift of purpose. The time is shockingly near when the gay community will not have to fight so hard, when opposition will shrink to include only the extremes, when the right to marriage is completely won and the honeymoon has ended. When this time comes, when that grasped-for "normal" is in our hands, we will still be gay, but only incidentally so. The marked path of identity will have come to an end in the empty field of freedom where we look up, and ask: "Who am I, and what am I here for?" For now the fight is not over and such a vision is a dream. The past is strewn with the casual- ties of cruelty, the present is full of courage, and the future is still not certain. When gayness no longer defines us, we will have to define ourselves. Fighting for equality is hard, but living as equals is in a sense harder. The path to equality is well-trod and we have journeyed it well, but happiness does not necessarily come with equality; only the chance at its pursuit. The path to happiness is a beautiful mystery; it is a thing in the distance, somewhere over the rainbow. It shall be a path, from gay to gay, that we create ourselves. Kevin Eggleston is a playwright and teacher. He also works at Springbook. Reach him at KevinMichaelEggleston@ gmail.com. July 3, 2013 O-Town Scene 7