Mightier Than the Sword

In Los Angeles's
Silver Lake district on Saturday night, thousands of
people gathered to march in the streets to protest the
passage of Proposition 8.

One hundred miles
away, in Palm Springs, dozens of people gathered in the
home of author Anne Rice to celebrate gay and lesbian
literature at the Lambda Literary Foundation’s
annual cocktail fund-raiser, “Written in the
Sand.”

Guests sipped
wine and beer from crystal glasses and listened to the
Calypso band playing by the pool while admiring the many
religious accoutrements that decorated the house. But
Prop. 8 is exactly what was on everyone’s minds
and what Lambda’s president -- author Christopher
Rice, son of the famous vampire novelist -- spoke to
when addressing the crowd.

He said that a
crucial part of this struggle to maintain our equality
would lie in supporting gay and lesbian literature, which
has always and will always continue to tell our
stories. In attendance were members of the Palm
Springs LGBT community as well as a sprinkling of
notable authors such as David Francis (Stray Dog
Winter), Noel Alumit, and Janet Finch (White
Oleander). Ms. Rice was nowhere to be found for the
first hour of the party, but then she appeared to
an already packed house to say, “I just
came out to see if anyone was here.”