CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
Attention veteran gay activists: We are all currently being eclipsed by 33 young queers on a bus, and we need to pay attention.
Many semiretired LGBT activists have earned a rest, having put in years and years of service on the front lines in the gay liberation demos of the '60s and '70s and in the AIDS protests of the '80s and '90s. Some of us earned our stripes demonstrating for racial equality, women's rights, peace, and other human rights goals.
And when it's convenient we still get out into the streets. Several times in recent years I've headed to the intersection of San Vicente and Santa Monica boulevards in West Hollywood, Calif., to join protests against antigay violence and marriage discrimination. The sheriff's deputies reroute traffic, people make speeches, we chant, and we're home in time to watch ourselves on the 11 o'clock news.
But apart from a couple of largely celebratory LGBT marches on Washington, D.C., I haven't set aside real time and money for an activist demonstration since the Reagan-Bush era, when a group of friends and I used to drive from New York City to D.C. for abortion rights rallies every year or two.
How about you?
This issue's cover story on the Equality Ride offers an unequivocal wake-up call: Get out there or get out of the way. We need to be seen and heard in the places where the lies and the discrimination are the worst. As 24-year-old ride creator Jake Reitan reminds us, the civil rights activists of the 1960s aren't remembered for marching close to home. To change hearts and minds, people need us to come to them.
To the Equality Riders and the many other young queers who still keep their arrest kits handy and their anger on simmer, thank you. We're in your debt. Too often LGBT youth are put down for enjoying the "freedom we made possible" while "we" enjoy hosted cocktail parties--at the same time countless younger people are out there battling for gay-straight alliances, arranging marches in Tennessee, and otherwise fighting so that "we" can enjoy our cosmos and poached salmon.
Maybe we can't all take a month off to ride on a bus from Virginia to Texas to California and back. But we can support those who do make that investment. We can make sure the groups to whom we give our time and money have real plans for taking their message to the people who need to hear it: Not just to
legislators, not just to media moguls, not to celebrities, but to the people out there in that nebulous land called America. Because when the people join the side of equality, the lawmakers, newscasters, and movie stars quickly follow.
Who's doing this work? I'll leave that for you to judge. Equality Ride is a project of the amazing Soulforce (www.soulforce.org) and is funded in part by out furniture mogul Mitchell Gold, who's also working on his own Faith in America heartland media project (www.faithinamerica.info, as reported in our April 11 issue). The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network regularly takes on dozens of local school boards (www.glsen.org); every LGBT community center worth its salt sponsors local protests whenever provoked; and all the major East Coast-based
organizations have some grassroots component. If you write checks or volunteer your time, you also get to ask questions and demand results--or else what's the point?
And don't rule out getting on a bus and going on the road. You're never too young or too old to fight for your rights.
Want more breaking equality news & trending entertainment stories?
Check out our NEW 24/7 streaming service: the Advocate Channel!
Download the Advocate Channel App for your mobile phone and your favorite streaming device!
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
Here Are Our 2024 Election Predictions. Will They Come True?
November 07 2023 1:46 PM
Meet all 37 of the queer women in this season's WNBA
April 17 2024 11:24 AM
17 Celebs Who Are Out & Proud of Their Trans & Nonbinary Kids
November 30 2023 10:41 AM
Here Are the 15 Most LGBTQ-Friendly Cities in the U.S.
November 01 2023 5:09 PM
Which State Is the Queerest? These Are the States With the Most LGBTQ+ People
December 11 2023 10:00 AM
These 27 Senate Hearing Room Gay Sex Jokes Are Truly Exquisite
December 17 2023 3:33 PM
10 Cheeky and Homoerotic Photos From Bob Mizer's Nude Films
November 18 2023 10:05 PM
42 Flaming Hot Photos From 2024's Australian Firefighters Calendar
November 10 2023 6:08 PM
These Are the 5 States With the Smallest Percentage of LGBTQ+ People
December 13 2023 9:15 AM
Here are the 15 gayest travel destinations in the world: report
March 26 2024 9:23 AM
Watch Now: The Daily
Trending stories from our video partner Advocate Channel.
For more videos and shows go to advocatechannel.com.
Trending stories from our video partner Advocate Channel.
For more videos and shows go to advocatechannel.com.
Latest Stories
Over 90% of trans youth live in states pushing anti-trans legislation: report
April 23 2024 10:08 PM
George Santos pulls out of New York congressional race
April 23 2024 7:04 PM
Biden will hammer Trump over abortion bans in Florida speech
April 23 2024 5:00 AM
Tristan Snell, who brought down Trump University, sees conviction in hush money case
April 22 2024 7:36 PM
Joe Biden admin marks Earth Day with major environmental initiatives
April 22 2024 4:18 PM
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott: 'We want to end' trans and gender nonconforming teachers
April 22 2024 4:13 PM
Nonbinary 17-year-old killed two years after being reported missing
April 22 2024 3:46 PM