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If you are LGBT and younger than 65 I cannot possibly over-recommend the experience of talking to your LGBT elders and by elders I mean like senior citizens. I had the honor of chatting with some of Philadelphia's prominent pre-Stonewall Homophile Action League members this morning and it was just so very enriching, especially hearing how as much as things change, so much stays the same. For instance, a story about a Gay Community Center getting into a heated intracommunal fight about if it should be renamed the Gay & Lesbian Center; and there was actually a very large contingent of lesbians who were opposed to it because "Gay is my word too" and they didn't like the implication that Gay only refers to gay men. Likewise, people insisting at the time that Gay also was an umbrella term that included bisexuals and transsexuals. Barbara Gittings was in this camp, and had voted against the name change, which did ultimately pass anyway. A lot of lesbians saw her as betraying them! Even though she was a founder of the Homophile Association and one of the biggest, if not the biggest, gay activists before Stonewall. It reminds me of people going after Chelsea Manning and Maia Arson Crimew over minor shit. No matter how much you do for the community, people will always want you to be exactly what they want you to be.

Also just so many talks about how impossible it was to get people to collaborate and work together without fighting constantly. We have this idea that we used to be this strong united front but people always bickered over little things and didn't get along even when they were still concerned about getting deported due a cop raid on a lesbian bar. Because people are humans, and messy.

It also, though, puts in perspective how wonderful things are now for a lot of our elders. I mean within their lifetimes they went from enduring police raids on gay bars to legal marriage and quite a lot of societal prominence. I mean imagine in one lifetime going from not even having a non-stigmatized word for what you are, and unable to find a single book about yourself that isn't about your criminality and insanity, then enduring HIV, and then seeing a spring of new acceptance in society. You have to have some gratitude for it all now.

One of the elders mentioned that it used to be very common for everyone to use pseudonyms for gay stuff; for things like membership directories that people used to connect with their communities. It reminds me of how most transgender people have a legal/professional name that is distinct from our community/online names; in order to protect ourselves from kiwifarmers and the like. Likewise, gay people in the 60s would come up with pseudonomic surnames and first names for queer spaces. To protect themselves from the government and vigilantes alike. Our lives are not so different, the struggle continues, and progress can be made. In some ways, it reminds me that it is worth it to self-organize. Gains can be made.

It was also so interesting how much they cared about the word Homophile, which to them was life-changing, a completely new way of seeing yourself. Homosexual was a term referring to a disease, a criminal; and homophile centered on love and freedom. Now, most young people don't even know the word or feel it is too similar to pedophile; even though it's intended as being more like bibliophile or anglophile. Also, they very much used the word queer pretty damn freely as an umbrella term, just saying, these people were in their 80s and got beat by police at bars and they're like "oh yeah, the queer community" so, you know, that just kinda settles that debate for me.

Anyway, I had a great day. Talk to old people. You can learn a lot.


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