This is Gay Pride week in Harrisburg and rainbow flags are flapping everywhere. A Friday night concert at Market Square Presbyterian, a Saturday morning parade and afternoon festivities in the park are just some of the activities planned. (There is lots on YouTube of past years' events in the city; search Harrisburg Gay Pride). . . this is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots which gave birth to the equal rights movement. A group of drag queens in New York lamenting the death of Judy Garland was set upon by police; the cops got the shock of their lives when, for the first time, the queens shoved back. Several nights of civil disobedience followed. The news spread worldwide, and soon there were demonstrations everywhere. . . Best book on the "movement" is Making History by Eric Marcus (the original, not the revised edition) . . . but, to be perverse, the best "entertainment" is provided by the bigots who come to protest these events . . . Jack Barnett wants me to say a good word for the Shire-Max Inn, a guest house he owns with Bob Coldren in Provincetown, Ma. I have not been there, but many Harrisburgers call it their home on the Cape. It is managed by Mark Stevens, whom many of you know--he helps out at the Bare Wall during the holiday season. . . Oh, yeah . . . the inside of the card reads Keep up the good work!
No comments:
Post a Comment