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That #SCOTUS decision—holding that CO voters couldn't ~constitutionally bar~ LGB people from seeking local protections—was groundbreaking.
It was the first time the justices had sided like that with gay people, though, and it opened the doors to new possibilities.
It raised hopes that Bowers v. Hardwick, the 1980s decision upholding sodomy laws, could be overturned by the justices eventually.
What a world: Where so little meant so much.
And though no one—least of all, likely, Kennedy—would have guessed it then, he would play a central role in gay lives for the next 20 years.
Quite a thing to walk down 14th Street today and see married same-sex couples (oft w/ strollers), a focus on a broader LGBT community ...
... a scene that still includes the drag and leather and other communities that often were maligned as "harmful" to "gay progress" ...
... and an out gay Army Secretary walk by on his way up the street.
The journey, as a gay man, from 1996 to 2016 is an almost literally unimaginable one — so I'm grateful that I lived it & can write about it.
I also, though, realize w/ great humility that that start date, 1996, for my pride memories plays a significant part in why I am here today.
A few years earlier & I easily could have been one of the many thousands in our community who didn't live to tell the stories of 1986 pride.
On days like today, while I am filled with joy and gratitude, I also have a space for sadness, for remembering those lost to AIDS.
And, before that even, I know that the stories from 1976, & 1966, are almost impossible to find because those people didn't live our lives.
Violence and stigma and shame — and explicit governmental discrimination — prevented many of those stories from reaching their natural end.
So, here we are. And here I am, grateful to be able to tell my & others' stories today—& to look back & tell others' stories from the past.
Happy #DCPride2016, y'all. Celebrate & enjoy, but also listen & learn. It's been quite a journey, & it ain't over.pic.twitter.com/AHP65yiEE6
What a delightful evening.
Happy Pride and good night, all, and let us be good to one another!pic.twitter.com/N2dGJ8S2Tu
I wish I could say I was up on any of that back then, I just wasn't. No one in my world was talking about any of it.
I was living there then!!
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