FROM OAKLAND TO JOHANNESBURG:
Stonewall means fight back!
By Keith
Pavlik
Oakland, Calif.
The 30th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion was
celebrated here the week of Sept. 1-5 to honor what organizers
called "a four-day riot, now recognized as the start of what
has become a vibrant gay rights movement."
"On a hot and humid night in 1969, Black and Puerto Rican
drag queens resisted police harassment at the Stonewall Inn, a
bar located in New York's Greenwich Village," explained
InterPride, the worldwide umbrella organization for lesbian,
gay, bi and trans pride celebrations. It designated Oakland and
Johannesburg, South Africa, to co-host the official Stonewall
30 celebration.
Johannesburg events will take place later this month.
Patches from the South African AIDS Memorial Quilt were on
display in Oakland.
Thousands of people participated in many events in Oakland
over the weekend. The illumination of thousands of pink lights
surrounding Lake Merritt kicked off the celebration. Thirty
searchlights streaked the sky at the culmination.
Judy Shepard--whose son Matthew Shepard was murdered in
October 1998 by anti-gay bigots in Wyoming--was a special guest
at the event.
People entered a Mardi-Gras-style celebration through the
atrium of the Federal Building. Drag queen Grizzilla Presley
called attention to the paradox of the rainbow flag hanging in
the Federal Building. "The same government that won't allow us
to ask or tell [about our homosexuality] will allow us to hang
the flag right under their seal," she said.
Johannesburg events will focus on the fact that South Africa
is the only country in the world to guarantee the rights of
lesbians and gays in the constitution, under the leadership of
the African National Congress.
In recent months AIDS activists in Southern Africa have
waged protests over the price-gouging policies of U.S. drug
corporations. These pharmaceutical giants--and their point
person vice President Al Gore--have blocked the manufacture of
low-cost versions of AIDS drugs for distribution in Africa,
where the cost of imported drugs is prohibitive.
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