LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Talk |
by Bill Sievert |
"Gay People Time" Fails to Detour This GLBT Bus
For days my stomach had been churning as I fretted about a condition known as GPT, or "gay people time." My queasiness had been heightened by the frequent proclamations of contestant Rebecca Glasscock on RuPaul's Drag Race that one must "never rush a queen!" I wondered what Rebecca would think of a 6 a.m. curtain call. As a local organizer of a one-day chartered bus trip to a statewide GLBT rights rally in Florida's state capital of Tallahassee, I found myself in the unenviable position of having to make sure that all 28 riders, who live in a vast three-county area, found their way to a public parking lot in my small town of Mount Dora by 6 a.m. sharp. If our bus didn't leave promptly, we would not complete our 220-mile trek in time to participate in the march from the campus of Florida State University to the Capitol. And we might even miss the rally itself. I was especially worried about my own arrival. I am not an early morning person, and I had good reason to believe that I would sleep through a 4:30 a.m. alarm. "Are we nuts to try to do this?" I had asked my co-organizer, a lesbian for whom early reveille had been a way of life during her long career in the Army. "Six o'clock, that's not so early," she had responded with a shrug. Although she didn't share my concern, she had her own fears about our trip: "The restroom on the bus has a very small holding tank, so we should tell everyone that they can only pee onceand absolutely no poop." "How can you enforce that?" I'd asked. "Especially with so many older people on our passenger list, guys like me with enlarged prostates. And we're all going to be drinking coffee." "Then don't drink coffee." "Well, can't we ask the driver to make a stop or two along the way?" "We won't have time. It's got to be nonstop." At 4:45 the morning of the rally my alarm clock whined and I promptly slapped it silly. At 5 a.m., I surfaced from my comatose state to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. John was already dressed and packing bottles of water. "Curse our need for liquids," I thought. "Do I dare have coffee?" I quickly downed a mug. Arriving at the parking lot at 5:55 a.m., the first thing I noticed was that the bus was there as contracted. Whew! The second thing I noticed was two friends carrying in cartons of pastries and donutsand three large boxes of brewed coffee. It was enough to satiate at least three times our number. As I fumbled for my manifest of passengers, my co-organizer informed me that the lavatory lacked running water, and that someone had already used it for the forbidden number two. She suggested that I make an announcement to cease and desist. I said I needed to take a passenger count. "Who's not here?" I called out via the driver's p.a. system. I'm not sure whether I was trying to make a joke, but it was still dark outside and the lights on the bus were very dim. To my surprise, my roll call revealed that we were missing only three people, and just then my cell phone rang. The final threesome was pulling into the lot. A huge weight lifted from my shoulders: By 6:04 a.m., eight lesbians, fourteen gay men, five persons of transgender, and one straight supporter ranging in age from early 20s to early 70s had managed to get their acts together to travel nearly 500 miles in a single day to stand up for equality. So much for the tired old concept of GPT! Many of us may have been tired and old, but we were ready to roll. As our bus pulled out, one of the men began distributing beautiful computer-made signs that many of us had custom-requested in advance. Applause greeted the unveiling of each slogan, especially one that said: "When do I get to vote on your marriage?" Another man announced that he would be our "flight attendant" and he served everyone pastries, orange juice, fruit and countless cups of coffee. My co-organizer backed off on her anti-lavatory stance, and many used the facility frequently (though with fingers over noses). Our driver also made a decision to stop at a rest area along the way, which had many of us cheering. It turned out to be a day for considerable cheering. Nearly 1,000 of us marched, then besieged the Capitol with visits to the offices of our legislators, where we spoke directly in support of specific bills that would improve the lot of GLBT people by providing domestic partnerships, permitting adoptions by gay families, and expanding the state's employment and housing laws. At the pre-lobbying rally, we yelled ourselves hoarse to some of the best speakers I've ever heard at a political gatheringand I've been doing them for over 40 years. Stuart Milk, Harvey's nephew, was there with words of encouragement. So was Frank Martin Gill, who took the state to court and recently won a preliminary victory in his fight for the right to adopt his family's foster children. Florida State Sen. Eleanor Sobel, originator of domestic partnership legislation, and several state representatives made impassioned remarks, and we were thrilled to have a chance to personally thank them for their support in a legislature where they remain a small minority. In my view, the most articulate remarks of the day came from the youngest speaker, a staff member for Rally in Tally sponsor Equality Florida. Noting the large number of students present, Mallory Wells, a recent University of Florida grad, said, "This movement needs your passion, your voices, your new ideas. But most of all it needs your impatience. For young people, we are the moral compass of any social justice movement....We don't have time for excuses or gradualism. We want our rights now." Wells reminded me of the idealism my generation brought to the great movements for change in the 1960s and 70s. As I said to her later, "You're right. Many of us from my youth are still out here fighting the good fight, and we are enabled by every accomplishment society makes in becoming more equitable. But it is the exuberance, drive and impatience of the young that sets the pace for change." One area where we're seeing significant change within the gay/lesbian community is a fuller inclusion of people of transgender under our umbrella. Many of us have long paid lip service to their cause, butas happened on our busmore of us are interacting politically and socially with transgender folks, getting to know one another better and learning to appreciate one another more. On our journey, the youngest ridersand some of the most ebullientwere transgender. Their courage, friendship and willingness to share their life experiences with people they had only met that morning made our long day even more valuable. Some of their stories are likely to find their way into future CAMPtalk columns. But for now, suffice it to say that, as our gang of 28 sang along to the movie musical "Mamma Mia!" during the long trek home, we epitomized the spirit of GLBT diversity, solidarity and determination. We finished up most of the coffee, too.Bill Sievert can be reached at billsievert@comcast.net. His decade worth of CAMPtalk columns are in cyberspace courtesy of www.camprehoboth.com. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 19, No. 03 April 03, 2009 |