Follow the Money: AIDS Funding and the Bush Administration
AIDS is a window through which we can see the real agenda of those who run our world. Over 500 researchers have had their government funded AIDS research projects cut by direct orders from President Bush. The National Institutes of Health were ordered by Bush to cut $145 million from last year's research on important diseases like AIDS. If we want an AIDS vaccine and better medicines, the best presidential campaign slogan will be - 'Someone Else in 2004.'
Harry Hay: The Great Forerunner
Beginning with the 'ghetto riot' at the Stonewall Bar in Greenwich Village in 1969, an open gay rights movement emerged and had been a significant force in the larger people's movement. Before the Stonewall uprising, however, an instrumental figure in the movement for lesbian and gay rights was Harry Hay, a one-time member of the Communist Party USA, a trade unionist and cultural activist. Hay helped found the first gay liberation group in the US, laid a theoretical basis for gay rights, and helped pave the way for the rebellions of the 1960s and beyond.
ACTUP Breaks the Silence
'Silence equals death.' With this slogan emblazoned on dozens of signs on the evening of April 15, 1987 several hundred protesters, organized by the newly formed New York chapter of AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACTUP), descended on the city's main post office on Manhattan's west side. From that day, ACTUP grew to national status as among the most important organizations fighting for access to AIDS treatment.
Massachusetts Legalizes Gay Marriage
With the United States Supreme Court overturning Texas antisodomy statutes and the consecration of openly gay Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson as a bishop in the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire, the year 2003 turned out to be a signal one for the struggle for gay and lesbian equality. But the decision, which may have the most profound impact on society was the assertion by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to the cosntitutional right of same-gender couples to civil marriage.
Whose Family Values?
The struggle for gay rights is moving into a pivotal moment. Over the past year there have been many victories and much to celebrate. However, each of these victories has come with a price. The ultra right has launched a vicious counterattack on the gay rights movement.
April 2004
Pride at Work
In this issue...
On the Frontlines with Howard Wallace
Stamping Out Hate in Jersey: Talking with LaQuetta Nelson
The New Traditional Family
Book Review Essay - A Transgender Primer
Stamping Out Hate in Jersey: An Interview with LaQuetta Nelson
Editor's Note: LaQuetta Nelson is the chair of the board of directors of the Newark Pride Alliance in Newark, New Jersey. She is a former officer of Local 1377 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, a military veteran and a foudner of the New Jersey Stonewall Democrats. Last November she received a national award given to outstanding grass roots activists from the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force.
On the Frontlines with Howard Wallace
Editor’s note: Howard Wallace is a long-time peace activist, trade union organizer, senior advocate and gay rights activist. He has been a Teamster and recently retired as a leader in Local 250 of SEIU, a large health care union in Northern California. He currently works with Senior Action building support among seniors, the lesbian and gay community and labor for health care reform and rights for health care workers. He also helped found Pride at Work, a constituency group affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
Book Review Essay - A Transgender Primer
Finding the Real Me: True Tales of Sex and Gender Diversity. Tracie O’Keefe and Katrina Fox, editors, San Francisco, John Wiley and Sons, 2003.
Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Leslie Feinberg, Boston, Beacon Press, 1996.
The New Traditional Family
Mommy. Daddy. Susie and John: the age-old nuclear family with a white picket fence and a dog named Spike the radical right simply adores. To them, this is the basis of America, the so-called backbone of the nation – and what they are so determined to get back to.
