Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!!

Boulder Pridefest will be September 11, 2010, on the Pearl Street Mall! Right now we are seeking volunteers for the day and have several fun opportunities for people to get involved!

The Nature of Change.

Last week I attended an event hosted by the Anti-Defamation League  (ADL) in Boulder. They brought in Frank Meeink, a former skinhead, who speaks out against hate. His story was moving and, in some ways, inspiring. It's inspiring to know that some people can overcome their inner demons and try to do good. Because he works with ADL, I was more interested in hearing his story of change. But I still have to wonder -- he is a successful man with a good job, a life partner, and children. In speaking out in this way he is can definitely make a difference -- he spends a large amount of time speaking with groups of at-risk kids about the path he took and why it's a bad path. And he gets a lot of good attention for this speaking. And he has a book that he is making money from that I don't see any evidence is being donated to ADL or other progressive groups. So, all-in-all, he's come out of this pretty well. 

My question is one of restitution. I know he can't really ever apologize enough or actually "make up" for what he did. But I am curious, aside from things that make him feel good about leaving this all behind, has he done the hard work of facing what he did in a very real sense? Has he sought out the people he harmed and sat with the consequences of his choices? Has he offered them some kind of assistance or service? How are they? How are the people he brutalized? How are the people he recruited? How are the victims of those he recruited? 

I didn't stay and ask those questions. To me, Frank's is still a story of power. And while it is the good power over the worst in us, it is a story of someone learning to use their power in a different way. I am not entirely convinced it is a story of change. When I look at our movement, our queer voice, I wonder about our stories. Pride is the celebration of Stonewall. A time when a small section of our community stood up and said "No more". And we still, as a community, do not fully embrace the leather and trans community that was the majority of that moment. In our search for equality, we have often left behind the very people who gave us the courage to move toward equality. Is our movement seeking change or assimilation? And would we recognize the difference?

Despite these musings, I can really get behind Frank's final message: "it is our job to do the next right thing- to take care of each other". It is inspiring to believe that one human being can move from such hatred to something so much more connective. It inspires me to believe in the power of what we are doing together. 

Here we are.

Yesterday was national coming out day and today is the 11th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death in Laramie, WY. In researching for a panel discussion tonight at the Laramie Project Epilogue  I found myself wondering why we as queer people can feel that "in order to win rights, gay people not only have to be just like you, they have to be better than you" where you is mainstream America. How deeply have we bought into the idea that we will have arrived when we can get married and divorced, just like the straight people? How long will it be before we really grasp that what makes us such a powerful community is rooted in our difference from "you"? Our desire to follow our heart in the face of opposition?


We, the SGLGLBTTSIQQAPPGV community, bring together a diverse and beautiful cross-section of the american salad bowl-- when we get it right. We are everywhere, and we re-emerge in every generation, touching straight families as their children, friends, and extended family. We can no longer be identified as "other" when we sit at so many tables in fragile silence, the truth out there that we will no longer hide behind the reassuring deceptions many of us embraced, for so many years. We don't always look like each other and we certainly don't look like "you" and I, for one, am proud of that. 

Come out! Come out! Whever you are!

12:05 Nuclia Waste / Queen

12:30 Aimee Herman

1:00 Something About Lulu

2:00 CYNOVA

3:00 Chasing Jenny

4:00 DJ Shannon & DJ Markie

BLOCK PARTY AFTER DARK Starts at 5pm!

6:15 Jill b / Solo Jazz Guitarist

7:00 - Till Close Back Room b-side Lounge (free Sushi) Rocky Mt Oysters DJ Shannon

DJ Earth

Volunteer for Boulder Pride's Block Party!

Come out! Come out! Where ever you are!

This is the weekend to take steps, new or familiar, and remember that whatever the challenges, we have a large, wonderful community to be part of!!

Make difference with your time!

Pride is this weekend and we have some great opportunities for you to be part of making a difference in Colorado, with us!

Put your dancing shoes on!

This is the week to be queer in Boulder!

Tonight is our monthly Happy Hour at the Bside Lounge

Tomorrow (June 18) we are cosponsoring a small sampler of LGBT groups, A Fair to Remember, with PFLAG.

Saturday, June 20, start your evening off with a Bent Lens Summer Salute to Pride and then head over to the PWord Party, an all womyn's event in the heart of downtown Boulder!

(You can get discounted tickets in advance to Bent Lens and the PWord Party!)