Under the baobab: State College Pride a celebration of community and inclusion
Trixy Valentine (Jacob Kelley) was this year's parade Grand Marshal. The State College police helped to facilitate safety and efficiency. Mayor Ezra Nanes joined the 50 or so decorated cars and floats. Downtown was filled with over a thousand joyously celebrating spectators who continued the party in the park. Guest speakers included Lt. Governor Austin Davis, Mayor Nanes and state Rep. Paul Takac. Entertainment included drag performances by State Queens, hoop artist Jamie Lee, knife juggling by Capvara, poet Jay Orlando and indigenous performer and educator Patrick Littlefoot Brooks and Family.
On June 28, 1969, early morning, we were sitting in a bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan when a friend came in and told us that 'the f---' were rioting in the West Village Club called The Stonewall. None of us believed it. 'Out' homosexuals were a docile group and The Stonewall, a popular dance venue, was a mafia-run dive. We decided to go see for ourselves.
The liberal Republican mayor, John Lindsay, had begun his 1969 law and order campaign raiding gay clubs and harassing the marginalized gay community. In those days it was illegal to be or act gay. When the police attacked The Stonewall, that night people fought back, singing civil rights songs and shouting antiwar slogans. Later some implied that SDS and the Black Panthers were behind the rebellion. They weren't. It was a spontaneous reaction of people who had been persecuted too badly for too long.
The Stonewall Uprising is considered by many to be the beginning of the American gay pride movement, which changed our world for the better. It is no longer a crime to be gay and gay marriage is legal.
Our State College police protect our Pride parade in which our mayor rides. Prior to the parade, a resident set fire to a gay pride flag hanging outside the Faith United Church of Christ. Pastor Jes Kast responded in a human and loving way. She continued the celebration of their planned Strawberry Festival. The church basement was packed with neighbors tasting the sweetness of the fruit of our community.
My beloved wife and I were married just a few years after the Supreme Court decision in Loving vs. Virginia in 1967, which allowed interracial marriages to be legal. However, practice delayed by habit and ignorance often trails the law. When we drove through Southern states she would sit in the back and I, in the front, pretending to be her chauffeur lest we be harassed by the police or worst.
Elsewhere around town
This year marks the sixth year that Juneteenth will be celebrated in State College with the theme: 'Juneteenth: Our Freedom, Our Fight, Our Future.' The celebration weekend will take place on June 13-14. A Block Party in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza and 100 Block of Fraser Street will be held on Saturday, June 14, from noon to 6 p.m.
Penn State presents the premiere production of the musical 'True Crime Frankenstein or the Modern, Modern Prometheus,' June 12-15 in the Penn State Downtown Theatre, directed by John Simpkins with book by Matt Cox and music and lyrics by Eli Bolin. The show was a co-production of Penn State Centre Stage, Concord Theatricals and Penn State Musical Theatre.
Sisters and brothers, you are seen; you are loved; you are not alone.
Ubuntu
Charles Dumas is a lifetime political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party's nominee for U.S. Congress in 2012. He lives with his partner and wife of 50 years in State College.
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