Thanks Joseph. This is one hot site. I'm trying to figure out if they had a presence but were not mentioned by any media I've read. Can't wait to see if the above quote will turn blue when I post it!
>Subject: Re: gay bashing and class
>
>Hi-
> i wasn't at the funeral-actually, i haven't heard anything about the
>funeral-perhaps that's good cuz the family rightfully wanted some
>privacy-But yeah, i did hear there was going to be a group of anti-gay
>protesters who were still going to protest--kind of sick-
>recently in Washington there have been full page ads in the paper placed by
>a group of "reformed" gay and lesbians who claim to now be straight-
>What i liked about the vigil was that there were connections drawn between
>what happened with Matt Shepard and with what happened with James Baird in
>Texas. both incidents were awful-its sickening when i think about it too
>much-but the point to me is that these are horrible incidents, but
>harassment and discrimination and degrees of physical violence happen,
>unfortunately, on a daily basis, especially for people of color and for
>people in the gay and lesbian community-
>when talking about the 2 guys who killed Matt Shepard, i really wonder if
>there is all that much that differentiates them from alot of other people
>who are prejudiced, there are plenty of people capable of doing this-i
>don't know if a class based argument would really be valid-
>
>
>The funeral was covered in our local paper. there was a photo on the
>front page of a guy carrying a sign that said "AIDS cures fags."
Much appreciation Frances. Would that be the St.Pete Times? I loved that paper. They were ahead of the curve on Watergate, which is part of the reason I never recovered from the shock of Nixon's re-election. I still have the filthy, torn, "Impeach Nixon/ Now More Than Ever"" bumper sticker on my refrigerator door. Of course the people in Flamingo park were partially responsible. Talk about the Left alienateing people!
>Additionally, there's been other research and arguments
>with regard to the present moment that suggest some
>people of color express more explicitly homophobic views
>as a way of making space for themselves within normative
>public discussion. I'm not sure that I find that work com-
>pletely convincing; although In my own work with community,
>political, and/or church groups in black American communities
>I have found many individuals who do say that kind of thing.
We've got some of this black/gay thing going on here in Atlanta, and no K., I was only remembering Tampa, I_75 goes through Atlanta, too.
Over in East Atlanta, a black preacher got pretty ugly about the gays coming in, the community, black and white, pretty much stood against this small group. But, there is the old problem of the poor people who live in town being hurt as intown becomes popular again and prices, taxes, etc. go up.
There, as in my southside hood, many of the newbies are gay. People with kids live elsewhere if they can, because the schools suck. Here in East Point I think the main dynamic is this: Blacks move in, many whites move out. Elderly whites remain and the worst good ole boys get control of local guv. They run the place badly but many of the whites just say things have gone down hill because of the blacks. (This is when I moved here, ten years ago) Good ole boys over-reach. In this case the mayor and a couple of his cronies tried to bring in a huge medical waste incinerator.(Which we fought and stopped) Elderly whites were turned against the mayor. We elect a progressive black woman. Things start slowly getting better. Suddenly we're discovered and mid-towners, many of the most active are gay, move in. Wonder why thing aren't going better in my great little city. Blacks resent this. The new people have no idea what the place is recovering from. This started while I was away for 11 months and continues today. I know I should get involved, but frankly, I'm still burned out from the med-waste fight. And I can't seem to get off this computor.
smooches Paula