I am an ineffective organizer.
I had thought it would be so much fun to get together a group of like-minded individuals and march as an anti-religion contingent in the gay parade at the end of this month, so did my homework on how to register a contingent, wrote an eloquent letter soliciting fellow marchers, and sent the letter in an email to every gay male i know who lives in the Bay Area.
OK, admittedly the number of addressees was not all that large since i’ve added hardly any new gay friends in the past twenty years and the great majority of my gay friends died of AIDS in the eighties and nineties, but still, there were twenty-something people on the list.
The majority of addressees did not respond. Of those who did, only three committed to join me, the others pleading prior commitments. And no, this was not because my gay friends are deeply religious people. Oh please. They all had the sense decades ago to realize that worshiping a god who hated them was a waste of both their time and the god’s. So no, they’re just apathetic….or cowards.
So i guess i’ll just go by myself as a renegade, unregistered marcher like i did last year.
Last year? Well, yes. On Sunday 27 June 2010 for the first time in my life i fought back against my persecutors of the past seventy years.
I marched (or actually rolled on my Segway since i’m too lame to walk very far) in San Francisco’s gay parade carrying a sign reading
STRIKE BACK AGAINST YOUR PERSECUTORS: TAX THE CHURCH
Aside from the stink eye from the cops, who we suspected all along were also religious fascists, i basked in the greatest affirmation i’ve ever experienced in my life. Thousands of people lining Market Street gave me thumbs ups, laughed, applauded, shouted encouragement, and filmed me…and that’s just the ones i could see at the front of the crowd lining the street.
The high point was when a couple of young men shouted rhythmically “FUCK THE CHURCH, FUCK THE CHURCH” and were immediately joined by dozens (hundreds?) of bystanders around them.
Thrilling? You be the judge.
So what if i can’t organize a polite, legal contingent in the parade. Maybe i can incite a spontaneous demonstration instead. Something like the White Night but without the arson component and focused on St. Mary’s Cathedral and the lying closet fag who runs it.