Queer Rising is such a bad-ass, right-on group.
Too bad they could not have worked harder on a more original and authentic message.

Posted by: David Kaufman | Jan 22, 2010 9:58:52 AM

Yes, because what we've been missing is somebody actually asking for our rights and talking to straight people about it...oh, wait. Never mind.

Posted by: JIB | Jan 22, 2010 1:03:22 PM

Please provide some evidence that these angry demands changed even a single mind. Just one person. Please.

This performance was as irritating as the electric guitar in the background.

People need to be persuaded, not punished.

Posted by: AndrewW | Jan 22, 2010 3:55:35 PM

@Andrew: we had lots of great conversations at CB 18's meeting on Weds. night. I've changed minds in the past, and it takes some time, and it will happen in CB 18 and elsewhere.

Join us if you really have something to say.

Posted by: Rich Murray | Jan 23, 2010 12:57:54 AM

@Rich: So, it takes conversation? Not marching around demanding, but conversation? I agree.

I'll join you sometime - what's CB 18?

Posted by: AndrewW | Jan 23, 2010 12:24:17 PM

To the "please provide evidence" person---- we've been fighting quietly behind the scenes for many years. We elected a supposedly gay-friendly president and bunch of friggin' Democrat closet-gay-supporters and "if you really wanna know my view, they haven't done NOTHIN' ". I say IN YOUR FACE. Thanks to these brave souls.

Posted by: Frank W | Jan 25, 2010 6:48:32 PM

I was converted by both angry protest and good information exchange. We all have to follow through. If we don't we may be facing an extremely bad future, where we start going backwards.

Posted by: Jess | Jan 26, 2010 1:22:23 PM

It's time to take those signs (silently) into the churches. The churches and clergy are our true oppressors.

Posted by: WBowers | Jan 27, 2010 8:34:30 AM

MLK said that the time of the greatest discrimination in America is 10:30 on a Sunday morning. And he was so right.

But taking it into the "Church" with nothing but your hat in your hand is not going to get you anywhere. In fact, if you tried it, you would find yourself quickly out on the front step with a part of your anatomy in that same hand.

There is only one way to face the "Church" and that is the way Martin Luther did: TOTAL FRONTAL ATTACK! (And I do mean ATTACK! mode!)

We are NOT condemned in the Bible and have our own Gay covenant right out of the book of Isaiah. I've been yelling this for 26 years, but apparantly NO ONE wants to listen to me.

Try your nice, gentle, Christian way. Maybe this time it might work.

But there is nothing more convincing than raw, brute power. MLK would not have gotten as far as he did without Huey Lewis, Malcom X and Black Panthers backing him up and scaring the daylights out of America

So try the churchs. Who knows? You might just succeed. But if you don't, I'll still be here preaching my message of GAY hope.

Thomas Krahn, ddl, hon, ret
"World's Leading Gay Biblical Theologian!"

Posted by: Thomas Frank Krahn | Jan 27, 2010 10:21:21 AM

I remember in the early eighties being very discouraged by the policy of confrontation that was being adopted by ACT-UP in the early years of the AIDS epidemic. It seemed to me at the time that screaming at people would only alienate them. What we needed were allies not frightened alienated straights. But as the body count mounted I found myself burying more friends. The silence from the Reagan administration was deafening, and the politics of division and fear were escalating. Finally I found my nerve to march. I was in the midst of a huge throng pushing through the streets of midtown screaming: 'Act up! fight back! fight AIDS!' I literally felt numb with fear I don't know what was motivating me but pure adrenalin, as I was swept with the crowd. More joined us from side streets until our numbers pressed from curb to curb, surrounding cars, jamming traffic. I thought we would generate anger from the stranded drivers and wary onlookers. But with the sudden rush of power I found as I screamed out loud for the first time my anger and rage I noticed people in cars applauding us and honking their horns to join in our chorus. I looked up and saw all the windows of the glass canyons lined with office workers banging on their windows in solidarity with us. I was so proud of New York that day. And surprised at myself for finally finding a voice to conquer my fears. I learned that people admire fighters, especially when their cause is righteous. Kevin Conroy

Posted by: kevin conroy | Jan 27, 2010 5:18:53 PM