presluc

No, Presluc, I'm not aware of anything, lol - I do think it's very special of you to indicate such a nice thing, truly. I like people, as long as their good people - and even if I don't see eye to eye with some people, I do try to find something exceptional about that person and most of the time I do and tell them, if I don't, I move on....you, my friend, are exceptional in many qualities and I believe that is why we get along so well.

((hugs)) Hope you have a nice evening.......(o:

I do remember Stonewall very well. It was just after that, that I joined the GLF. The first pride parade in NY was on the anniversary of the riots at Stonewall Inn. I knew some of the guys that took part in the riots. It was time to put gay rights on the map and they did.

I know many families have the problems with one or another not speaking. That is always a shame. I am sorry you and your sister don't speak.

The gay lesbian movement is pushing toward mainstream. The movement is not very old and we have made great progress in a short time. I have said that I never expected to see same sex marriage as a major issue in my lifetime.

We will make it with people as open as you. You're the best.

Yes! I know all those posters are nice posters!!! I've spoken with them many times - and tresha is a very good friend of mine!! She's hysterical......she's a great person, as they all are!!! Hugs.....

The people aspect of what I was saying is in a way still the same. This is why it is so hard for teens to come out as gay or lesbian. That mindset is embedded in people. Parents don't accept there kids. It is a level of damage that goes far beyond what is seen by the average person. I have relatives that have not spoken to me in years. If you remember Katie that posted here, her partners parents don't even talk to their daughter anymore. They have not been in contact with her in decades.

The problem goes beyond just governmental. It is a social problem as well. Friends family even parents and siblings abandon you. This has a great deal to do with the religious factor for many. It has to do with the yuck factor or homophobia.
This has gays or lesbians at a disadvantage over many other groups. The problem leads to the fact that the support you get comes from other gays and lesbians. They are really the only other people that know how difficult it can be. The movement is gaining a lot of sympathy and this is where it begins. The more people begin to see to see our struggles as civil rights the better. That is where the healing begins. It is not with the gay lesbian issue. It begins with civil rights and the issues that lie there.

I know what you are saying. I do think that people have preconceived notions as to what gays/lesbians are. It is a high hurdle to leap over. Point: I was working a long while ago in an office. I was friends with many of the employees. We would do lunch and go out after work. It was a very pleasant atmosphere to be in.
It was found out that I was a lesbian and even with all the good will that I had built up over the time there I was ostracized by most. I had few friends there after that.
My employers were far more harsh to me. In 6 months I lost the job. Today this would have had legal action. Back then if you were gay you were a pariah and subject to anything.
With many people today when they find out you are gay or lesbian you are on the outs from the very start. It is an odd way to have to live.

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:2Anp0_xl_8IJ:www.dsausa.org/pdf/TheoryPractice.pdf+socialist+theory&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

An article you might like to read on Democratic Socialism.

That has happened to me. I have had friends over the years that drifted away after they discovered I was lesbian. I always let be known up front now. It saves a lot of confusion and problems. Gay/Lesbian is difficult because there are a lot of attitudes about it. Hugs.

Oh that is true that aunt so and so hates gays and she passes that on to the rest of family. Some straight people seem to think somehow we will infect them. It's a difficult movement to be part of. Hugs. How are you doing today?

I agree this is about the taking of rights and the denial of rights. I have over the past decades crossed the line and worked with other groups. You and I agree with all of that. It is important. Many gays and lesbians are still afraid to come out in the open. If people knew how many gays and lesbians that they know in their daily lives and who is gay or lesbian in their life they would understand that we are not different nor are we the enemy. We believe in the same things as most people.
We have similar standards and have the same good and strong family values. Not enough people outside the movement know this about who we are. Thanks for standing with us. I always appreciate that from someone. It means a lot.

A lot of the isolation comes from having been physically attacked as a group. We have had a lot of that in many places. I guess as I have said I think a lot of the approaches of the gay lesbian movement have been apart from others.

In the early days we had to go it alone as there was little visible support. Now it may be a learned thing . Gays and lesbians have learned not to be particularly trusting. Hate against us has allowed fear and insecurity to grow. I am really out. I know that we need support from others. I have never hid that from the movement.

I have seen the walls of distrust go up. In many ways it mirrors early civil rights. There was that fear that these people really aren't helping us.

There is much to be learned by the movement. One of these days it has to realize that we are not alone in this. I used to know a lesbian Catholic nun. She lived in terror that her world would come crashing down. It did one day for her. She commit suicide because of it. Her church had taught her that lesbian was bad and the conflict within her finally ate her up.

She was a good person. The world of today has always been harsh for us. It has always cut us and assaulted us. It is a growing experience.

If just as a point of discussion you announced you were gay tomorrow how many of your friends and family would stand by you. I lost a lot of family and a lot of friends. Alice did as well. That is a fact of life. Gays and lesbians live with that fear of losing everyone that they ever cared about and loved.

One day you are and the next day you become a phantom ghost dancing through life as a shadow of what you are.

I have always seen religion as a means to control the masses. I do agree that it is the few at the top that manipulate the words to get the masses to do and say what they want them to.

I know the right wing churches never attacked Bush. They saw him as being on their side. I also think that it was his presidency that gave the right churches a voice in the political system.

When I think back in the 70's the Catholic Churches were extremely anti gay. In Many cities that held pride rallies the Catholics showed up in scores to heckle and incite the crowds against us. I had priests and bishops show up to cast stones at us in their words. I am not sure if that was the religion or just those making their point. In the light of all the pedophile priests running around that seems a bit of hypocrisy. They don't seem to like when that is pointed out.

I respect peoples right to worship. I don't respect their ability to legislate against anyone.

The churches are what caused prop 8 to pass. The churches have always fought us. If you look at the gay lesbian threads here you will see how many people even here call us sinners and say we are going to hell and we are going to corrupt the children. Church has always really hurt us. They club us like harp seals. That is a big uphill battle. That is part and parcel as to why I am so against religion. I don't have any problem with those like you that have faith but when the others try to use it to make laws against others it really pisses me off.

Most people don't realize it but there is far more resistance to the gay lesbian rights movement then most others. It hits so many in the religious front. They have Jesus on their side so we are really (*)(*)(*)(*)ed up they think. That is a huge problem. The churches against you that has a lot of clout. It makes it very hard to push something that they think is a sin. Being really out made that even worse.

I am against all the flamboyant parades. I stopped being a part of them years ago. Last year I was invited as were many early members of the GLF to attend and be at the head of the parade. I did accept and participated. It was a lot of fun to see my old friends. We did our thing in the parade and looked very much like the people in the crowds lining the street. I cried as i am known to do when I saw so many thousands of people watching. It moved me. I know that most of those people were straight. I remember when they were throwing things at me in the first parade.

After us was a confusion of gays lesbians transsexuals and the like doing whatever they thought they could get away with.

I found some of it lewd and not for children that were at the parade. I think it is a thing like this that continually sets us back. I hand on a Vietnam era army jacket and a pride hat. I had on a couple of buttons from the early years. I was not with my tongue down Alices throat as we walked.

It was a great day for me. The sad comes when you have to be so far out that you lose respect from those that came to support.

This is so true. I always have held that idea. The larger and more inclusive the group becomes the better off there chances. It was a hard road early on because people were afraid to support us because the laws allowed them to lose jobs as well. When people finally came to our side many areas rejected the help as they wanted to go it alone. I argued against this all the time. In NY we did just that but still have less rights than in other states. It has been the hardest road to walk. I never dreamed we would be as far as we are as quickly as this. It is a tribute to the straight people that support us. They have made the difference. We are not just one voice speaking out we are now many.

So you like communication a lot with hippie chicks. That's cool. It is a love society and there was a lot of love going on.

The gay lesbian movement in the early years had a hard time accepting help from the straight community. They wanted to do it themselves. In NY before that first pride parade I put fliers in gay and lesbian as well as straight places. Most of us from the big city knew how important it was to reach the straights and gain their support. We were in the advance of the movement as was Chicago. They united in Chicago with many civil rights activists. In NY we united with women's lib the hippies civil rights anti war. Some of the groups accepted us in more than others. Everyone knew that gay and lesbian rights were the tough ones. All the gays and lesbians had the religious wing against them. It was a tough go.

I think the hardest part was when the parade parades got so out there. Even people who did support us could not deal with that. They were offended by all the real out things. The movement has had to grow up. Those things have hurt the cause. This is why so many relate to gays and lesbians as perverts. It was all that very out flaunting that the parades brought out.
I was always against that. You don't just (*)(*)(*)(*) people off because you can. It hurt us and those complaints still ring out today.

I never really did meet a lot of people. I traveled from place to place to much. I was never just in my place. I would go from event to event and talk or do what was needed up front. Most of the people that I did get to meet did great stuff. If not for them I could have stayed at home and talked to myself.
It was worse in the early days of the gay lesbian movement. There were not a lot of people willing to cross the OUT line and those that did cross it wanted to stay semi hidden. There was a lot to do and no one to do it. In the anti war movement and the womens's lib movement there were stacks of people willing to work and do. In the gay lesbian movement people could still be jailed for just being gay or lesbian. They could lose jobs as well. That was not fun.

I don't do easter. But will wish you a lovely day. I hope it is beautiful for you. May all your dreams come true.

Ouch. Smoooches sore head.

You were important. I always told everyone that helped how important they were. It meant a lot to me to see that everyone knew that the revolution could not be done without them.
If people really got the idea that their part was unneeded. Everyone is important and the part they play is the most important. If I gave a talk I was only as important as those who helped organize it.

We all had our place that is why so much was accomplished.

I liked those as well. I always liked the copy machine people. I liked everyone. The organizers always put in a ton of hours. The foot soldiers put in a lot more and their work was harder.

Nightsticks are what eventually took my legs. They hurt like hell. I got clubbed a lot.

It was a lot of work planning a campus takeover. It took weeks even months to coordinate all of that.

I did a few speeches at Brown Uni. I was part of a sit down strike at Harvard. I did a few speeches in my day that may be why I was always getting arrested. I wasn't much of a runner after I got my legs damaged. There were a lot of us though so I was just one of many. The fact that what we were doing worked was great. That is what made it all worth it.

I have always been more of a community person. I have been an organizer in the movements to which I belonged. I was a voice and always very vocal for the cause. I had a hand in starting that commune in upstate NY. It was always important to me to not stand alone but with many. It made bigger waves when we jumped in. The idea for me was always to stay active and in the front of the cause. Once whatever it was that we were working toward got off the ground then I was gone. I never stayed around for pats on the back and all of that.
I did what i did for the greater glory not for the self satisfaction of words of praise and thanks.

I think it was based in the Buddhist meditation skills. I know back in the day a lot of hippies went in for that. They tried to start communes in a socialistic sense as well. There was a lot of cross cultural stuff that the more evolved hippies were into. It is actually where the idea for the socialist commune that I am now part of began. About 15 of us were part of a hippie commune back in the 70's.
I think all of that had a lot to do with where I am in my social beliefs today. I never departed from the sub culture. I just helped it evolve. I have never strayed far from those goals and dreams.
We have gone through a lot of changes yet in the core we are still the hippies of old. I don't want to ever leave that vision. It carried a lot of power and drive in the structure of lives. I have fallen back on that many times.

Supposedly there are some out of body experiences that occur with Buddhists as they grow in self awareness and mental focus. In the process of meditation this can be done. I am not sure if it is actual out of body consciousness or just an illusion created by the focus of mental energy on one select idea.
I use to try the meditation thing. I am to ADHD for that. I have about 50 seconds pure focus then I am all over the map.

It sounds like lucid dreaming. You create your own dreams and get involved. This is possible and I have done it. You just create a set of thoughts in your head and go to sleep the subconscious self picks up those thoughts and you dream the story you want too. It is kind of cool. Try it.

Poetry that has power is usually about our inner struggles. That is what makes it special in all writing.

Labyrinth is a journey into the aspects of out thought. I have it somewhere. I wrote it for a masters paper in philosophy. I will locate it and send you a couple of poems. They were free verse and so do not have rhythm or rhyme. Some of them were rather long. The first was a poem called maze journey through illusion.

I have done an awful lot of tripping in my days and I would think that had a lot to do with this set of poetic works.

Sounds as if you had a lot to say. I would have liked to read those. I have a lot of poems from those years as well. I wrote a novel in poetry called the Labyrinth of the Mind. I hope you have a great day pumpkin. Hugs.