But I would like to be able to get a message to Tom Higgins, if he is still around to receive it. Thirty years is a long time. Maybe if I create one here, send it out into the world it will find him. (well its been known around here to happen).
Thank you Tom Higgins, from the 14 year old pimpled face boy with greasy hair laying on his parents couch, upholstered with an Americana print in preparation for the bicentennial.
I was laying there watching Walter Cronkite or Roger Mudd or Dan Rather, presenting another story about Anita Bryant, someone I had previously had a positive opinion of as the spokeslady for the Florida Citrus Council. Her going after the Dade County Supervisors was what made me realize that this gay thing I had heard about was same sex attraction. It made me realize that I had same sex attraction. It made me realize that people like me were not wanted by society. I knew now that people calling me queer and a faggot were actually saying something, not just reveling in the freedom of being able to cuss as me and my classmates discovered in the fifth grade.
But this time there was a twist. There she was talking away on that Black and White Philco TV and then wham! She was hit in the face with a pie. I had seen that in the movies, on TV, but not like this. This was the news, this was real life. She was there talking about stopping homosexuals and someone put a pie in her face, the camera turned, it was you, waving your hands in acknowledgement. Not running. Not hiding. My gaydar went off for the first time in my life. Here was a homosexual. A real one, and you had pied Anita Bryant.
From that moment forward, it was different. Gay people could strike back. Gay people could say enough of calling me names and talking me down. I was glad I was alone to see it. If I could have I would have watched it again and again. I felt sorry for A.B., she looked foolish, who would ever have thought that she would have wound up attacked on TV by a pie thrower? Who would have ever thought she would take it upon herself to take up the gauntlet of homophobia? It was the beginning of the end for her.
Thank you for doing what you did that day. You were our Rosa Parks when we needed one. You could have carried a picket sign outside, but you took your message to the source.
Topic: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings (Read 2630096 times)