“John Lyon Burnside III, a founder of the Radical Faeries, inventor and longtime partner of the late gay rights pioneer Harry Hay, has died. Mr. Burnside, known for his plucky resistance against gay assimilation, died Sept. 14 at age 91 after a bout with cancer. He lived most recently in the Haight-Ashbury district, at the home of longtime friend Joey Cain.” [SF Chronicle]
R.I.P.
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Smartypants
John was a dear, sweet man who helped smooth the often abrasive edges of his husband Harry Hay. I met John a couple of time in the late 80’s and early 90’s at Radical Faerie gatherings, but especially remember a moment with him at the 20th anniversary Stonewall celebration in NYC in 1989.
The Faeries staged a moving and funny memorial to Judy Garland’s (it was also the 20th anniversary of her funeral), followed by a re-enactment of the Stonewall Riots, complete with foam yellow bricks. The crowd was bit riled up after the memorial and riot, so we headed over to the Greenwich Village police station to protest the recent murders of a couple of gay men (who it turned out were probably drug dealers) on the cruisy Christopher Street piers. After yelling at the police for a while, a big group of us stopped traffic on the Westside Highway on our way to the piers for an impromptu vigil, then headed back to the Village.
On our way back to the bars, I was walking along Seventh Avenue with a couple of other guys about half a block ahead of the crowd. Crossing the street at Sheridan Square we momentarily blocked the turn lane for a red car with New Jersey plates. Just as the main body of several hundred pride-filled homos arrived, the driver yelledout, “Fucking fags!”.
Wrong thing to say.
Suddenly surrounded by a horde of VERY pissed off homo activists screaming, “SHAME! SHAME!” (ACT UP was very big that summer…), the driver panicked and lurched forward onto the avenue. Things might ended there, but the driver slammed on the brakes, threw the car into reverse and gunned his car back into the crowd, injuring several people.
A slow speed chase ensued(you just can’t race through through Greenwich Village on a Friday night in June), finally ending outside the Lucille Lortel Theater. The people in the car ran under the marquee for Steel Magnolias and into the theater for sanctuary as the police and the very pissed off mob arrived simultaneously.
The cops stood by while the crowd attacked the car. That’s when I bumped into John Burnside for the last time.
John and I watched and commented on the scene until only the windshield of the car remained intact.
As a big butch dyke charged up to throw the legs of a police barrier through the windshield, a uniformed cop (also a lesbian by her looks) stepped forward and wrestled the heavy wooden “V” away from the dyke. The cop stood still for a second, glanced over her shoulder, then, as though losing her grip, tossed legs straight through the windshield. Pursuing her lips, the cop raised her hand to her mouth and shrugged a little “Oops!”.
As the crowd cheered and laughed, John darted forward and gathered up several pieces of the shattered windshield. Another cop ordered came forward and yelled at Burnside to put them down. “Those are a dangerous weapon”, he shouted.
The sprightly, 70 year-old John, with his wonderfully mischievous, twinkling eyes, held a sparkling shard of glass up to his cheek, smiled and replied, “No it’s not, it’s an earring!”
Then he sauntered off into the crowd with his newfound jewelry.
Rest in Peace, John.
michael
The Radical Faeries are certainly not for everyone but I once dated
a guy who was sorta into it. They have a huge farm/commune in Tennessee and have 2 gatherings a year. People come in from all over the world, from every socio-economic background you can imagine. My boyfriend at the time took me to one and it was an absolute riot. People dressed in campy drag, hilarious plays and shows, gatherings of people talking about spiritual things, people smoking pot, lots of sex, fun and sensuality. I would tell anyone if you ever get a chance to go pick up your tent and sleeping bag and head to Tennessee. The main guys who kinda hold it all together are the sweetest, dearest, whackiest bunch you have ever seen, of course the one group you probably won’t see there are the Log Cabin types, as it is a place to put down your masks and pretentiousness and be playful, childlike and real.
Smartypants
Michael, you described the Faeries perfectly.
The first and only Faerie gathering I went to was on a private retreat in northern Wisconsin. It’s where I met John and Harry Hay for the first time. One of the other attendees was a recently retired federal judge who was appointed to the bench by Nixon – so I assume he was some kind of Republican, back in those days before Log Cabin.
It was his first time in an all gay environment and he was overwhelmed. The highlight was seeing him in drag fo rthe talent — a red, white and blue ensemble left over from the bicentennial. It would have warmed Nancy Reagan’s heart — if she had one.
Trenton
Awwwwww! That story from SmartyPants made my week! ^___^