Pride season is upon us, and this year we’re ringing it in by spotlighting the folks who make us proud to show up to work each day — the artists, activists, performers and personalities who make our community shine.
Distinguished author, historian and playwright Martin Duberman, 86, has written more than two dozen books on LGBT heritage and culture, icons of the progressive movement and race relations in America. He has received three Lambda Literary Awards and a 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Historical Association. His latest book is a provocative nonfiction novel about the Belle Epoque era of Germany, titled “Jews Queers Germans.”
Describe your first Pride.
It was 1973, the year that trans activist Sylvia Rivera tried to reach the mic on the stage set up in Washington Square Park (where Vito Russo was the rally emcee) and was forcibly restrained and vigorously booed by the crowd. Sylvia, who was a friend, confessed to me that she’d been stoned, but that hardly excuses the murderous reception she was given. It marked the end of her involvement in the movement.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
How has Pride changed over the years?
It’s grown far more confident—and commercial. In the early years we were also a little leery of hostile onlookers tossing a bottle at our heads.
Does Pride feel different this year?
I think the March this year needs to be, above all, political. Less frivolity and more anger. Trump is no friend to the LGBTQ community and gay people need to make it clear that we regard ourselves as part of the Resistance. It isn’t clear now.
Martin Duberman and Queen Allyson at New York City Gay Pride Parade in 1995. [Photo by Electra O’Mara]
Again, it would be Sylvia. In my book Stonewall she was one of the key figures I featured. I interviewed her many times and at length, and got to know her well. She was all at once a remarkably tough and tender person. We stayed friendly after the book came out and I very much miss her electric personality.
What is your favorite Pride memory?
I was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the group then known as The National Gay Task Force. We were founded in 1973 and for the next five years I marched under their banner with movement legends like Bruce Voeller, Nath Rockhill, Ron Gold and Charlotte Bunch.
Why is it important for younger generations of LGBTQ people to stay engaged in the fight for equality?
Too many young gays, it seems to me, have become apolitical. They seem to think that VICTORY (to use one recent book title) has allowed us to forget about protest and political and focus on simply leading our own lives. Yes, there have been considerable advances in our general acceptance, but mostly for those who fit in neatly with the assumptions and outlook of middle class white culture.
Our national organizations—especially the Human Rights Campaign—are focused on still greater gains for that segment of the LGBTQ world that is already privileged. We need to do far, far more on behalf of those “bad” gays who remain outside the charmed circle—like teenagers, sex workers, polyamorists, S/M devotees, and HIV positive people.
Our official movement is disgracefully oriented towards achieving ever bigger pieces of the pie, when what we need in fact is a different pie—one that rages against the massive incarnation of people of color, the grotesque economic inequalities that characterize our country, the belligerent stance of our foreign policy, and so forth. We need to join forces with heterosexual radicals who are challenging the status quo and form a set of alliances that will exert real pressure on the powers-that-be.
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Danny595
This guy is really twisted. He wrote a book about Stonewall celebrating Rey (aka “Sylvia”) Rivera, a violent criminal and heroin addict. But actual historian wrote an actual historical account of the riot in 2004, universally considered the best and most comprehensively researched account of the event, and concluded that Rivera was not there. Duberman hypes the criminal Rivera because he wants gay people to think of themselves as “marginalized people,” like cross-dressing violent criminals and drug addicts, not as full members of the American community. He couldn’t care less what impact this has on LGB youth. When he sees young gay people getting married, rising in our careers, starting businesses, becoming community leaders – he isn’t happy about it. It makes him salty. He is an ideologue, and ideologues are always ready to sacrifice the truth and the well-being of others for their own agenda.
mujerado
Whatever he says about Sylvia Rivera (yes, I call transgender people by the name they prefer) Duberman is from a generation that had to be “ideologues.” I’m part of that generation too, and our community is where it is now because of the work of legions of people like him, people refusing to take the marginalization (yes!) afforded by society. Perhaps he has a blind spot where Rivera is concerned–that doesn’t undo anything else he’s said or done.
In case you haven’t noticed it, there are a lot of rejuvenated people today, not to mention our government, who want to re-marginalize us. We can either act up and fight back, or we can sit by and watch the marginalization happen. I don’t believe the younger generations of gay people (using the term generically) is any more ready to give up their equality than we were. Your anger is misplaced.
Danny595
mujerado – You don’t understand him or where he is coming from. He is a “radical queer.” He isn’t interested in equality for gay people. He opposed fighting for marriage equality. He opposed fighting for the right of gays to serve in the military. He thrives on the idea that gay people are permanently marginalized and alienated from societal institutions. He doesn’t want that to end. He doesn’t care about gay youth or gay elders or how any of his poisonous ideas actually impact us as people. He sees us as props in his ideological fantasy struggle. That’s why he says he wants us to focus on things like S&M issues. Meanwhile, he hasn’t done anything on any of the issues he talks about. He has lived a nice, easy affluent life in Manhattan in some cushy academic job, completely cushioned from the consequences of anything he advocates. He’s a selfish, arrogant, cruel fool and the only greater fools are the ones who follow him.
JPDonahue
Gee, Danny595…
What have you done? What makes you qualified as an expert on this? What are your credentials?
What are your resources? Where is your research?
You spew a lot of bile but offer no alternatives or solutions.
You seem really angry… yet… without focus.
🙂
Mo Bro
You’re right, Danny, regarding radicals not wanting to assimilate to society and preferring to remain on the fringes. Without victimization, liberals would be without an identity, for their very dogma rests on the idea that they’ve been trodden upon by straight white males.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
Keep it political and gay, not everyone else’s agenda but gays.
ErikO
It’s been LGBT from the start, but you are rewriting history.
Gay sepratists like you are silly and bigoted.
Danny595
Eriko- A gay person supporting gay rights is now “bigoted”? What kind of a fool are you? Also, it was not “LGBT” from the start. “LGBT” did not exist prior to the 1990s and it wasn’t widely used until the early 2000s. It was invented by trans activists who had their eyes on us – to use us and exploit us, to take our money and force us to work for them. That’s pretty much all “LGBT” is – a transfer of resources from LGB to T and never the other way around. A handful of radical gays went along with this scheme because they felt that the gay rights movement was becoming too mainstream and they liked the idea of forcing gay rights to be linked with transgenderism, a war on the “gender binary” and all the other crap that goes along with trans activism. It all went pretty much as they planned, but LGB people are getting wise to the damage that “LGBT” has done to us.
Tobi
@ErikO – I was there, marching, getting punched and spat on, oh and that was just by the cops. No, it wasn’t LGBT from the start. In the early days it was the Mattachine Society in the USA and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality in the UK. I was a member of both during the 1960-70s.
Richard 55
There’s a difference between party politics and sexual politics. I don’t think Duberman fully understands this.
Pride’s problem is that it has been hijacked by women and transgenders. Male homosexual desire has consequently been erased.
Never forget that it was male homosexual desire the authorities prosecuted. There was virtually no legal prosecution of lesbianism or transgenderism. Today’s activists have ignored this fundamental historical fact.
ErikO
Another idiot troll that wants to rewrite history.
Tobi
@ErikO – I’m in favour of dropping the T, sexual identity and gender identity are two entirely separate and different things. That doesn’t mean that I don’t support equality for the transgender community, just that their fight, isn’t my fight.
Danny595
@Tobi – They know that the 2 groups are different and that the fights are not the same. That is precisely why they invented “LGBT” in the first place. To force people like you and me to fight their wars for them — to spend our time, our energy and our money on them. “LGBT” is an example of how language is used to manipulate and limit thought. Absent “LGBT,” you would have a lot of gay people asking themselves “Why are our organizations spending all of their time on transsexual bathrooms? Why are we throwing away opportunities to pass gay rights laws in order to prioritize the issues of a different group? ” But with “LGBT” in place, such heretical thoughts can be overridden with mind-numbing appeals to fealty to “the community.” “LGBT” is the biggest scam ever run against a minority group in history. And LGB people are the marks.
Greeva
We Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers marched on Washington, Chicago, NY, LA, San Francisco and demanded equality while rocks, bottles, and bricks were thrown at us. Crowds of preachers and their ilk yelled horrible ill-informed biblical diatribes at us. More often than not, we were not sure whether we would come home alive or not. Unfortunately, sometime during the last 30 years, these political marches have morphed into “Pride Parades” that resemble Mardi Gras festivals. What we accomlished for ourselves and future generations pale in comparrison to the work that still needs to be done. We still don’t have Federal protections. There are still more States where you can be fired for being LGBT than there are not. The list goes on and that is why our parades should celebrate our pride and accomplishments, but they also need to be more political and demanding in terms of equality. We are still fighting, but we are also trying to pass the baton, but there are very few people who are willing to grab that baton and continue the fight.
Wolfie
Duberman fell into a dangerous circle for taking Rivera at her word about being at Stonewall. Numerous sources of confirmed individuals who were at Stonewall including trans=activist Miss Majors cannot place her there and Sylvia herself never mentioned being there until one interview many years later when she was trying to raise money for her group STARS. Marsha Johnson herself had stated many times that she and Sylvia did not join the riots until after it began and they were just 2 of hundreds of people who were involved.
I knew both Marsha and Sylvia. Both had problems both mental and addiction. But while Marsha was nice. Sylvia Rivera was a stark raving bitch.
http://www.back2stonewall.com/2016/06/the-true-history-of-the-stonewall-riots-june-28-june-31-1969-stonewall-45.html
Danny595
Wolfie- They are a bunch of liars and con artists. “Miss Major” also claimed: 1) that she was fighting off the police while the gays (whom she calls f*gs) were standing and watching her, 2) that she had her jaw broken and that 3) she was arrested. There is no evidence of any of this. Her claim to have been fighting alone while “f*gs” stood and watched is inconsistent with every other account of the riot. There is no evidence that anyone suffered a broken jaw. And when the NYPD released documents related to arrests at Stonewall a few years ago, she was not on the list. Nor is there any record of her in the NY Dept. of Corrections records.
These liars want to usurp gay history for their own ends. The truth is that rioters were overwhelmingly gay men from different walks of life. There was substantial straight male participation on the final evening. There were few lesbians involved overall, but one never-identified lesbian played a key role in initiating resistance to the police and another was among the people arrested. There is no evidence that “transwomen” were present in anything but trivial numbers, perhaps as few as 2 people, or that they “started” or “led” the riots as trans activists and their accomplices constantly claim. It’s so vile to see this event being distorted to see the contributions of so many brave gays and lesbians erased by these liars. It’s unbelievable that nobody knows the name of Ray Castro – a gay man who was really there, who fought and was arrested, and who lived an honorable life afterwards but everyone knows the name of a violent criminal named Rey Rivera who wasn’t even there.
Tobi
The transgender community are on a determined mission to try and erase Stormé DeLarverie, a drag king, whose scuffle with the police was the actual trigger for the Stonewall “rebellion”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm%C3%A9_DeLarverie
missuniverse
Martin Duberman is such a phoney !
I had him as a college professor at Lehman College in Bronx,NY in 1986 in a course called “History of Sex in America ” not only was he boring, he never mentioned not even once that he was Gay.