Standing with community on Pride Weekend

Last updated on: June 26, 2016 at 10:27 pm by Brandy Williams

Standing with community on Pride Weekend 2016-06-26T22:27:29-07:00 Brandy Williams

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Photo courtesy of the literary estate of James Moore

It’s Pride weekend in Seattle. On Wednesday night a trans activist leaving a fundraiser for victims of the Orlando shooting was approached by a white man who said “happy Pride” before launching a vicious face-punching attack that landed the survivor in the hospital. It’s being investigated as a hate crime. The activist showed up on the news surrounded by community, including angry and sorrowful police officers.

The crowd of community supports and protects. I’m in that crowd. In the mid-1980s I walked the Pride Parade with Lavender Magic. It was a much smaller affair back then. We had a few floats, some trucks, leather women and men on motorbikes, most of us were on foot. The parade ended in a park where we laid around on the grass and talked to each other for the rest of the day. It felt both celebratory and dangerous. We bravely stared down the people holding signs telling us they disapproved of us.

Lavender Magic marched under a banner, beating drums and singing. Friends of mine put the crew together, Leon Reed, Allen Kornmesser, Tim Ness and James Moore/Laughing Otter. The photo of Laughing Otter above looks like it was actually taken at the park after the parade. We lost Laughing Otter to AIDS in 1988. We lost a whole generation of Radical Fairies and Witches and shamans and sacred clowns, now become ancestors.

The Lavender Magic crew drew me in and we came out together as gay, lesbian, and magicians! I used to say I’m not gay but I’m not straight either. I’m poly, I’m kinky, and I regularly challenge gender straightjackets. I don’t “other” LGBTQ people. I don’t think of myself as an “ally”. I think of myself as part of the community. Leon, Laughing Otter and my absent and present friends gave me that.

Nuit says “Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love!” While people who march in Pride are still being assaulted all the community’s friends are needed. We stand together, we remember the ones we have lost, we fight fiercely for the freedom of all.

Are you in that crowd?

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