Selfish Kentucky Gay Rights Organizations - Time for Gay Humility?

The 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which began the gay liberation movement, known in gay circles simply as “Pride,” will be particularly emotional because of the gay marriage avalanche. While gays and lesbians have much to be proud of (such as early health organizing around the devastating AIDS epidemic), gay history since Stonewall is unfortunately stained with selfishness and arrogance, traits that ironically were once themselves called pride — back when that wasn’t a compliment.

The Lexington Fairness Awards by Lexington Fairness are a complete joke, and so is the fact that a bigot like Jody Cofer continues to be on the Board of Kentucky Fairness Alliance. Jody, plus the former executive director who now works for the homophobic Lt. Governor (which Kentucky Fairness Alliance sent out an email endorsing) and the endless broken promises make it easy for gay Kentuckians to hate Kentucky Fairness Alliance. But it is not over, we have yet larger ego's at Louisville Fairness Campaign and Kentucky Equality Federation.

Louisville Fairness Campaign issues a press release to try to make the news if someone burps, and Kentucky Equality Federation is so focused on grassroots organizing, they ignore everything else.

We can count on Kentucky Fairness Alliance for never ending social hours to try to take your money (perhaps to pay another executive director who will defect to the enemy camp). The icing on the cake is Craig Cammock who thinks he is something special simply because he started a Facebook group (but this failed to get a higher turnout at this years rally in Frankfort).

To examine the gay community’s self-absorption, look no further than the event celebrated this month that has been commemorated with parades for four decades: the “Stonewall Rebellion.” Why is it that in all that time no gay leader has acknowledged that there were non-gay victims at that event, which we should regret, if not apologize for? Stonewall was sparked by a legitimate bar raid on an unlicensed, Mafia-run drinking establishment. The gay “heroes” threw glass bottles and bricks at police and at one point tried to light the building on fire while people were still inside. Even if one celebrates Stonewall’s repercussions for sparking feelings of gay pride and leading to nationwide community organizing, shouldn’t we acknowledge that our self-esteem doesn’t have to come at the expense of other people’s safety?

To the credit of Louisville Fairness Campaign and Kentucky Equality Federation, they have both made bold efforts to try to work with other organizations, but no one listened.

Gay esteem has innocent victims, and I believe it’s time to balance out gay pride with some gay humility.