Richie is My Name's video: GENDER-FLUID: My Experience

PRIDE 2023 is upon us. The point of celebrating *PRIDE* is to highlight the sacrifice and backbone of LGBTQ+ people, and to honor the seminal events of the Stonewall Inn uprising, a moment in history when gay men and women, long tired of institutional harassment by the NYPD and, to a lesser extent, the mafia controlling gay bars in New York City, stepped out of the shadows and took back the stage, demanding *RESPECT* and finding, in the process, a politically potent VOICE that would help bring change in the decades to come. On June 28, 1969, a warm, full-mooned Saturday night in Greenwich Village, hundreds of gay street kids, fems, drag queens, trans-women, butch lesbians, regular barhoppers, men and women of color had had enough. They gathered on Christopher street in front of the Stonewall Inn, a popular stomping ground where gay people danced freely with each other and were able to be their true selves. After another police raid too many, patrons were fed up. Tempers flared and skirmishes broke out. A lesbian was severely beaten by police after she resisted arrest. As crowds looked on and became outraged, patrons re-positioned themselves and forced the police into the bar, all but trapping them inside. The police, now cornered with their guns drawn, called for immediate backup. The tables had turned. In a moment like Stonewall - a flashpoint when all the forces of the universe came together and collided in and around Christopher Street - you could witness a living, breathing *MASS* of freedom fighters reach full *MOMENTUM.* In the 5 days that followed no one could have predicted what would happen next: amid the riots and the celebration, the fire and the smoke, the glitter and all the broken glass, came a realization there was no turning back, and certainly no letting go of a new-found power that came when gay people rallied together and demanded change. The gay civil rights movement crystalized that night, and in the years that followed, gays and lesbians across the country looked to Stonewall as a turning point in the struggle for equal rights and protections under the law. Today, five decades later, we are no closer to fulfilling the *DREAMS* of our queer ancestors who stood up first and said enough was enough. It’s hard to imagine but we are under siege like no time before. An emboldened religious right, Republican-led state legislatures, Trumpian goons, school boards and civic organizations, right-wing billionaires and media figures, among others, are all bent on canceling gay history and silencing our voices, returning us to the *SHADOWS* where they think we belong. Bans on transgender youth, attacks on gender-affirming care, school censorship bills, and other culture war issues, do nothing but strengthen the chances that our hard-fought rights are next to be cut. Nefarious forces are at play here, helping to mainstream and normalize hate and exclusion, and then disguise it as a legitimate reaction against all things “woke” and “progressive”. Don't stand for it. Hate is hate. What’s the solution? Become *ACTIVE* in and *WIRED* to the election process. Let your elected leaders know how you feel and think. Get out and vote! And like our Stonewall brothers and sisters before us, let us STAND and let our voices be heard once again. RDO, June 2023 Music credits: "Something Better” ((Richard D. Olson)). Performed by Richie [Piano: David Dow / Production: David Dow / Recorded at Aurora Music Productions, Modesto CA]. Richard D. Olson © 2023. All Rights Reserved.