Long time, no New Here. When you're the editor, it's just a little too easy to let yourself off the hook. Me to me: Column? I don't have time to write a column! Me answering me: Of course you don't, I understand perfectly, now go home and watch TV.
And anyway, I was beginning to think that the original concept had begun to lose its currency. I officially reached my one-year mark as a Floridian on June 7, the anniversary of the Lightning's Stanley Cup win, so I'm no longer exactly New. I know how to get around now: I've endured Malfunction Junction; I know which bridge to take where; I'm prepared for sudden lane changes. I've been to Cypress (though not Busch) Gardens; I've strolled the shores of America's No. 1 Beach; I've swum into Swiftmud. I've fallen in love with the lizards (if not the palmetto bugs), eaten BBQ and Bern's. I've been schooled in the legends of Greco and Pam, Sami and Betty, Baywalk and Biltmore, and I made the acquaintance, like the rest of Florida, with Charley and Ivan and Frances and Jeanne. I've even gotten used to the heat.
But then something comes along that makes me slap myself upside the head and think, "What kind of place IS this?"
Most recently, that something would be Ms. Ronda Storms.
Or, to be more exact, Ronda Storms and Jim Norman and the rest of the Hillsborough commissioner crowd (save Kathy Castor) who still seem to think gay pride is an oxymoron.
Hurricane Ronda's latest blast of bombast targeted the Hillsborough Public Library, as has been her wont of late. After complaints from a few parents, the West Gate branch in Town 'N Country dismantled a Gay Pride Month books display; then, after other patrons protested its removal, the display was remounted – only this time in a much less visible format, in another part of the library.
Then Ronda stepped in- and announced (with amens from Norman) that there was no place in a public library for a gay pride display at all. Why? Because she didn't want to have to explain sexual identity to her 6-year-old. "Whether we should have pride in homosexuality is a political perspective," she added, according to the St. Pete Times.
Maybe if I had a kid and there was a Ronda Storms Month display in the library, I'd feel equally upset about having to explain her. I'd have to confront the question of why the Ronda Stormses of the world, when they'd seem to have better things to do, spend so much of their time excoriating people who love each other.
By comparison, talking about homosexuality is easy: Some boys like girls, some boys like boys, some girls like girls, etc., etc. … in other words, the discussion hundreds of thousands of parents have with their kids every day, whether it's because they just saw a rerun of Will and Grace or they just had a visit from Uncle David and Uncle Larry. We're here, we're queer, and, amazingly enough, Ronda, lots of families are quite used to it.
As for such a display being political – damn right it is. Pride has been an issue for every minority discriminated against in this country. African-Americans stood up and said I'm proud of who I am and you can't erase me, and their stand challenged politicians and changed history. Displays of African-American pride are welcome in public libraries, as they should be. And so should posters and books that celebrate the lives of gays and lesbians and bisexuals and transgender people.
Yes, I equate gays' civil rights battles with those of other minorities, and I know that raises some hackles. But here's how dumb I am. Even though we're up against a right-wing backlash in this country, even though there are forces that are only too eager to whip voters into a homophobic frenzy, I kind of thought Gay Pride Month was pretty much a foregone conclusion. How many years have we been doing this now? Thirty-five? This is old news, people.
Or so I thought.
Scott Taylor, whose PR firm is responsible for getting the word out about the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, expresses similar dismay in the CreativeTampaBay newsletter out this week (www.creativetampabay.com). A native Floridian who returned to the area a few years ago after living in L.A., he wonders how Tampa can foster an image of diversity and creativity "when our elected officials use their bully pulpits to condemn gay men and lesbians."
And this past weekend, another Pride event took place in a Hillsborough County library: the third annual Loving Without Fear reading, organized by poet Steven Reigns. The keynote speaker was fiery attorney Karen Doering, regional counsel for the National Center for Lesbian Rights – and, ironically enough, a law school classmate of Ronda Storms.
Doering doesn't remember hearing much about Storms back then, which led her to ask the audience, "Why is Ronda suddenly emboldened?" One reason, she said, is because "We've got a president who says it's OK" – he's established a climate that allows gays and lesbians to be treated as "lesser than." But more than that, she added, it's because the gay community is willing to settle for less.
The bullies are taking the pulpit all across the country, she said, because gays and lesbians and their allies in both the Democratic and Republican parties have allowed it to happen. She finished with a rousing plea to the 50 or so men and women in the room to demand the "full loaf … to move beyond our comfort zones."
When I first heard about this event, I thought it sounded a little passé: Loving In Fear? Really, we still need to be afraid of being out and proud?
But then Ronda showed us that in Tampa, at least, it's still not OK. It turns out we need the loud, proud voices of people like Doering to remind us that we've got to keep coming out, every day.
The event, which also featured authors Conscious, Erick Alvarez and Reigns reading from their work, left me looking forward to this year's St. Pete Pride parade on the 25th. It'll be my first- and since my partner and I will be moving to St. Pete that same weekend, we'll have lots to celebrate.
I hope the parade-goers are good and loud – loud enough for Ronda Storms to hear it inside her fear-filled cocoon across the Bay.
Note: If you can't wait that long, Equality Florida urges anyone who wants to speak out about the library controversy to attend this week's Hillsborough County Commission meeting: Wed. June 15, 9 a.m., 2nd floor of County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.
This article appears in Jun 15-21, 2005.