The Protocols of the Yuppies of Zion

June 29, 2003

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

It's been quite a month for gay rights. Canada is about to start recognizing gay marriages--not that "civil unions" separate-but-unequal crap, mind you, but actual maah-widge, that thing that bwings us togedder tooday ‹/Princess Bride›. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned all state sodomy laws in their 6-3 decision in Lawrence, and the wording of their decision seems to have purposely left open a door for possible eventual gay (and polygamous) marriage rights. Even Scalia's dissent noted as much, though he was doing so with barely concealed hostility to the idea. (As one comments-poster on MetaFilter put it, Scalia can shove his dissent up his ass--and now he can do it legally!) And then this weekend are many of the traditional Pride parades, including New York's, where they mark the 33rd anniversary of the Stonewall riots that led to the birth of the modern gay rights movement. All in all, a thoroughly gay old time.

So what better way to commemorate such a progressive and uplifting week in American history than with a recording of...Judy Garland singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Campy and overwrought, most certainly, but also terrific. I ripped the audio off of a Betamax tape of a 1985 PBS broadcast of some of her old TV show episodes. She never released the song on CD that I'm aware of (though the video version was rushed to DVD in the wake of 9/11), and the song itself is long out of copyright, so posting the MP3 here should be okay. Incidentally, people tend to forget the role Judy played in the early gay rights movement; besides being the namesake of the ole timer gay codephrase "friend of Dorothy" (as in her role in The Wizard of Oz), it was Judy's death that actually sparked the Stonewall riots. Her untimely demise left thousands of New York queers despondent and pissed off, and when the cops raided a local watering hole, the Stonewall Inn, the following night, the surly bar patrons refused to be hustled off to jail once again, and instead fought back against the cops and started a three-day riot. Check out a reprint of the original 1969 New York Daily News article about the raid--it's insulting in the extreme (check out that headline!) and an unintentionally poignant reminder of what the world was like for queers, even in supposedly liberal New York.

Thankfully, times have changed quite a bit. So here's to my fellow queer bloggers out there, with links to recent and not-so-recent posts of theirs talking about gay rights: Rossi, Jessica, Sean, Andrew, Dave, Nancy, Ernie, Aaron. All of them are smart and funny people worth reading often, if you aren't already. Happy Pride, y'all!

UPDATE: I should point out that Scott did have the idea first of posting a song in response to the Lawrence ruling. But his is dirty.