So You Want to Be a Lesbian? by Liz Tracey

“Stuff bubbles up from your unconscious,” she tells me in a goldfish bowl of a meeting room at Virgin Records’ London office. Before she knew it, a St Augustine catechism was sharing space with her own forthright views on sanctimony. As disconnected thoughts and sentiments began to surface, she would think, I’m not sure where that came from, but I’m going to go with it. While working on lyrics for Everything But the Girl’s triumphant new album Fuse, Tracey Thorn was struck by a familiar sensation. I’m tired of their silence more than Briggs’ lies! I’m tired. But I’m even more tired of the silence from educators and psychologists who know that Briggs is lying and yet say nothing. I’m tired of their silence more than of her biblical gymnastics!Īnd I’m tired of John Briggs talking about false role models. But I’m even more tired of the silence from the religious leaders of this nation who know that she is playing fast and loose with the true meaning of the Bible. I’m tired of listening to the Anita Bryants twist the language and the meaning of the Bible to fit their own distorted outlook. Gay people, we will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets…we are coming out! We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions! We are coming out to tell the truth about gays!įor I’m tired of the conspiracy of silence. The blacks did not win their rights by sitting quietly in the back of the bus. McCabe, I say that the day he stops talking about freedom is the day he no longer has it. In the Chronicle, Charles McCabe warns us to be quiet, that talking about gay rights is counter-productive. In the Examiner, Kevin Starr defames and libels gays. These anti-gay smear campaigns, these anti-gay columns, are laying the groundwork for the Briggs Initiative. Here, in so-called liberal San Francisco, an anti-gay smear campaign was waged by so-called liberals.Īnd here, in so-called liberal San Francisco, we have a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, a columnist named Kevin Starr, who has printed a number of columns containing distortions and lies about gays. An anti-gay smear campaign was waged against a presiding judge because she was supported by lesbians and gay men. Here, in San Francisco, we recently held an election for a judgeship. On this anniversary of Stonewall, I ask my gay sisters and brothers to make the commitment to fight. We are not going to allow our rights to be taken away and then march with bowed heads to the gas chambers. We are not going to sit back in silence as 300,000 of our gay sisters and brothers did in Nazi Germany. We are not going to allow that to happen.

I want to recruit you for the fight to preserve your democracy from the John Briggs and the Anita Bryants who are trying to constitutionalize bigotry. My name is Harvey Milk-and I want to recruit you. “ That’s What America Is”: Delivered by San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, J(Gay Freedom Day)

So You Want to Be a Lesbian? by Liz Tracey