March 16, 2014.
When I see the work of The Williams Institute, and Lambda Legal, and the various LGBT centers around the country, I think obviously of what the early movement founders would think and how happily surprised at how good these resources are.
While I feel that ONE magazine then, and our community publications today, the media, are a great part of the success of the movement, and Don Slater and other early journalists deserve credit, it is clear that the other parts of the ONE, Inc., effort, the educational, and their legal efforts such as to assure the right to publish the magazine (Dorr Legg’s part,) is equally important. It gives the evidence to the media to combat the lies of the bigots.
Both efforts are necessary if the members of our community are to know what is going on and also to know the truth, and that means they need to know about themselves. It is good to say, “I’m here, I’m queer, get over it.” But when they hear lies, they need to know the truth to combat those lies.
That was the first thing we had to accomplish to succeed — how did these people today get to the “place” where they could say, “I’m queer”?
They were not saying it in 1950.
