Opinion :: Letters
Letters to the Editor
Thursday Sep 11, 2008
Employees in Provincetown need some cultural awareness
I just returned from 11 mostly wonderful days in Provincetown, what my partner and I lovingly call "Gay Town U.S.A." I love it there it has been a place where I can feel free to hold my partner’s hand and kiss her in public with out fearing for my life. But this trip was very different. I am an African American lesbian, so going to P’town is very different for me than it is for my partner, who is white.
Okay, so P’town is mostly a white resort gay/lesbian place, and with that comes the "class" politics, etc. That is all very alive and real, and I have learned to live with and through this. But what struck me the most on my trip this year was how much I experienced being gawked at, having eyes rolled at me and in one instance a verbal insult from one of the workers who happen to be of African descent - from Jamaica. I understand that folks come here to the states to work in the resort towns for "The Season." I also understand that they see me and other gays that are black as "Batty." I feel sort of caught in the middle of things. I could ignore the black folks(like everybody else does because they are only "the help") but that’s not how I roll. Everyone deserves respect. But if I even say hello some of these men think in turn that they can flirt, or, as one man did, make comments about my "ass." I wanted to go to the Provincetown Board of Trade or whomever and report that man and ask that he not be given a passport to come back and work next year.
Here is this man feeling that he had some power over me, that he could speak to me in that way. And you better know that he would NEVER say anything like that to a white person, male or female, for fear of losing his job for sure. I don’t feel safe. If this man feels that he can speak to me in this way, what will his next step be? Again, I don’t feel safe, and I know that no one in that town -- no one that runs things -- has put any thought to what I as an African American lesbian has to deal with while on vacation.
I am not sure where I’m going with this letter. I just want to let folks know what I went through. So I’m putting it "out there" (no pun intended). What should I do? Stop going to P’town? Report this man? Suggest that the town have a training on how to treat the black guests" of P’town? Have any other black gay folks/folks of color out there experienced what I’m talking about? It’s hard enough to feel like I "belong" in P’town without having to go through of this too. So my gay family, what do you think?
Stay strong,
Ifé Franklin
Roxbury
Governor’s Council impacts LGBT community
To the Editor:
An obscure body that traces its lineage to the English Privy Council, the Massachusetts Governor’s Council is the gatekeeper for judicial nominations in the Commonwealth. Candidates for the judiciary, selected by the Governor, must win confirmation in the Council before they can don their black robes. While the Council’s business rarely interests the LGBT community, it must pass on the nomination of LGBT attorneys to the bench, and is able to assist or frustrate the goal of bringing greater diversity to the judicial branch. When the nomination of a LGBT candidate becomes controversial for reasons related to sexual orientation or gender, we get a rare but crucial opportunity to evaluate the elected Councillors and their commitment to equality and fairness.
Governor Patrick nominated the former co-chair of the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association, Maureen Monks, for the Probate and Family Court last spring. Monks was an experienced and highly qualified family lawyer who had won the respect of the community and her colleagues at the bar. Yet her nomination was engulfed in controversy over charges that she "taught same-sex marriage concepts to high school students," and suggestions that she was biased against men in family law disputes. The groundless accusations of hostility to male litigants smacked of a vicious anti-lesbian stereotype, and disgraced a body that is supposed to give serious and high-minded consideration to the individuals it must pass upon.
Monks narrowly won confirmation and now serves the Commonwealth with distinction. In the process, the LGBT community learned who its friends were on the Governor’s Council. The support of four councillors carried the Monks confirmation. On Tuesday, Sept. 16, vote in the Democratic primary for Michael Callahan, Thomas Merrigan, Kerry Timilty, and Chris Iannella. With LGBT judicial nominees coming before the Council in increasing numbers since the end of the Romney Administration, we must use our collective strength to insist that they be treated with respect and fairness.
Don Gorton, Esq.
Boston
In defense of Twofer
I would like to raise a voice for Brian Jewell and his cat. Brian is perfectly capable of writing discerning book reviews. He does it week after week, as well as incisively reviewing movies, plays, and music and penning the entire Arts section pretty much by himself. He’s a great writer, and I only hope that when my book comes out, he likes it well enough to keep it away from his cat.
Sincerely,
Cathy Jacobowitz
Boston
Remembering Del Martin
To the Editor:
Del Martin is a heroine who lived her life out loud when others were often terrified to do so, who led with integrity in word and deed and who demonstrated that courage is not an obscure concept reserved for only the anointed few.
Del fell in love with Phyllis Lyon in 1950 and never left her side until her death at age 87 on August 27, 2008. Together they published, protested, and persisted, living long enough to influence feminism, gay rights freedom and legislation and finally, to marry. In celebration of their life together and their accomplishments, Del and Phyllis were honored as the first couple to marry on June 16 in San Francisco, Calif.
The accomplishments of Del and Phyllis were staggering. The beauty of their five decades of commitment, a lifetime of activism and love, the covenant they shared in order to break through discrimination and secure equal rights for all people regardless of sexual orientation. I hope that everyone would celebrate their marriage as an example of what this important institution should be in the hearts and minds of independent individuals who love one another.
The civil institution of marriage cherishes the idea that two people can come together, forsaking all others. Marriage is a pledge of love, a promise to be there no matter what. Many who enter into the notion of marriage do so with every good intention to be by each other’s side forever. Not everyone, straight or gay, makes it, but Del and Phyllis showed us once again by their actions that whether marriage comes at the beginning or end of a lifetime of devotion, it matters.
Stephen Hartley
Pawtucket, R.I.
|
|
|
