In Remembrance

Last week, one of the pioneers of the Gay Rights Movement, Danny Garvin, passed away after a long battle with hepatitis and cancer.  In 1969, Danny, along with his partner Martin Boyce, were homeless LGBT youth living on the streets of New York City.  Danny and Martin were there on June 20,1969 when the modern Gay Rights movement was born out of the riots caused by the raid on the Stonewall Inn by the NYPD.  He was there when Miss New Orleans, the homeless trans girl uprooted a parking meter and used it as a battering ram to destroy the door of the Stonewall Inn, behind which the police had retreated in fear.  Many of the warriors who ignited our movement that night were homeless LGBT youths, who then, as now, made the West Village their home.  Danny overcame his homelessness and built a life with Martin, but he never forgot where he came from.  His time as a homeless youth helped shape the man who became a tireless advocate for homeless Gay youth working closely with the Ali Forney Center in New York.  

"I wish there had been something like the Ali Forney Center for me when I was on the streets. Maybe I would not have had to live so many nights of out lockers in Port Authority on 42nd St. Or sell myself for 8 dollars to have a bed to sleep to in and a place to shower. Just some place to be hidden from the world until the next day when it would all start all over again. I know I would have robbed less food from stores just to get something to eat."

Danny contracted hepatitis while he was homeless and it shortened the length of his life, but did not sap him of his resolve to advocate on the behalf of our young people.  Danny was featured in the PBS documentary Stonewall Uprising, speaking about the consequences of that momentous night:

"We became a people. We didn't necessarily know where we were going yet, you know, what organizations we were going to be or how things would go, but we became something I, as a person, could all of a sudden grab onto, that I couldn't grab onto when I'd go to a subway T-room as a kid, or a 42nd Street movie theater, you know, or being picked up by some dirty old man. You know, all of a sudden, I had brothers and sisters, you know, which I didn't have before. There was no going back now.... We had discovered a power that we weren't even aware that we had. "

Last June, Danny and Martin were welcomed to the White House Pride Celebration by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama (see photo below) in honor of their many years of selfless advocacy over the many years since that fateful June so long ago.  In 1969, as in 2014, to be open about being LGBT put youths at terrible risk of homelessness. Then, as now, LGBT kids were suffering on the streets. Then, as now, many had to turn, like Danny, to hustling in order to survive.  The Stonewall uprising was the birth of our LGBT movement. That night the street kids and hustlers and scare queens helped create the space for the rest of us to be out, to be proud.  We should never forget those who came before us that led us to where we are today.  The journey is not yet finished, but we are so much further along because a homeless street kid helped birth the movement that has brought us from then to now.  RIP Danny Garvin, you will be missed.
(For original source article and additional photos: click here) 

Your Musical Moment for today features the Music of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach with his Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano and his Concerto for 2 Harpsichords.  Today performance is by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra featuring Ton Koopman on Harpsichord and Conducting and Tini Mathot on Piano and Harpsichord.   You may also hear C P E Bach's Cello Concerto in A Major with a performance by Ensemble Baroque Limoges featuring Christophe Coin as your Cello Soloist over on my tumblr.

Finally for today, to decorate out lives and inspire us is this week's edition of Tuesday's Temptations.  In my selections, I sought to once again choose models who while vying to lead you down the garden path are prime candidates for anyone's Erotic Christmas Wish List.  Additional inspiration may be found in your Hottie of the Day!, Kris Kranz over on my tumblr.  Thank you for the visit see you tomorrow for Christmas Eve.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!