Day 15, Poem 15: For Constance McMillen Grand Marshall at NYC PRIDE, 2010

Once upon a time,
Summer of '69
Dykes and Queens
seized the streets
Stonewall Inn
Gay revolt
One night
we chose to fight
not crawl away
See, Constance
this is why we celebrate

They had government files on us, Constance
called us UN-American
They called us Communists
anarchists
evil
You couldn't walk the streets
of Greenwich Village, NYC
hand in hand with your lover
No touching allowed
They charged us with indecency
No kissing
No cross-dressing
If stopped by police, by law -
women had to have 3 articles
of feminine clothing
on their person
or risk arrest
Businesses weren't allowed
to serve us
or let us dance
If they did and got caught
they were shut down
They raided the bars
every week
They put our names in the local papers
publicly outed us
called us unfit parents
obliterated us
and it was all legal, Constance
On the regular the police harassed us
They protected those who beat us
or helped
They refused to protect us
Constance, they called us crazy
and it was a clinical diagnosis
until 1973.
They institutionalized us
experimented on us
with electric shocks
and mind-altering drugs
and lobotomies
We were fired from our jobs
in the military
the government
the post office

Constance, they took God from some of us

But who would want
to pray to a God they
said must hate us?
Our families disowned us
They called us indecent
perverts
abnormal

Constance, you knew better
even in Mississippi
And we love you
and your girlfriend
and your predisposition to
men's clothing
and vagina
Come on, sister
But as you parade down 5th Avenue
and turn down 8th Street
towards the river
remember those Queens
in a bar on Christopher Street
locked up for being queer
and because of them we're here
Rock on, baby girl.
Word.