[Warning: Lots of lavender links in this one!]
Try as we might, we keep missing gala events! First it was PFLAG's back-to-back fundraisers, then we missed the 26th anniversary celebration for BAGLY, honoring Rep. Alice Wolf of Cambridge (who recently tried to sneak by a bill requiring sex ed/homosex ed indoctrination from the earliest grades).
Now we find out too late that we could have attended the annual Mass. Gay & Lesbian Bar Association Dinner. ("MLGBA promotes the administration of justice throughout Massachusetts for all persons without regard to their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression." And that just about covers everything.) This was the group SJC Chief Justice Margaret Marshall promised to support back in 1999, appearing as their keynote speaker. She then went on to keep her promise. All highly unethical and contrary to the Code of Judicial Conduct, of course. (But this is Massachusetts...)
The keynote speaker at the MGLBA dinner, one Rachel Maddow, "is queer, very queer," according to our very queer source. She's apparently on MSNBC nightly at 11pm with Tucker Carlson (but who with a normal life can stay up that late?). Mark, at our very queer source, writes:
Rachel's keynote speech was important for the gay community of Massachusetts to hear. She spoke about our need to fight back against an administration that ignores the rule of law, rather than wasting our time responding to attacks from Rick Santorum. She said we should be proud to be different, proud to be a minority, and not obsess over assimilating. "We will never be normal," she yelled. [emphasis added]
After the event Rachel talked with Jenn ["a queer femme"] and I [sic] about how she agrees that if we look at all of our struggles through the singular lense of gay marriage it will hurt us as a community, we must broaded [sic] our scope and form coalitions.
Grace Sterling Stowell also gave an inspiring speech in which she encouraged the audience to think about the needs of LGBT Youth and the Trans Community who are so often forgotten by the mainstream gay community. [Check out "her" speech at last year's GLSEN conference!]
Larry Kessler also received an award. Larry has been an anti-war activist, founded organizations to feed the hunger and shelter the poor, and founded the Aids Action Committee of Massachusetts [publisher of the Little Black Book].
Overall the speeches and awardees were as queer as it gets.
