Lest we forget, this movement did not start with straight acting, straight-looking gay white males or females. The majority of gay bashings across this country are not gay bashings, but bashings of transgender individuals. And the most progressive thought toward a more diverse movement of queer people springs from the minds of people of color. There could not have been one third the number of people at this march as in 1993. But then we are not faced today with Amendment 2 and Proposition 9.
Reactionaries usually fizzle out after the party is over.
The real work continues in the communities where there are not gay ghettos, where unsung heroes risk their safety to be themselves and where same sex couples live together even without a public sanction of their marriage. Many people did a lot of hard work to make this event a success and they are to be commended for it. But let us not get complacent, thinking that the work is anywhere near done. If anything, this was a measuring stick, and three blonde lesbian entertainers do not a movement make. Radical simply means grasping things at the root.