From: Don Gorton <dgorton@verizon. net>
Subject: [Peckers_Pics] What's good about America
To: Peckers_Pics@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Monday, July 5, 2010, 1:13 AM
As I listen in to the Pops concert that defines the 4th of July celebration in Boston, I am very aware that there is much about this country unworthy of celebration. I am thinking back to the gay “pornography� scandal at Smith College in 1960, the year I was born. Three closeted gay professors, Joel Dorious, Newton Arvin, and Edward Spofford, were arrested for possessing pictures not dissimilar to those which Jake is gracious enough to share with us every day. In that day, any suggestive image of an attractive man shirtless could be deemed to be “pornography� by the police. Witchhunts were the rule, not the exception where homosexuality was involved. The careers of the three Smith professors were ruined naturally, even if the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts did overturn their convictions in 1963. (For more information see the obituary of Prof. Dorius from 2006: http://www.nytimes. com/2006/ 02/20/obituaries /20dorius. html )
I am proud to say that the America that persecuted its citizens for experiencing same-sex desire is very different 50 years after the Smith College scandal. We need not fear the FBI or the Post Office or state police or any other agency rounding up the members of this list serv and charging us with possession and distribution of pornography. We aren’t where we want to be 41 years after Stonewall, but being exposed as gay is no longer the firing offense as it was for the Professors at Smith College. There is much symbolism in the fact that, for several years leading up to the Stonewall Riotsâ€"and one week after the riots in 1969â€"gays and lesbians protested on the 4th of July in annual “Remindersâ€� at Independence Hall in Philadelphia that all Americans did not enjoy the blessings of liberty and the pursuit of happiness championed in the Declaration of Independence. We have advanced the LGBT cause over the years by drawing on the Enlightenment ideals upon which this country was founded. We are determined yet to have America live up to the constitutional promise of equal protection of the law.
America the Beautiful, the lyrics of which were written by a lesbian from Boston (in the 19th century), captures America’s inspired quality for correcting its mistakes and striving to do better that make the 4th of July so meaningful. The second verse challenges us: “America! America! God mend thine every flaw ….â€� True patriotsâ€"doing God’s workâ€"are still about the unfinished business of securing freedom and justice for all Americans. That is reason to celebrate.
Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans!
Don
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you
bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is
within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
--Jesus Christ, Gospel of Thomas, v. 70
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