Nov 5, 2017
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I knew I didn't put these in my Waitressing pen rotation and put them in a very safe place as soon as @joviesamsmum gave them to me. Big Hugs Sistah, here if you need me. Seems like we're saying Goodbye to so many Friends far too early for so long now. Doesn't get any easier. @eddieb76 wrote this last night for @kexp because they are doing a Radio Show about something we all know too well. They happen to be doing it today, the day we say "See you on the Other Side" to our Friend. Be advised, this one has a Warning Label on it, but it's very real and thought it should be out in the World. Rest Easy Buddy. . . . I’m out of words. Seems like we lose another friend or two. Every year or two. Today we bury our friend Shawn. I remember when Luther died. Seemed like a freak accident at the time. Mechanicville 2001 maybe. Can’t remember if Matt went before Duffy. Duffy really hurt, I loved him. Man, he could play that guitar. Somewhere in thereafter, we lost Sonny too. We all had a friend in common or two. Barry had a smile that sang a thousand songs. Today we bury our friend Shawn. A few years back Todd left behind all those beautiful kids. So many kids, who’ll never see their dads again. Todd had a smile that sang a thousand songs. Fentanyl Alcohol Depression Cocaine Booze Heroin Bipolar Pills Subs Crack Benzos Bath Salts All related. Nobody ever wants to talk about those cousins and friends. There are a few that I didn’t know so well. Alex. That was just recently it seems. He was always cool with me. Aaron, man. He could really play that guitar. Tommy. Tommy Motherfucking J. Today we bury our friend Shawn. My homie. My brother in arms. Marcus Gage. Singin. Dancin’ with Tuff Gong right now. Mark went to high school with Shawn. So did I. So different and so alike. There’s more. But like I said, I’m out of words. And I’m tired of writing songs to my dead friends. Today we bury our friend Shawn. #toosoongone https://www.instagram.com/p/BxzrxapHrGY/?igshid=ba0ksxouy5j9
"The Photo That Changed The Face Of AIDS," David Kirby (December 6, 1957 - May 5, 1990) and family, Columbus, Ohio, May 5, 1990. Photo by Therese Frare (@tfrare), c/o @time. David Kirby, who died--and whose final moments were recorded--twenty-six years ago today, was estranged from his family after coming out. In the late 1980s, however, upon learning that he had contracted HIV, Kirby reconnected with his family; he wanted, he said, to come home to die. In the fall of 1990, Ohio University student Therese Frare volunteered at a local AIDS hospice in Columbus, where she worked with a caregiver named Peta; Peta, a genderfluid, HIV-positive Native-American, had a close relationship with David Kirby, who, by then, was a hospice patient. Frare recalled later, “On the day David died, I was visiting Peta. Some of the staff came in to get Peta so [Peta] could be with David, and [Peta] took me...I stayed outside David’s room, minding my own business, when David’s mom came out and told me that the family wanted me to photograph people saying their final goodbyes. I went in and stood quietly in the corner, barely moving, watching and photographing the scene. Afterwards I knew, I absolutely knew, that something truly incredible had unfolded in that room, right in front of me.” The picture, from which Frare refused to take any profit, received a World Press Photo Award, and became the center of a worldwide controversy when Benetton used it in a 1992 ad campaign. After their son's death, Bill and Kay Kirby remained close with Peta, and the Kirbys ultimately became Peta's caregiver as Peta succumbed to HIV/AIDS in 1992. Kay Kirby remembered, "My husband and I were hurt by the way David was treated in the small country hospital near our home where he spent time after coming back to Ohio. Even the person who handed out menus refused to let David hold one [for fear of infection]. She would read out the meals to him from the doorway. We told ourselves that we would help other people with AIDS avoid all that, and we tried to make sure that Peta never went through it." #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #davidkirby #peta #toosoongone (at Columbus, Ohio)
Mothers and Fathers In Support of Gays -- No One is Free Unless We Are All Free," Jeanne Manford, Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade, New York City, c. 1975. Photo from @pflagnational. On April 29, 1972, two weeks after Morty Manford and other member of the Gay Activists Alliance were assaulted violently during an otherwise routine protest at the New York City Hilton, a letter from Morty's mother, Jeanne Manford, appeared in the New York Post. In addition to praising the Post for its coverage of the Hilton incident, Jeanne Manford made her support for her son and the LGBT community clear: "I am proud of my son, Morty Manford, and the hard work he has been doing in urging homosexuals to accept their feelings and not let the bigots and sick people take advantage of them...I hope that your [] coverage of the incident has made many of the gays who have been fearful gain courage to come out and join the bandwagon. They are working for a fair chance at employment and dignity and to become a vocal and respected minority. It is a fight for recognition such as all minority group must wage and needs support from outsiders as well as participants in the movements." Two months after her letter, Jeanne and Jules Manford marched with their son at the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade, with Jeanne carrying a sign that read "Parents of Gays United in Support for our Children"; Jeanne Manford later explained that the reaction she received that day helped her understand the need for a support group made up of parents and friends of lesbians and gays. Over the coming years, the Manfords were instrumental in organizing Parents of Gays, which became Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, now known simply as PFLAG, which today has 350 chapters and over 200,000 members in the United States. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #mortymanford #toosoongone #jeannemanford #julesmanford #pflag (at Fifth Avenue)
Morty Manford, arrested during a Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) protest, New York City, c. 1971. Photo by Richard C. Wandel, @nyplpicturecollection. On April 15, 1972, forty-four years ago today, the Inner Circle, an American parody group made up of reporters and television and radio personalities, gathered at the New York Hilton for its fiftieth annual national gala. To capitalize on the gathering of prominent figures, the GAA (of which Morty Manford was a founding member) descended on the Hilton in the hopes of drawing attention to the gay liberation movement. While accounts from inside the Hilton vary, there is no question that a number of GAA members violently were removed by off-duty city officials. In the night's worst incident, Mickey Maye, a former Golden Gloves boxer and then-head of the New York City firefighter's union, confronted Manford and a fight started; according to witnesses, Maye threw the twenty-three year old Manford down an escalator, followed him, then kicked and stomped him while Manford tried to stand up. Despite the witnesses, Maye was acquitted of assault charges. The incident, however, not only intensified Morty Manford's commitment to the cause, it also galvanized his mother, Jeanne Manford, into action, and she spent the rest of her life fighting for LGBT equality. Namely, Jeanne Manford, along with her husband Jules, went on to co-found what became Parents and Families of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). Morty Manford died of AIDS-related illness on May 14, 1992; he was forty-one. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #mortymanford #toosoongone #jeannemanford (at New York Hilton Midtown)
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 - September 26, 1937), February 3, 1936. Photo by Carl Van Vechten @libraryofcongress. Bessie Smith, "The Empress of the Blues," came to national prominence in 1923, as she started to record a string of successful records for Columbia Records, including "Downhearted Blues," St. Louis Blues," "Empty Red Blues," and the hit "Gimme a Pigfoot (And A Bottle Of Beer)." Her tumultuous marriage to Jack Gee, which ended in separation though not in official divorce, could not survive her life on the road nor her open bisexuality. The Great Depression nearly destroyed the American recording industry, and, while Smith continued to tour, she lost the fame and wealth of her early recording days. Smith was critically injured in a car crash on September 25, 1937, and she died the next morning in a segregated hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi; she was forty-three. Smith's grave remained unmarked until August 1970, when a tombstone--paid for by Janis Joplin and Juanita Green--was erected. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #gay #bi #trans #lesbian #pride #bessiesmith #empressoftheblues #toosoongone (at Clarksdale, Mississippi)
"EVERY CHILD SHOULD BE FREE FROM BIGOTRY -- I have been taught love," Morty Manford and unknown, Christopher Street Liberation Day, June 1976. Photo c/o @pflagnational. In the past year, nine out of ten LGBTQ students were the victims of verbal harassment at school (source: @glsenofficial). In 1996, students at the University of Virginia organized the first Day of Silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying. The following year, the Day of Silence went national, and, in 2001, @glsenofficial became the event's organizational sponsor. This year's Day of Silence will be held tomorrow, April 14, 2016, in schools around the world. #mortymanford #toosoongone #dayofsilence #dayofsilence2016 #breakthesilence #glsenproud (at Christopher Street)
"Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of those courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions....I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'" -- Coretta Scott King, April 1998, during events marking the thirtieth anniversary of her husband's assassination. Photo: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968), March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, D.C., August 4, 1963. Photo by Francis Miller. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #gay #bi #trans #lesbian #poz #black #pride #corettascottking #martinlutherking #toosoongone #thedreamendures (at Lincoln Memorial)