"CITY OF LOVE" as 2007 SF Pride theme

To the SF Bay Times,


The year 2007 will be the 40th anniversary
of the hippie "Summer of Love" (1967)
and the 3rd anniversary of our queer "Winter of Love" (2004).

Let's honor both, by choosing "CITY OF LOVE"
as our 2007 SF Pride theme.
Perhaps the phrase might evolve into an enduring nickname
for the City of San Francisco,
replacing "city that knows how".

Assimilationist queers may wonder what bohemian counter-culture(s) have to do with
current attempts to enter square institutions like matrimony and the military.
But those two efforts, which I applaud,
aren't the whole herstory of queerdom.

Let's remember how "bohemian" circles, especially in the performing arts, literature, painting, etc., provided cover and tolerance for queers and feminists and genderbenders,
back in the Bad Old Days of repression.
In the 1920s and 30s, a "bohemian" bar was often a place where queers could feel safe, even if most patrons were non-queer. In the 1950s and 60s, non-queer beats and hippies embraced openly queer Allen Ginsberg as one of their main leaders.

And here in SF, the 60s Haight hip community was the direct ancestor, culturally and geographically, of the 70s Castro queer community -- as vividly illustrated in the short life of Harvey Milk.




Tortuga Bi LIBERTY,
for Senior Unlimited Nudes (SUN),
San Francisco

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P.O. Box 426937-SUN
SF, CA 94142-6937