New Yawk City?!
So the Big Gay Bus rolls through the Lincoln Tunnel… We got in to the city fairly early in the afternoon, which was nice. We stayed at the Parish of St. Paul and Somebody up on the Upper West Side, just a few blocks from Central Park and the Met. It’s a Methodist church I think, maybe Lutheran, but a synagogue congregation also meets there Friday and Saturdays and they run a huge feeding and housing outreach program as well. We were to stay in their sanctuary (huge, with a big balcony) and in a couple of other rooms. After our tour Robin and Dawn and I went for a walk in the Park and then to CVS to purchase shoe polish and cute knee highs for the evening’s activities.
That night was our big fundraiser with our NYC donors. It was your usual booze and schmooze at a small gallery on the Lower West. I admit it was far from my idea of a good time, but there was a big crowd and they seemed happy to just sort of be in our presence. The guy with glasses from “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” was there too, and there were several speeches and whatnot. Mreh. I enjoyed dressing up and showing off my shaved head. Oh yeah, the shaving happened the last night in Pennsylvania. Jake tried to talk us out of it, saying that it wouldn’t look good in the press, and tried to pull this co-director BS. After 7 weeks he really should have known better. I told him I was considering dying it with a rainbow swirl and that made him go away. J
I decided to sleep in the sanctuary. It was decently comfortable, aside from the snoring of my lovely co-riders. The next day we were up early and on the Subway to head down to a church where we met community members for our action at West Point. Kerr-bear was there, which was pretty nifty. She got to meet people and catch up. We got a second bus for community members to ride, and those who were interested in engaging in civil disobedience. I decided a nap was more important, so rode on the quiet bus. It was lovely.
A few hours’ ride later we arrived in Great Falls. We had thought that we might be allowed on campus as tourists as we had been at the Naval Academy. However when we arrived we were stopped by MP’s and local police and told that we had been designated as a protest group and would be allowed in a cordoned off area outside the main gate but would be arrested if we went on campus. *sigh* So we hopped off the two buses, grabbed our gear, and marched nicely down to the gate. We had our little press conference and stood with the banner and all that. I got to be in charge of the tape across people’s mouths (black this time instead of tan), so that was kinda cool.
As for those going on campus, it was kinda funny. They all stood in a line with a speech (that Sweet Cane wrote) like at Liberty. The MP’s told them to get back, that they were a threat to national security yada yada. They were then escorted back out the other side of the gate. Jake tried to explain that he was just going to go back on campus because he wanted to talk to cadets etc. and the MP he was talking to just did not get it. She kept saying “you’re not allowed” and he kept saying “this is important, I need to do it”. So anyway after they were escorted off they just got back in line to continue the speech. The second time they were cited for trespassing and escorted off again. They did not have nearly enough police to process everyone efficiently, so they managed to give the whole speech more than once. Meantime I learned that it is very unpleasant to sneeze with tape across your mouth. Unfortunately the whole campus was on lockdown so we didn’t get to talk to any cadets then. Jake took the microphone and gave a lengthy and moving speech commemorating the end of the Ride and how much work we have to do in the future etc. It was great, but I’ve gotta say I was more worried about sunburn.
We had lunch and did a bit of shopping in Great Falls before we left. I got Cap’n Higgins an awesome banana-shaped harmonica that said “I went bananas at West Point” and it was funny ‘cause it was true. For some reason we decided to take the windiest road in the state back to the city, so it was not so pleasant a trip but okay.
When we got back to the church we were far overdue for a shower and a nap. Good times. THEN the really exciting thing happened. A couple of cadets had made secret undercover contact with some of our people while they were out at lunch, and they “arranged to get off campus” to meet us in the city. It was awesome. It ended up there were 11 of them and 8 of us, and we had pizza and beer and chatted. We got to share stories and contact info and all that. They were so sweet. One of them asked me “What’s it like to be out? I’ve never been able… I’m so scared” and I just wanted to squeeze her. She really loves the military but has a hard time. She was in the regular enlisted army for a while and said that it wasn’t nearly so much of a problem to be gay there. Anyway, we will hopefully keep in touch. I was really glad I was there.
That night was our big fundraiser with our NYC donors. It was your usual booze and schmooze at a small gallery on the Lower West. I admit it was far from my idea of a good time, but there was a big crowd and they seemed happy to just sort of be in our presence. The guy with glasses from “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” was there too, and there were several speeches and whatnot. Mreh. I enjoyed dressing up and showing off my shaved head. Oh yeah, the shaving happened the last night in Pennsylvania. Jake tried to talk us out of it, saying that it wouldn’t look good in the press, and tried to pull this co-director BS. After 7 weeks he really should have known better. I told him I was considering dying it with a rainbow swirl and that made him go away. J
I decided to sleep in the sanctuary. It was decently comfortable, aside from the snoring of my lovely co-riders. The next day we were up early and on the Subway to head down to a church where we met community members for our action at West Point. Kerr-bear was there, which was pretty nifty. She got to meet people and catch up. We got a second bus for community members to ride, and those who were interested in engaging in civil disobedience. I decided a nap was more important, so rode on the quiet bus. It was lovely.
A few hours’ ride later we arrived in Great Falls. We had thought that we might be allowed on campus as tourists as we had been at the Naval Academy. However when we arrived we were stopped by MP’s and local police and told that we had been designated as a protest group and would be allowed in a cordoned off area outside the main gate but would be arrested if we went on campus. *sigh* So we hopped off the two buses, grabbed our gear, and marched nicely down to the gate. We had our little press conference and stood with the banner and all that. I got to be in charge of the tape across people’s mouths (black this time instead of tan), so that was kinda cool.
As for those going on campus, it was kinda funny. They all stood in a line with a speech (that Sweet Cane wrote) like at Liberty. The MP’s told them to get back, that they were a threat to national security yada yada. They were then escorted back out the other side of the gate. Jake tried to explain that he was just going to go back on campus because he wanted to talk to cadets etc. and the MP he was talking to just did not get it. She kept saying “you’re not allowed” and he kept saying “this is important, I need to do it”. So anyway after they were escorted off they just got back in line to continue the speech. The second time they were cited for trespassing and escorted off again. They did not have nearly enough police to process everyone efficiently, so they managed to give the whole speech more than once. Meantime I learned that it is very unpleasant to sneeze with tape across your mouth. Unfortunately the whole campus was on lockdown so we didn’t get to talk to any cadets then. Jake took the microphone and gave a lengthy and moving speech commemorating the end of the Ride and how much work we have to do in the future etc. It was great, but I’ve gotta say I was more worried about sunburn.
We had lunch and did a bit of shopping in Great Falls before we left. I got Cap’n Higgins an awesome banana-shaped harmonica that said “I went bananas at West Point” and it was funny ‘cause it was true. For some reason we decided to take the windiest road in the state back to the city, so it was not so pleasant a trip but okay.
When we got back to the church we were far overdue for a shower and a nap. Good times. THEN the really exciting thing happened. A couple of cadets had made secret undercover contact with some of our people while they were out at lunch, and they “arranged to get off campus” to meet us in the city. It was awesome. It ended up there were 11 of them and 8 of us, and we had pizza and beer and chatted. We got to share stories and contact info and all that. They were so sweet. One of them asked me “What’s it like to be out? I’ve never been able… I’m so scared” and I just wanted to squeeze her. She really loves the military but has a hard time. She was in the regular enlisted army for a while and said that it wasn’t nearly so much of a problem to be gay there. Anyway, we will hopefully keep in touch. I was really glad I was there.
posted by Di at 7:50 PM
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