Past is Present

For Pride Month, PBS has been airing specials on Stonewall as well as "The Lavender Scare" when gays and lesbians were fired from the government, in an extension of the Red Scare about Communists. I'd not heard the story of Frank Kameny before, but it was very interesting. Good that he lived to see the change in society. There were sad, tragic stories of men and women in the closet afraid of losing everything if they were outed and fired. To think, the policy didn't officially end until decades later.

I also saw Rocketman this week, with Elton John's flamboyant concert performances, yet his personal life in a turmoil. Needing love and only getting abuse and a predatory manager using him for the money and power. Elton's brief marriage to a woman is shown as a misguided effort to try to clean up his life from drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, etc. but of course it didn't "cure" him. Some of the surreal fantasy elements of the movie were a little much, but it made possible touching moments like when he hugs his younger self Reggie as he lets go of self-hatred. It's a very personal look at life in the closet back then, and the loneliness arising from his mother's cutting remarks about him never finding real love while homosexual.

Meanwhile, the present continues to be horrific as well. Not learning the lessons of history, and the administration looking to reopen a former Japanese internment camp to house the migrant children. It's so outrageous that a fiction writer couldn't invent this stuff. We're supposed to be grateful that Trump changed his mind about this threats, even though he's such a chaotic, fickle liar, that of course he won't follow through on anything. What he's done already is bad enough.

The first debates of the Democratic candidates are coming soon. I really wish a lot of them would drop their campaigns and run for Senate instead. The field is too crowded. Boo to Beto abandoning us Texans, leaving MJ Hegar to fight for us instead. Will have to send her more money when I can.