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at a Joyous Southern Celebration 'No More Bushit' Bob Kunst and GayToday's Editor Make Merry Bruce Vilanch is the Grand Marshall at Orlando's Gay Pride Parade
Although we endured repeated threats from rain clouds - light drizzling episodes throughout the late afternoon-Kunst managed to sell nearly $100 worth of "No More Bushit" bumperstickers and buttons that read "Buck Fush" and "Impeach the GOP". He also passed out hundreds of flyers that advertised Florida Fights Back, the video showcasing his activism along with fellow grassroots activists and best-selling authors protesting the theft by the Bush Brothers of Election 2000. Florida Fights Back, happily, was entered last week as an offering of the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival. http://gaytoday.com/viewpoint/061603vp.asp Kunst's flyer also sported a GayToday news story in which he waxed critical of Senator Bob Graham's presidential hopes. http://gaytoday.com/world/052203wo.asp In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling, Kunst was quoted at length by the mainstream media. As I sat beside him he happily gushed that he'd been aired on Public Radio's 11 markets, on WDBO Radio in Orlando, the Clear Channel in Miami/Tampa, and on a half hour radio show with Joyce Kaufman in Palm Beach. "A statement has been made of unbelievable proportions in the culture-war struggle," Kunst told Christopher Goffard of the St. Petersburg Times, "They have effectively said, 'Government cannot legislate morals.' " To me, as we chatted at his "No More Bushit" table preparing for the oncoming Orlando Pride parade and worrying about the weather, Bob Kunst let it all hang out. He said: "The Supreme Court has given our America a genuine platform on which we can build all of the many needed changes. Has anyone ever really thought that bodies and minds belong to Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell or to the Roman Catholic Bishops or to the State? Or does a person belong only to himself or herself? "When we consent to have personal pleasurable experiences, every one of those arbitrary laws can now be challenged by this ruling that goes way beyond making sodomy constitutionally protected. Roe v. Wade is now reinforced by this decision, and Falwell et al are correct when they say that all of these personal issues can now be challenged by this long-waited-for ruling. "In 1980 when we Floridians passed our radical Statewide Privacy Rights Constitutional Amendment, we led the campaign: 'All Natural Persons have the right to be free and left alone from government intrusion into our private lives.' "So while the Wing Nuts and Sexual Terrorists claim it's "capitulation to the gay and lesbian agenda", whatever that is, this new Supreme Decision can actually unravel the mess around regulating public behavior and private behavior among consenting adults. "Equally significant, is that with this one stroke, Massa ain't no longer in control of any of our lives. "More folks enjoy oral and anal sex and in far greater numbers than silly religious fanatics stuck in their overly serious reproductive missionary position can imagine. Their position eliminates the attitude that sex can be fun. These sad and pathetic preachers, now as before, are saying stupid things that fall on deaf ears. "Just because gays didn't have political rights, hasn't meant that we still weren't light years ahead of the general population enjoying our orgasms in ways that others only talk about or dream about. "Mind you, in 1983 oral sex between husbands and wives in a Virginia case wasn't supported by the Supreme Court. "Therefore functioning as a majority, the Court has changed the whole process on all affectional and sexual levels, on all emotional and political levels as well as economically and culturally. "The cover-up to hide reality has now been sent to the archives. "Coming out" is more vital now than ever, in seizing this moment to shove it down all of their homophobic throats, not only on what they're missing, but that because of their hang-ups, they're producing the social violence, which isn't coming from folks liberated about who they are: US! "Anita/Falwell/Robertson and their gangs have been severely schtooped by these Supremes. They've lost control and political dominance. This dominance, and who's on top, is their S & M way to get off. They're no longer on top. "We never needed or wanted their 'acceptance' to begin with. Filled with fear, guilt and their normalities of violence, who wanted or needed blessings from these bigots? Not I, nor any other first class person, never accepting being judged, especially by those in glass houses, never practicing what they keep preaching. "They always said it was "special privileges", and they were right. It is a special privilege to live in this nation, and especially now that we have finally been recognized, as much for the world to know US, as for us to be singled out in this case. "To understand how much police work, not to mention the enrormous resources this nation puts into restraining folks from getting high or having an orgasm is quite mind-boggling. At least Pee Wee Herman, can now relax a little. Is it any wonder we can't find Al Queda? "So we get to the key burning questions in all of this: "The Constitution is our Bible. It works. It's special. The Christian Ayatollahs bit the big one this time. "Accepting SELF goes way beyond the Supremes or Anita/Falwell. Self-acceptance supercedes all of the opinions of outsiders. Our tolerance for the pain caused by these no-goodniks is exhaustible, but it has strengthened our will and gives us both the education and the independence that makes us 'role models' for an alternative culture, and why we're feared so much. "We not only feel good, and taste good, but are good. Temerity counts, Stupid! "We have to reclaim those who've been whipped into involuntary submission, which is the body politic, now in the throws of discovering real freedom, a triumph over the Bushit practiced by both political parties. "Sodomy has saved us. This is the NEW Family of Values. This war has been won! Next? "Empowerment, multiple choice, the strength to overcome all that arbitrariness, independence and the pursuits of happiness, now take on new meanings for the world to also recognize and emulate. "Playing catch-up on some issues and leading in others, the USA is so much stronger now as a result of this decision. The last group needing protections got it. "The Bushitters will now have to find a new scapegoat. Probably immigrants. Having a scapegoat is, of course, how Hitler got started. Eric Hoffman wrote that totalitarian mass movements can develop without a god but not without a devil to chase. "The Nazis, made Jews expendable and everyone was vulnerable, with seven million Jews murdered and 60 million killed in WWII. "The right-wing loonies' yoke of tyranny, treating gays as second class is now broken, and now it's critical to make sure they don't resurrect their treachery and nastiness to go after anyone else, like immigrants, for example. We must never forget that over 500,000 gay and other Americans are now dead because of their AIDS Genocide program, a program initiated by evil GOP politicians who treated us as expendable. To get rid of us, they also allowed 10 million worldwide to die needlessly of AIDS. "When the Supreme Court 'selected' Bush and ignored the votes of the people, I'd lost all faith, and knew that the 5 who'd played this dirty game should spend the rest of their lives behind bars. "Now the latest Supreme Court decision has given me pause that there's still some hope left for this country waiting in the wings of such a sweeping decision and maybe also its happening because of the repercussions over Gore v. Bush. Perhaps the Court is making up for putting us in Bush's clutches. "All I know is that after 40 years of activism, fighting the good fight, today here I am with a table at Gay Pride in Orlando experiencing this new feeling: belonging. It compliments years of pioneering with all those magnificent folks that I've really been blessed with knowing and who made all those changes possible bringing us to this dazzling moment in history. "Whew! I get goose bumps just visualizing it."
I thought the parade would never end. Across the street I heard a recording of Bob Dylan singing Mr. Tambourine Man, one of my favorites from the 60s. As we walked along through downtown, I heard loud speakers in the streets, hosting the songs of the Village People. I smiled. It was a new day, this pride season, and there were many things to feel proud about. |
Veteran Activist Bob Kunst and GayToday
editor Jack Nichols discuss the rejuvenation
of their patriotic feelings in the wake of
last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision 
Gay comedian Bruce Vilanch was the Grand Marshall of Orlando's Pride Parade