Stonewall 2.0: The Awakening

Photo taken during today's protest march at the Texas state capitol in Austin by Warren and Derrick; see theirs and other photo albums at the Towleroad site. Pam's House Blend also has a Flickr slideshow album that includes a bunch of great photos from the Dallas rally.

By all accounts, it's been a truly great day: many thousands of gays and straights, old and young, pretty and paunchy, all sizes, colors, and shapes turned out all over the land to say a great big NO to hate and injustice and inequality; and a great big YES to liberty and justice for every single American. I've yet to hear of a single ugly incident; reports are that the crowds everywhere were peaceful, polite, and friendly. That's grand.

The title of this post reflects the names given to today's resurrected gay rights movement by Rex Wockner and Andrew Sullivan, respectively. (Political purists, go easy on me; I've been proudly gay for more than half my life, I love the word, it's my identity, but that covers everybody else too, in my mind.)

Now is the time, the tipping point. No turning back. Full equality for all the queer, outcast, unwanted folks is within our grasp. We are not going to be treated as less than human any longer. We want equality, and we want it NOW. It's our due, our inheritance, our birthright as Americans.

Work hard, fight hard to get hold of it. And then don't ever let go. For us and for all those who will come after us:

(Photo by autumnal1too in Pasadena, CA today, via photobucket. I hope she doesn't mind my using it here; it's my favorite pic of the day.)