In an expansive ballroom high above
Washington Square, one could follow city lights up Fifth Avenue,
toward the Chrysler and the Empire buildings resplendent amidst
the dazzling Manhattan nightscape. This was a heady view for
heady company. This was a roomful of the city’s well-heeled and
well-connected (New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn,
Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey, Lucy Liu, Mark Nelson,
Hal Rubenstein, Steve Weinstein, John Bartlett, San Francisco
Mayor Gavin Newsom), turning it out for the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force New York Leadership Awards—and if there was
more buzz than is customary for this annual presentation, it
might have had to do with this year’s award recipients: San
Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, as well as menswear fashion
designer, John Bartlett.
During a year when all of us in the LGBT community have felt the
earth begin to shift, the choice of Newsom was particularly
astute, for as Newsom’s presenter, New York City Council Speaker
Christine Quinn reminded us, and him, we will always hold dear
those images of loving
California couples on the steps of San Francisco
City Hall. For it was Newsom who started the California
marriage ball rolling on Valentine’s Day 2004, and now five
years later, as Newsom assured us, “As Iowa goes, so goes the
nation.” Much has happened in those five years, and not all of
it easy for the LGBT community to swallow, but onward we’ve
pressed, thanks to the leadership of the Task Force and its
mission of equality for all. For as Executive Director Rea
(that would be pronounced “ray” as in “ray of light”) Carey
stated, equality is “the floor from which we build.”
With a Nero-like spread of delectables and a Bacardi-sponsored
bar, as well as the bewitching screen siren Lucy Liu presenting
Bartlett’s award, the evening was an impassioned mix of glamour
and inspiration. In receiving his award, Newsom declared, “In
honor of your devotion, in honor of your love, I am here,” and
Bartlett ditched his own speech in order to better speak from
the heart about his concern for LGBT seniors and our LGBT
brothers and sisters in foreign lands without even a portion of
our freedoms. And then there was the Task Force field worker
who spoke about the fight for equality in Maine and the 17-year
old straight boy she’d met who looked her in the eye and said,
“You should have taken care of this before I was born.” Well,
yes, young man, that’s probably true, but since we didn’t, now
you and your generation can help in this fight for equality and
freedom for all. For as Newsom remarked, “[This moment] is
remarkably different from even five months ago…” Indeed, it is:
you can feel the earth moving, shifting, as we speak. It’s the
sound of freedom marching…
