Great Moments in GLBT History

So, it's Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered/et al History Month, and I thought I'd celebrate it with a few personal historical moments:

1975 & 1976: In a hopeless attempt to become as butch as I thought lesbians ought to be, I attend Bill Russell's Summer Basketball Camp.* After recovering from a week of heavy physical activity for which I was completely unprepared, I have a nightmare in which one of the most popular girls in school (you know, the nice smart one) points at me outside my locker and accuses, "Lesbian!" I retreat into the closet post-haste.

1983: I make a pilgrimage to the Double Header in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle with friends. Surrounded by middle-aged couples dancing away to oom-pah music (apparently a weekly event), I absorb the ambience of what some have claimed to be the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the US. Cool. And I'm not carded.

1996: Friends and I form a short-lived theatre group. I perform a monologue based on the prologue to Stone Butch Blues. I discover, once and for all, how decidedly not-butch I am. I commence exploring The Femme Within, a journey that includes dallying with acrylic nails for several years.

1997: As spokesmodel for the local chapter of Washington Citizens for Fairness (nee Hands Off Washington), I try repeatedly to explain to not-very-smart people that a proposed law banning discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity will not lead to one's child's mustachioed male teacher suddenly showing up one day in a dress. The initiative fails. I do not accept personal responsibility.

*Apparently, at this very moment in Las Vegas, Russell is hosting a "fantasy" basketball camp for grownups. Unless the fantasy involves designated players, I'll be missing that. Perhaps Middlebrow could attend in my stead.