Thread by @justupthepike

in 1990, two women—“gay but not lovers”—got kicked out of a Virginia bar for dancing together.

what comes next is a story about gay rights, racism, housing policy, and my attempt to understand a mean email I got yesterday

a thread—

https://twitter.com/justupthepike/status/1363239844244320257

in 1990 Dale was a house painter living in Silver Spring. She and her friend Gail would dance the Texas two-step at GW’s, a country & western nightclub in Alexandria. they’d dance with men and they’d dance together, then one night a bouncer appears—

he tells the women to stop dancing together, and then owner just kicks them out. “Go to your own club,” he says. at the time Alexandria was one of the few places with protections for gay people, so they file a complaint—
washingtonpost.com/archive/local/…

and they win! GW’s apologizes and promises not to discriminate against gay people, but the owner says he was just following a 1934 Virginia law that banned bars from hiring or serving gay people—

nobody wants to touch it. state legislators didn’t want to be called “queer lover.” Governor Doug Wilder (to this day one of four Black governors in US history) was running for president. he doesn't hate gays, he insists, he even met “a transsexual” while campaigning—

so Dale and Murray Greenberg, who owns NoVa’s sole gay bar the French Quarter, sue. “I hope one day being gay will no longer be an issue," she says. "I can't think of a better place to start than to eliminate the crazy laws that restrict our freedom."
washingtonpost.com/archive/politi…

the loudest supporter of the gay bar ban is this guy William Glasgow, who calls gay bars a "pathway to anarchy." it makes Virginia look bad, so they drop the ban, the last in the US.

Murray throws "the mother of all parties" to celebrate in his bar—
washingtonpost.com/archive/lifest…

so why am I talking about this?

I’m the Planning Chair of our neighborhood association. Dale lives by me but I've never met her. she’s been emailing me all week, unprompted, about a proposed zoning change in Montgomery County (see ⬇️)—
ggwash.org/view/79872/two…

Dale called me racist for talking about the history of racist housing policy in our neighborhood. "I don't give a flying fig what "color" you are," she said.

she also attached this newspaper clipping about her and Gail getting kicked out of a bar in 1990—

like Governor Wilder insisting he didn't hate gay people 30 years ago, tolerance is just the beginning. we have to acknowledge the discriminatory practices that still exist, understand the roles we play in them, and then work to undo this stuff—

gay bar bans sit alongside 20th century policies like redlining, racial covenants, and zoning that kept poor and/or Black people out of white neighborhoods. today's "gayborhoods” are often formerly-redlined areas. Black and queer struggles are intertwined
urbanomnibus.net/2018/05/lavend…

queer people are paid less, experience more housing discrimination, and are more likely to live in poverty or experience homelessness. once-cheap, underinvested, redlined neighborhoods were where they could build community—
tcf.org/content/commen…

Silver Spring today is 2/3 POC and has a lot queer folks. no surprise part of it was redlined! even today that section (part of what's now East Silver Spring) is more diverse and less affluent than what's around it

https://twitter.com/justupthepike/status/1360032086179123201?s=20

it's hard for white folks to confront this stuff. it was hard for me too! but it's a conversation we have to have. just like they had to 30 years ago with the gay bar ban, and for that I want to thank Dale for stepping up

I also want to thank my neighbors for stepping up and having a hard and often painful conversation about housing and change in our neighborhood. I've done a lot of soul-searching about whether I should even be doing this—

I keep thinking about how my partner and I spent years not just saving up for a house but trying to find a place where we belonged. I think we found it. but diversity and inclusion aren't just something you are, it's something you do—

anyway in my research I also found out that Dale is *also* a competitive swimmer who broke records as a teen, almost went to the Olympics, and competed in the Gay Games. it's pretty cool tbh and if she hadn't been so nasty to me I'd have loved to hear her life story. #fin