N.Y.C. Gay Pride Parade 2008

"We cannot permit such a danger to the country..Homosexuals must be eliminated..they must be eliminated both root and branch"

Heinrich Himmler 1939

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me."

Martin Niemoller 1963

Most people are familiar with SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi Police including the SD and the Gestapo, Minister of the Interior, commander of the Waffen SS and Home Army. Besides also being in charge of the death camps to the east, Himmler had worked previously as a salesman for a firm of fertilizer manufacturers before joining the Nazi paramilitary organization in 1923.

Most people are not familiar with Martin Niemoller (1892-1984). Niemoller was a nationalist and a Protestant pastor who spent the last 7 years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. This particular last quotation stems from Niemoller's lectures during the early postwar period, though much controversy surrounds the content as it has been printed in various forms, referring to alternating groups such as Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, or Communists depending upon the version.

His point nonetheless was that people -- in general -- had been complicit by their silence in the Nazi imprisonment, persecution, and murder of millions of people.

Basically, what it means is that sometimes it is worst when one stands by and does nothing..

Steers, Queers, Tears, & Automobiles

St. Patrick's Day March 17,1993, then the 3rd year of a dispute, NYC Mayor David Dinkins hardened his position that a gay group under their own banner be included in the parade and permitted to march up Fifth Avenue.. A decision was made by Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy Federal District Court in Manhattan that handed over victory to the Ancient Order of Hiberians giving them control of the parade under their own terms. No gay group was ever permitted to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Sunday June 29, 2008...40th street 6th avenue to 5th avenue, traffic moved one block per hour. The NYC Gay Pride Parade was marching down 5th Avenue..it doesn't mean you have to like it....it's just the way it is.