I’ve never been a stranger to a microphone. Host an event? Sure, I can do it. Do you need some idle banter while the tech crew gets it together? Sure, I can do it. Glib nonsense with a sprinkling of bad Dad jokes? Call me. Invite me to a dinner party and I’ll keep everyone entertained – and not squabbling.
I can do it, until I can’t. It doesn’t happen very often, but once in a while, I get verklempt.
The point I wanted to make at the opening of Wigstock, The Movie, at Hudson Hall is below.
I came out in 1988, at NYU, in the middle of Greenwich Village. I was eighteen. My first boyfriend, a very nice Jewish boy from Plainview, Long Island brought me to my first ACT UP meeting. As Miss Understood, he was interviewed in Wigstock, The Movie, briefly, and talked about his drag queen singing telegram service, Screaming Queens.
The late eighties and early nineties was a very difficult time in New York City. I lived in the East Village. If you did not see a friend or an acquaintance on the dance floor for a few months, there was a good chance they were no longer with us.
Monday nights we went to ACT UP meetings, and on Labor Day, we went to Wigstock. Everyone put on a wig. Wigstock was happy…
We never knew if that year was going to be our last time together.
Life is short. I learned this lesson early, and carry it with me. When I arrived in Hudson in 2006, there was no Pride parade and few celebrations of our lives. I started organizing events.
You need these events, as a community and as individuals, to help us remember the good times.
That’s why the Pride Parade is important. That’s why all of these events are important.
Happy Pride!
Take lots of pictures.
-Trix