I guess this deserves some explanation!
SO, somewhere along the line, with all my social service work and community action stuff I managed to worm my way into the public sphere and became a POSTERBOY of sorts for the Philadelphia Queer Youth Community. It's sort of...overwhelming. I've won Philadelphia's Diversity of Pride OutYouth Award, received the Jonathan Lax Scholarship, been featured in a lot of the gay newspapers in philadelphia and some of the NOT gay rags AND just recently I was on TELEVISION (my mother DIDN'T kill me) because I was on the opening panel for PrideFest '98. I'm sort of spooked by all the attention. But I suppose it's for the best, as long as the message doesn't get lost....
I'll be such a minority
that they could not possibly
find fault with me
and under the cloak of being P.C.
They'll hide their aggravation--YES!!!
I want to be the poster-boy for the entire Queer Nation.
I will picket; I will riot
I will stick it in Anita Bryantıs
face 'til she turns BLUE!
(But there'll be another side of me too . . .)
I'll get angry, cry, lose the time that I've invested
be frustrated and disgusted
as I watch my friends die from not getting tested
feel the pressure of society
pushing its grubby fingers down on me . . .
And I SWEAR, if Dole wins the presidency
I'll expatriate to somewhere "safe" for me.
But, luckily, it hasn't come to that.
The more my people gain, you see, the more they are set back.
And I'm perfectly willing to accept that
if I can take it standing on my own two feet
with my senses sharp enough to recognize political deceit.
So, for now, I'll just live that fabulous life
that all the straight girls accuse me of having
hope that the government gets it right sometimes
and that I donıt forget the need for laughing.
Fight the hate and anger I encounter every day
with intelligence and a smile to rival Doris Day's
so that late at night I won't have to carry
my ass out of the bed of the man I love (but can't marry).