Last week I turned 75, and at that stage of life, it\u2019s almost impossible not to look back. I do that, of course, but what surprised me this year is how much I\u2019m also thinking about the future.<\/p>\n
Next month, Philadelphia Gay News will celebrate its 50th anniversary, and that milestone connects my personal journey with the work of PGN in a way that feels deeply intertwined. But my story \u2014 our story \u2014 began long before the newspaper. It began at Stonewall.<\/p>\n
And this is the part that still catches me in the chest.<\/p>\n
Both the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, and the mayor of Philadelphia, Cherelle Parker, will be speaking at that anniversary celebration. When I think back to the 18-year-old version of myself standing outside Stonewall, surrounded by chaos, fear and a riot born of desperation, it never once crossed my mind that the movement sparked that night would lead here.<\/p>\n
I could not have imagined a future where the governor and the mayor would stand beside us, not as adversaries, not as reluctant acknowledgments, but as allies.<\/p>\n
That arc from invisibility to recognition, from resistance to respect, is what this moment represents to me. It\u2019s not just a birthday. It\u2019s not just an anniversary. It\u2019s proof that change is possible, that courage matters, and that even the most fragile spark can grow into something powerful.<\/p>\n
And that is what I carry with me as I look ahead.<\/p>\n
And the story doesn\u2019t end there.<\/p>\n
Even now, I\u2019m working on a new project, one that both the governor and the mayor have expressed support for. That alone still gives me pause. At 75, I find myself not slowing down, not retreating into memory, but looking forward once again. The future still calls.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s one more moment I know will stay with me that night. When I step to the podium, I\u2019ll get to thank my husband, my legally married husband. That, too, is something the 18-year-old me standing outside Stonewall could never have imagined. None of us could have, not on that first night, not in the smoke and fear and fury of it all.<\/p>\n
To go from a time when love like ours was criminalized, erased and ridiculed, to a moment where it is recognized, protected and celebrated, that is not just personal. That is historic.<\/p>\n
So yes, at 75, I look back with pride. But more importantly, I look forward with gratitude and resolve. Because the arc from Stonewall to this moment tells us something vital: progress is possible, change is real, and the future is still being written.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m not done yet.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week I turned 75, and at that stage of life, it\u2019s almost impossible not to look back.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9537,33,28,69,38858,71,70,44851],"class_list":["post-90939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-cherelle-parker","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-gay-news","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-stonewall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}