By Karen Ocamb

Anniversaries are good; they remind those of us with short attention spans that important events happened before this moment in time. As we pause with other Americans to acknowledge the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, or join in the celebrations commemorating the 225th anniversary of the founding of the city of Los Angeles, let us remember that we were there too, part of history just as we are decidedly part of this state and this country’s future.

Indeed, as historian Stuart Timmons notes in part one of IN’s tribute to LGBT Los Angeles, our “two-spirit” Native American ancestors were central to tribal culture before the City of Angels was created. Conquered and devastated, the tribes seemed to disappear, only to re-surface hundreds of years later as a powerful economic and political force. Today, in honor of their two-spirit ancestors and tradition, many Native Americans support LGBT rights.

LGBT people were also among those affected by Hurricane Katrina and IN joined countless others from our community in helping rescue and rebuild the devastated Gulf Coast region. From talk show host Ellen Degeneres, a New Orleans native, to the caravans of volunteers from Metropolitan Community Church/LA to the Rev. Mark Stuart and his band of helpers from St. Thomas Episcopal Church/Hollywood, to the screenwriter and lesbian couple who helped rescue another lesbian couple stranded in a Baptist Church in Louisiana, we were there. Yet when IN spoke with the brave openly gay journalists from the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper about stories of struggling gays and people with AIDS, they said such stories never even occurred to them.

As we once again remember the horror of Sept. 11, let us not forget that we were also among the witnesses and the lost: from hero Mark Bingham, a gay Republican supporter of John McCain who joined other passengers in trying to re-take United Airlines Flight 93 before it crashed in Pennsylvania; to martyr Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, a Franciscan priest and chaplain to the New York City Fire Department, who rushed into the North Tower and became victim number one; to witnesses like CNN Producer Rose Arce who reported from Ground Zero. Gays are also among the dead and injured in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.

Just because the majority culture fails to recognize or include us, it doesn’t mean we were not there, a part of history. In fact, in this issue, Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean recognizes us as a “distinct minority,” just as Mattachine Society founder Harry Hay proclaimed us to be in the 1950s. While we’re difficult to quantify, Dean says we are the second largest and most loyal group in the Democratic Party.

So, let’s recognize another anniversary: “The Year of the Woman.” Twelve years ago, gays turned out at the mid-term elections to vote openly gay Sheila James Kuehl into the California Assembly, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein into the U.S. Senate. Let’s celebrate that anniversary this November election and demonstrate the power of the minority.