Splaine: Portsmouth Pride is about all of us. Here's how we got here in New Hampshire.
The people of Portsmouth can take extraordinary pride in being an early community to embrace our LGBTQ+ friends. Throughout our recent history from at least the 1940s and onward, there has been an acceptance that many cities and towns nationwide haven't had, even today.
I remember a conversation with our City Marshal Stan Remick in the early 1970s. As the city's police chief, he had a number of gay friends, and he along with a well-liked closeted local judge worked to encourage our law enforcement community to be both accepting and friendly.
In the 1980s and early 1990s as AIDS paranoia gripped the nation and the world, Portsmouth welcomed an organization dedicated to fighting the disease. AIDS Response Seacoast became part of the City Hall complex to mainstream the cause of education and support those needing help. I was president of the organization at the time, and proud of the backing of city leaders.
Also in the 1990s, Portsmouth became the first community in the state to consider an ordinance prohibiting discrimination in city employment. While it failed in August 1993 by a 5-4 City Council vote, and later faced defeat as a voter's referendum in November, the effort helped ignite the cause statewide that eventually led to anti-discrimination efforts. Now Portsmouth government is fully supportive of equality and has strong anti-discrimination statutes.
That 1993 defeat led to what was a prelude to Portsmouth Pride marches as people from throughout the state, including New Hampshire legislative leaders Rick Trombly, Ray Buckley, and Kathi Rogers, joined local equality advocates to speak at Market Square, and then walked through downtown to encourage equality.
Our message was getting stronger.
The work for LGBTQ+ equality continued as 300 hundred people, many from Portsmouth, gathered at the State House plaza in Concord on Dec. 31, 2009. At midnight bells rang mixed with cheers as our state became just the 5th to formally adopt marriage equality. Standing there in freezing cold among many warm hearts, I wondered why we had to fight so hard. Why in a nation of the words "with liberty and justice for all'' do we have to fight for basic equality and human rights?
Because, we have to.
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage is guaranteed by our Constitution. The next day in Portsmouth's Market Square, 3,000 people cheered that decision at our inaugural Pride Day. The Herald quoted me while on stage: "You never know what another court may do in the future about marriage equality, but if we keep on fighting like we have, we're always going to win."
And there will always be another fight to win.
Danger may be ahead for gay marriage and other rights for the LGBTQ+ community – and the basic rights of all citizens, including women's choice. One of the worst characteristics of human nature is a desire to control other people, either by war or by law. The job of all of us is to engage in the fight of those who have stood up and spoken out through the years.
Because those causes continue.
The LGBTQ+ community can feel safe and welcomed here. In that way, Portsmouth Pride is about all of us. "It takes a village" is more than just a feel-good motto, and as we continue to welcome others of diversity, including immigrants far and near to our wonderful town, let's be proud they want to make their home with us.
They are the Portsmouth of tomorrow.
Today's quotes: "The Portsmouth action (1993) was the event which brought together the LGBTQ+ community and its allies to fight discrimination, laying the foundation for future victories at the state and local level.” – Rick Trombly, longtime New Hampshire House leader and state senator, sponsor of anti-hate crimes legislation in the 1990s.
"As a teen growing up in rural New Hampshire, I thought I was the only gay person in the state. I never imagined having the right to marry, buy a home, have job protections, having kids - realizing America as a full equal citizen. Then at 19, I saw two guys near my age dancing together in a Portsmouth venue. It was exhilarating." – Raymond Buckley, former New Hampshire state representative, lifelong leading advocate in the fight against discrimination, and the cause of LGBTQ+ equality.
Next time: Juneteenth, The Portsmouth Factor.
Jim Splaine has served variously since 1969 as Portsmouth assistant mayor, Police Commissioner, and School Board member, as well as N.H. state senator and representative. He can be reached at jimsplaineportsmouth@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Splaine: Portsmouth Pride is about all of us
