This past June 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion/riot that led to our forming of the first militant political gay lib organizations.

 

Due to my high profile at Sage and the LGBT community center I was sought out by many media venues for interviews,CNN,BBC,Newspapers,Radio,etc.

 

I do enjoy doing the interviews as I feel it is extremely important that the few of us that are left from back then tell the history as we remember it to be.

 

On the day of the March,June 28Th I surprisingly was invited to a reception at the white house to be held in honor of the 40th anniversary by President and

 Mrs Obama the next day June 29Th.  As a history and political buff I confess it was a very heady experience for me to be inside the White House.

 

The day was quite amazing and was to be topped off by a speech President Obama was to give to us in the East Room in which he was to thank us and honor

 the anniversary. Approximately 250 leaders of the gay movement past,present and hopefully future were invited and attended the reception and the Presidents

 address.  I took the picture below of the White House

When we arrived at The White House that day it was unclear if any of us would get to meet the President.

 

We were told at first there was to be a reception line in which we could shake hands and have a quick word with the President and Mrs Obama...but

disappointingly we were told that due to the large number of attendees the reception line woul be impractical due to time constraints.  The rumor had

it that just a few,perhaps 10 of us would get to personally meet the President.  I did not think for a minute I would be one of the few singled out for that meeting.

 

I was somewhat disappointed but at the same time was thrilled to be inside the White House mingling with the gay leaders,marine guards and secret service...

 

Champagne and little snacks and pastries were served at the reception and then we were all led through big wooden doors to the famous East Room were the

President would deliver his speech to us.  Amazingly the small contingent from Sage that I was with managed to position ourselves right directly in front of the

podium with the Presidential seal were the speech would be given.    About 15 minutes before the scheduled speech one of the Sage staff called to me and asked

that I follow her.  I balked at giving up my perfect spot to go and do what I thought was a request for an interview by the media but reluctantly gave up my spot

and went in the direction I was directed too.  I was stunned and in complete shock when I was informed I was to be one of the ten or so of us that would personally

have a short meeting with The President.   It seems I was one of only 2 attendees at the event that was actually a participants at Stonewall some 40 years earlier

and that is why I was to get in to meet the President.    I was led into another room where I met my very old friend Tommy Schmidt who was the other actual

Stonewall participant,we were to meet the President and Mrs Obama together.   Tommy and I stood waiting to be led into the meeting and we marveled at thinking

about how unimaginable it would have been 40 years ago on those dark bitter nights and times that 40 years later it would lead to us meeting the President of the United States...

 

As we walked into the room President Obama warmly grasped our hands and said "thank You I am very proud of what you did back then...my response was "Thank You

Mr President we are proud of what you are doing now".   The rest is sort of blurry and I will write more about it eventually in my QueerviewUniverse group.

 

I had asked the aid how to properly address Mrs Obama,was it "Ma'am?

 

The said she prefers to be called Mrs Obama.

 

She also was extremely warm grasping my hand with her two in a very caring type gesture.

 

We had maybe a minute or two with the first couple during which the official White House photographer took our pictures.

 

I had insisted that I would be allowed to wear my Sage tee shirt for this very formal event and had no problem doing so.

 

Below is the photo,Michelle,Tommy,Me and the President....Quite an experience!