Legendary singer/actress/performer/gay icon Judy Garland was born on this date in 1922. Please check out Dust Bunny Michael River's blog HERE for more information on this great lady.
Although today is the date her birth, it is the date of Judy Garland's death and burial which has become a part of gay history. After she died, over 20,000 mourners lined up outside NYC's Frank E. Campbell's Funeral Chapel to view her body - many of them her gay male fans. The legend goes that when the police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village later that night - the GLBT folks, still emotionally raw from Judy's sudden death, decided to fight back. And on that night, the Stonewall Riots and the fight for gay civil right began. Although the "Judy Garland" theory has been widely discredited as a primary cause of Stonewall, it has now moved into the realm of gay legend.
Personally, I always liked the idea of my gay forefathers and mothers kicking the shit out of the corrupt and homophobic NYPD because they had lost their Judy. There is just something epic and noble about the whole scenario...
Thanks for mentioning my post! And yours is a great addition to the Garland Legacy!! At the end of June I am going to the Judy Garland Festival (Grand Rapids, MN). I will have several blogs about the adventure!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you girl. I think it is all tied together also.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard that about her death being tied to Stonewall. I can definitely see that happening, though. Sometimes grief--and yes, we can feel real grief for the loss of artists we love...I mourned 3 days when Johnny Cash died--can cause us to be a little more reckless, a little more "Fuck you," and cause us to do things we wouldn't normally do. RIP Judy. XOXO Beth
ReplyDeleteI'm smiling as I think about the gay history curriculum. Ah, the possibilities!
ReplyDeleteBeth, I mourned when John Lennon was killed and was angry for quite a while.
Like you, I find something beautiful and poetic in the idea that the fags were so moved by Judy's death that they finally stood up to the corrupt police.
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