Queers Come Out To Protest Homophobic General in New York's Times Square

Well, well, well! It looks like many other gay and lesbian activists were as annoyed as MadProfessah was by General Peter Pace's homophobic remarks, as well as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's feeble response.

Joe.My.God, Good As You, Pam Spaulding, Rex Wockner, Blabbeando and Towleroad all have coverage (with photos and video) of the direct action which took place in New York City's Times Square today. The New York Times so far has no coverage of the event on its website.

What happened Thursday morning was that a number of prominent gay activists such as Matt Foreman (Executive Director of The Task Force) and Larry Kramer (founder of ACT-UP, Gay Men's Health Crisis) and others marched to the Armed Forces Recruiting station located at the center of Times Square and blocked traffic by unfurling a 100-foot-long rainbow flag and denounced General Pace's pronouncement that "homosexuality is immoral."

The direct action in Times Square was sparked by Kramer's speech (now available online) on Tuesday March 13th at the New York City LGBT Center celebrating the 20th anniversary of an even more famous speech he gave which is widely regarded as the founding moment of ACT-UP (AIDS Coaliition to Unleash Power) and directly led to the AIDS and queer activism of the late 80s and early 90s which followed.

This time a new group, either called Queer Justice League or ACT UP ARMY has been formed and today's activities were their first direct action. Although the mainstream media has not taken notice yet, the queer blogosphere definitely has. Mazel Tov!