Madison Square Garden filled to near capacity in early May to celebrate the 90th birthday of folk legend Pete Seeger.
Seeger adapted “Turn, Turn, Turn (to Everything There is a Season)” from the Book of Ecclesiastes.
It was the right song for the mid-1960s, for those days leading up to the Summer of Love.
And it is the right song for now:
To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together
We turned through a fall of frustration, a November in which we lost to the religious right on ballot initiatives in Florida, Arkansas, Arizona and California.
A time to lose.
A time to mourn.
We turned through a winter of weariness as we learned of the purchasing power of hate, of the wealth that religious organizations pumped into those anti-gay ballot initiatives, and as we learned of a Bush administration that declined to join in a United Nations declaration of human rights for GLBT people.
A time of hate.
A time to heal.
And we turned through a spring of celebration as we secured victories in state after state and in the U.S. Capitol.
A time to gain.
A time to love.
A time for the Iowa Supreme Court to clear the way for same-sex couples to marry.
A time for lawmakers in Maine, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire to vote for same-sex marriage — not partnership benefits, not civil unions but marriage.
A time for Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell to sign a same-sex marriage bill into law.
A time for Maine Gov. John Baldacci to sign a same-sex marriage bill into law.
A time for the Vermont Legislature to override a governor’s veto and enact its same-sex marriage bill into law.
A time for the D.C. Council to vote to recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions.
A time for New York Gov. David Paterson to introduce equal marriage legislation stating, “Rights should not be stifled by fears. What we should understand is silence should not be a response to injustice.”
A time for Colorado to pass legislation recognizing same-sex partnerships.
A time for Maryland lawmakers to approve domestic partner benefits for state employees.
A time for Washington state to expand its partnership benefits and add gender identity to its hate crimes act.
A time for the U.S. House to pass — and send to the U.S. Senate — an inclusive hate crimes bill.
A time for the Obama administration to support the UN declaration affirming human rights for gays.
A time, despite big boasts from the right, for lawmakers to kill an anti-gay adoption bill in Kentucky.
A time for 300 members of the clergy to lobby Congress for the passage of hate crimes, employment non-discrimination and safe-schools legislation and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
What a long strange trip it’s been since June 1969 — 40 years ago, when the modern GLBT civil rights movement gained national attention with the demonstrations at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, N.Y.
Turn, turn, turn.
And we now turn into summer.
A summer of what?
A summer that should bring gayety to our Pride parades like never before, a summer that should bring a time to dance, a time to plant, a time to cast away stones before we turn into the fall and a time to build up and gather stones together.
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