 I'd like to introduce a lady this evening who really does not need an introduction, but someone I'm honored to be able to interview this evening, Ms. Bernita Gray. So I'm going to start right at the very beginning. Okay. Please tell us where you grew up. All right. Let me say, let me get this mic all adjusted here so that I don't blow everybody out and blow myself out. My name is Bernita Gray and I'm the name of Chicago one. I grew up here in Chicago. I grew up on the west side of Chicago. I grew up in a community called Londale. You hear about Londale now on the news. When I worked at 26 in California, you get over to Londale every now and then. Lots of crack houses, over-the-air, drugs up and down the street, crying. It's quite the community. When you were in high school, your mother took a dramatic stand regarding your education. What did your mother do? Yes, she did. I had always gone to parochial schools and I went to school in the 50s. And in our schools, you know, the nuns would slap the upside of your head if you misbehave. There was corporal punishment. That was just a part of it. But unfortunately, when I went to high school, some of the nuns started using the n-word. And my mother was like, hell no. I know damn well I'm not paying for you to go to no school and have a nun call you out of your name. Now she can't call you Bernita, then she don't need to call you. And the last time a nun called me the n-word, my mother took me out and put me in a public school. So of course, once I got to public school, I then became a classic gay statistic because the kids around me realized that I was a lesbian and the teasing ensued and began. So I became one of those classic gay statistics. I dropped out of high school and went to work. Well, please tell us a little bit about your coming out as a lesbian. Oh, wow. When I was in high school, in the shocking but true, I really looked a lot like Condoleezza Rice. Okay. All right, I had like Page Boy, not even like had a real Page Boy. Got my hair done all the time, always wore dresses, never wore slacks, never wore jeans. I always sat on an A-shaped dress skirt, mini skirt, whatever. In fact, when I came out, it was hard for me to let that go. I had to be a little i-magnet hippie lesbian for a while. That's just kind of the way it was. So I'm living on my own and I meet this great guy, Jewish guy, David, and we start dating. And one day, David comes to me and says, one of my friends has no place to stay for a couple of weeks and she's a lesbian. And could she stay at your apartment with you and your roommates? And I was like, hey, oh, no. I don't have no damn legs. You're not in my apartment. I don't even want to be involved with that. No way. Like, uh-oh, no, no, David. That's just taking a two-day fuck. So I said, okay, I really love you. I'll let her stay for a week. A week later, I dumped him and she and I were making clients to a Woodstock. It was really incredible. When people say night and day, my story is truly night and day. And since I don't work for the state's attorney's office anymore, I can just tell the truth. One of my roommates had gone to California and had come back with some suicide mushrooms. She said, we're going to try these mushrooms one night. I said to her, you are such an idiot. I said, these are just mushrooms. How much you pay for these? She said, I pay about $40. I said, girl, somebody went to a Dominix, dragged me out of it. That's old, isn't it? Don't be ridiculous. These are no hallucinogenic mushrooms. I said, I'll watch. I love my wife. She's like, no, Fernita. Oh my god, no, Fernita. I'm like, girl, please. You know, they saw you come. They took advantage of you about an hour later. I was dancing nude in the living room, telling everybody how happy I was. I'm so happy. I love life. Needless to say, they were all shocked. They were like, oh my god, Fernita. So they called my boyfriend to come and, you know, calm me down. So he comes over, Fernita, you've got to calm down and get dressed. I said, you can go to hell. I'm girl with you. They couldn't believe it. They were like, oh my god, these drugs. This woman is possessed. She's a totally different person. We're going to call the University of Chicago Hospital. Come and get her. So they called at that time. It was called villains. They called villains. Come and get me. They told them, we weren't sending ambulance for somebody crazy on drugs and nude. You have to bring her in. So he was able to get me dressed and I told him, you know what, I'm not going nowhere with you. I looked over across the room and there was this beautiful woman there named Halle. I said, you know what, I'm in love with Halle and I'm through with you. Okay. So the following day when I came to, I was like, what happened last night? Oh my god, my hair was a mess. I looked like hell. And one of my roommates turned to me and she said, Fernita, have you ever thought you were a lesbian? I was like, oh my god, not me. I go to church. I'm Catholic. I'm a good girl. I got straight hair. Any lesbian type of thing. And I was a lesbian about literally two weeks later. I don't, David, we had, you know, again, this will let you know when it was, we were saving to buy a house in High Park that was $25,000. Okay. And we needed 10% for $2,500 to buy this house. We had about 2,400. So we split it and she and I went to Woodstock. And when we got to Woodstock, it was awesome because 499,000 other people had had the same idea of coming and hearing this hippie music and laying around for three or four days. But while we were there in the middle of the rain, we saw these tents and tables that were set up with information about Stonewall and about gay liberation and about women's liberation. And when we left that dirty place, when we came back to Chicago, we swore that we were going to start a gay group here in Chicago. And that was the fall of 1969. So I went from being a nice Catholic girl, what a page boy, to being a total out lesbian, what a fro out to here. Change. Well, what was the FBI list? The FBI list was the phone number of my first apartment. Okay, so Shelly and I come back. She picks up a University of Chicago newspaper and there's this guy who says, I want a gay roommate. So of course, again, being the optimist person I was, hell no. You know, that's some freak. That's some crazy person. Do not go over to that apartment and meet this guy. He's going to be a nutcase, probably a serial killer. No, no, no. So I weighed all 120 pounds. I said, I'll go with him and I'll protect you from him. Just in case he's a real psycho. Okay, we get to his apartment. Guess what happened? I fall in love with him. He was like the most charming, incredible person I had ever met. And in our conversation between the three of us, he said to me, he said, you know, 10% of the population is gay for any of them. I was like, what? 10% of the population is gay. I knew that 10% of the population was African American. I knew that 10% of the population was black. I knew that 10% of the population was colored people. But I was like, if 10% of the population is gay, then where are they? I don't see any gay, I mean, really, you didn't, 1969, you don't see the word gay? I said, are you serious? He said, yeah. And I wrestled with that. I kept thinking 10% of the population, that means all these gay people are here, but they're hiding? Wow. Yeah, I couldn't believe that. And so to prove him right, he, the three of us, the gay group grew from three of us, to four of us, to 10 of us, to Pat McCombs, who I met in that gay group back then, 1969. And it continued to grow. And then at one point, we had a dance at the university. And there were approximately 2,500 undergraduates and 250 people came to our dance. And when those 250 people came to that dance, I said, my God, Henry, you are right. That means we got to get a gay paper, we got to get some gay bars, we got to get some gay life. We, what the hell, a closet, give it a hell of a day, no closet. That's it. So then I came out. What was the FBI list? I don't think they got it. I'm sorry, the FBI list was my phone number. When I moved into this apartment, the phone was already there. Again, did you ever notice that the phones we had back, you know, for those of you who were a little bit old in the 60s and the 70s, those phones never wore out? Right. You might have noticed that. Weapons. I had like a $300 phone that died after two years. We had an ugly princess phone. I had slept with that phone. I talked on that phone for years. People called me on that phone, FBI list, day and night. We put my number, how lucky I was, in the C newspaper and in the University of Chicago newspaper. If you want to talk about gay anything or go to a gay meeting, call FBI list, which was my phone number. So the people right will be calling my house day and night. I'm run away from home. My parents are beating me. I don't know where to go. Oh, come on over to my house. I'm leaving my husband. I figured I'm a lesbian. I'm leaving him. I don't know where to go. Come on over to my house. I'm sick of my wife. I've been married. Now I realize I'm gay. Come on over to my house. And so my phone number was FBI list for years. Very easy to remember. And when I think back up now, can you imagine day and night 24 hours a day when I'd be aware that phone would be ringing when I get home at two o'clock in the morning, people would be calling me. I'm ready to commit suicide. And I mind you, I was in my early 20s. I had never had a social work class. I haven't, social work was just words. You know, I'm talking to these people, oh, you, you're thinking of committing suicide because you're gay. Well, 10% of the population is gay, honey. So many gay people as our black people. Come on over here and we're going to party. I'm sure you're going to pay really is. So that's, that was my apartment 56.01 South Drexel and that basement was rocking for the two and a half years. I had every kind of gay meeting Monday night was coming out group Tuesday night was this women's, no Monday night was women's group. Every Monday night was our women's group Tuesday night was coming out group Wednesday night was another group Friday and Saturday night were party groups. Well, please tell us a little bit about your involvement in the gay liberation. Well, actually, that's what that group was. We call ourselves gay liberation movement. And it's really incredible to think that, you know, first there were three people and then there were five and then there were 80. And one of the incredible things that we did as a part of that gay liberation group was to decide that on the anniversary of Stonewall, we would have a march. We were sick of being closeted. We wanted people to know that here in Chicago, there is a gay community. And we are not going to be closeted. We had buttons made up that said how dare you presume I'm straight. It's one of our buttons out of the closets and into the streets was another one of our buttons. And we were bound and determined because Chicago is a parade city. Every group in Chicago is the Irish parade is a Mexican. It's like four fat Mexican parades as Puerto Rican parade, you know, but Millican is the largest African American parade. So here we have all these ethnic groups, every ethnic group in Chicago, the Italians at Columbus Day, who have parades. Of course, we have the outrageously crazy St. Patrick's Day parades. Again, we have two St. Patrick one on the south side one downtown. And we decided that we were going to come out in the streets and say to the people of Chicago, you know what, gay people are here. And we're going to have a parade. And so that was one of the things that we did as a part of that gay liberation group. Well, switching gears a little bit, please tell us about your work as a victim specialist. Well, that work, golly, that work came many years later. One of the things again, as I came out and began to see all the different areas where we did not have openly gay people, where we did not have openly lesbian people. Politics was one of those areas that has always interested me. We have all these senators, we have all these politicians, alderman whose salaries we pay. They're our public servants, which means they are also gay and lesbian public servants. So I've always been interested in politics and supporting gay and lesbian people who want to run for political office. It was really sad when Ron say, well, first ran for office, he could not get the response and the money raised the type of money that he needed to raise to do the political thing. So his life would have the politics has always been a part of my life. I own a restaurant for many years. And when I sold that restaurant, I didn't know what I was going to do. And a customer in my restaurant said to me, you know, Jack O'Malley, the state's attorney is looking for a gay and lesbian person to work for their office. I was like, I don't know anything about the state's attorney. I don't know anything about that. So at that time, another to name any names, the guy who was doing a job was like doing a bad job. I'll just be nice to him that way. He was doing a really messed up nasty bad job. So they wanted to get rid of him. They got rid of him. And when they got rid of him, on the very last day that they were taking applications, it was a Friday. I said, I'm going to go on down and apply for that. This will let you know how long ago it was. I had to take my application down because there was no computer to email it. That wasn't happening. So I took it down to 26 and Cali. I was number 104 handed in that application and she said, you're number 104. I think you're the last person because it is Friday at four o'clock on the last day that you've been applied for this job. And I said, okay. And as life would have it, I went through the three interviews and the state's attorney, Jack O'Malley hired me. He was a Republican by the way. Jack was a Republican and but he was the man I give it to him. I really liked working for Jack O'Malley. He was very open to listening to me. He gave me a real voice in the office. He allowed me to create programs, to go into schools and talk to kids about not getting involved in violence. He allowed me to create programs about GLBT issues, hate crimes and bullying. So here I was, you know, what, 15 or so years ago in schools talking about ending bullying. Jack was a good state's attorney to me. The job was hard as hell. The other parts of it because I worked with gay and lesbian victims of domestic violence. I worked with the families of homicide victims. I worked in our domestic violence courts. And again, when you're in a court, you don't just see your case. You see all the other cases around you. So that was another part of why I wanted to create some programs here in Cook County. And I'll just go briefly. We're one of the most serious counties. A 14-year-old who participates in a felony crime in this county can be charged as an adult and can be sentenced to the rest of their life in prison. So when I would see these kids in court on their sentencing who were 18 and 19 and 20 years old sentenced to 50 and 60 and 70 years in prison, I was horrified. I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe the horror that I saw in the courtrooms, whether I was looking at my victim family or the defendants family. And when Dick DeMine came, became state's attorney, I said to Dick, I want to continue these programs, but I want to continue the programs in another way. As opposed to looking at crime and punishment, let's look at the impact on community and how community would look without violence. And so again, a very fortunate Dick DeVine led me really create some very nice programs to go out of schools and talk to people which gave me real relief because the things that I saw in these courtrooms day in and day out, I mean, on any given day, we're two to three years behind in our work. Okay, right. So a 17 year old who's arrested today and cannot make their bond is going to be held for two and a half to three years at 26 in California. Again, for me, you know, when I look at the Trayvon Martin case, and I see you said $150,000 bond for a guy who shot and killed somebody. That's crazy. I mean, the guy here who, the idiot who ductated the baby, that was $100,000 bond right there. A bond that is that low is not a bond for homicide, for murder, or even an attempted murder. So one of the state's attorney's office for 18 years really changed how I see violence and the impact on violence on all of our lives. When we were meeting to prepare for this chat and we were covering a few topics, you mentioned an elephant in the room and that is racism. Yes. Please talk with us a little bit about racism in the community. Well, one of the unique things about our community is that we all come from different places. We all come from the communities that we grew up in. And so for a lot of people, I think when they come out gay or lesbian, it's the first time that you're really around Mexicans. It's the first time you're around Asians. There's a certain diversity that our community really has. But just as we bring the luggage of, you know, the kinds of foods that I like and the kinds of clothes that I might wear, we also bring the luggage of racism. Racism has been in our community. Well, racism is in our country. There's no escaping it. So again, when I came out in the late sixties, early seventies, the racism that was in the one or one year, one or two gay bars, I went to a bar, I'd have to have my driver's license, my passport, my baptismal certificate. I mean, you know, I could ever have enough ID. Now, what do you think that was about? And then there would be white girls behind me. They'd be like, they will walk right in. So the racism that has been in our community again, that's the beginning. Last year, one of the sadder events that I went to in the community was a community meeting about the kids and the shootings here on Hostess Street. There were a good 400 men in that room who were so hostile about these young African American kids that I can't tell you. It just really brought tears to my eyes. I mean, these are not serial killers. These are kids who want to hang out and have come down here because they're afraid to be in their community and be out. And so they come to what they see as a safe area. And then when they get to the safe area, people don't want them because of the color of their skin or because they don't have that kind of money. They don't look sidetracked enough. They don't look straight enough. Even though you're gay, you've got to be a straight looking gay person. What is that? You have to talk in a certain way. Anyone in this room who has kids know that kids act out. Hello. I mean, what kid does not act out? I mean, that's a part of it. You get to be 20, 21 years old. You want to go out and clown and act out and be on the streets. And so, yes, racism is huge in our community. I was in the gay bar one time. I'm standing here at the bar. The white bar took a look behind me. Okay. He looked at my face and said, can I help you? He looked behind me to the right. I said, can I take your order? Okay. Yeah, I'll be back. Bye. And I left. And I have not been back. Yeah, spend my money there. Why would I go someplace to spend my money where I will be treated like a second class citizen? I mean, really, come on. That's just not going on like that. If you want to think about the South and when I go, it's like, why it's only just say why it's only. Don't embarrass me when I get there. Tell me to show 22 IDs and predatory. No. If that's what it is, then that's what it is. But really, it's one of the things in our community that we've continued. You know, here we are in the 21st century, and we're still dealing with the issue of race, whether you're a gay kid here on Paul's The Street or whether you're trademark. The race thing is intense. A minute ago, you alluded to some of your political work, but I'm told you were quite the personality at the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver. So would you please tell us a bit about that? Well, the Democratic Convention really, the real personality was my dear friend, Renee. I went with Renee. If any of you in the room know Renee Ogletree. I was part of Renee's entourage. We have blast. Again, I love government. I love politics and I love a free party with a free cocktail. What can I tell you? My mother wanted to go. She wanted to witness as we all wanted to witness the first African-American president being nominated. And Renee was a delegate. And so we packed up and we went to Denver. Since I'd already been doing politics for a good little while, I did happen to know a few politicians there and we just, we had a blast. It was really, I have to say, it's really one of those times of my life. You know, I would be at an event and Michelle would come in, Michelle Obama. It was just incredible. It was not only thinking about government, but being able to reach out and talk to those people who actually run our government or making the changes. So it's really been incredible. When Barack Obama, when he was our senator, I served on his GLBT advisory. He had a Senate advisory and that was off the chain. Tracy, we would argue, oh my god, that marriage thing. He and I in the last meeting that we had was nasty. You young people, why would I want something else? If it's marriage, it's marriage. Why do I have to have a civil union? It's like it's a water fountain. It's a water fountain. Why you got to have a white one and a black one? You have to have a Chinese one and a Mexican one too? If something, if it's marriage, it's marriage for everyone. Why would I want something less? Anybody in here want less? Who wants less? Anybody want less money? Less benefits? That's what I'm saying. I'm the same. And for me, as I've gotten older, in my 60s, down to the social security age, I want it all because I've been paying taxes for a very, very long time. So I want everything that my tax dollar has paid for. I want it for me. And so, no, I don't want a civil union. I'll take that because that's all I have. But if it comes right down to it, no, I want a marriage. That's already set up. You don't have to set up anything different. I mean, really, you don't want to get married, don't get one. You want a straight marriage, get one. And that's, that's, but the 2008 convention was fabulous. It had a blast. And building on that a little bit, please tell us about going to the White House, hugging the president. Okay, yes, I'm very fortunate. Despite the arguments, I've been invited to the White House. It was my privilege, really, the first time I was invited at Gay Pride. It was the day after our parade. This will let me know I've been gay for too long. Okay, as Pride Sunday, I was working for the state's attorney. I'm like, how about this parade be over soon? Okay, golly gee whiz. I had the flow ready for the state's attorney. And of course, it was one of those days where I get to the flow at 6 30 in the morning, tell me if they didn't have the state's attorney's name spelled wrong. Okay, let's get a new name for the state's attorney because if we had that name wrong, I won't have his job tomorrow. Let's get that done because the following day, we were going to Washington to go to a GLBT reception, Renee, myself, Mary, a whole group of us from Chicago. And it's interesting, we went before the Salahis, a couple that wasn't invited. So it's amazing when you're invited, you have a blast. And since we were invited, they allowed us to come in and we were on this lawn and we were all talking and then we went into the White House. And we had a great time. It was interesting. Some of my friends were so nervous, they were too nervous to eat. I was like, you crazy. This food is fabulous. They put this food for a president. I'm not the best triple boy I've ever had. They had trades of champagne and there were gay people from all over this country. I got to meet Bishop Flunder. I got to meet lesbians and gay men and transgender people. I got to meet the person from SAGE, which I can never remember what the letter stand for. So I call it sexy and gay elders. There we go. Yeah. What is SAGE stand for? What is SAGE stand for? Wow. Like I said, sexy, yeah, sexy and gay elders. So it was an incredible thing. It was also incredible for me having come out in the 60s to go from being a dirty, hippy, crazy, you know, troublemaker, rabble rouser to actually be in the White House. It was really, it really said to me that our revolution is rolling. We're rolling. And again, as part of rolling and wave and revolution, we're beginning. We're nowhere near there yet. We're really just at the early part of our revolution. We have a lot further to go. When people say Otis Parade last year was 700,000, we've got to corral the parade. Not happening. That is not happening because more and more gay people are going to be coming out. I mean, if you think of kids now in high school who know the word is gay and my generation, we didn't even know we're gay. A gay was like a happy whatever. Nobody knew gay or lesbian or trans. I mean, we did not even have the language. So I think that more and more people will come out. Our parade here in Chicago will hit well over a million in the next few years. There's no two ways about it. Our community is going to really grow and leaps and bounds. More and more people are going to feel comfortable coming out. Closet will be, you know, as activated as Negro. Were you to speculate a little bit? What do you think is the president's position on gay marriage? Well, I think the president, as all politicians, has his own personal and his own political. When you're a politician, you have to go with the agenda of the party. You can't just get up and say, this is how I want it. This is how I want it to go. You can begin to, you know, start that change. I certainly, I certainly feel Barack Obama is the best president we've had when it comes to GLBT issues. There's no, there's no two ways about that. I mean, people can, you know, Bill Clinton, he's another Nobel Prize winner, but he gave us, don't ask, don't tell. I mean, he gave that to us and everybody may have a rock hurry up. You redo it. Well, I've got to go up behind this guy and clean up what he did. Once you're cleaning up someone else's something that doesn't give you the time to create your own. And so, you know, again, he's at the beginning of this presidency. And there's a whole way as an African American, he doesn't even get to be president because he is constantly in a constant state of fighting racism. Again, it's not just here. It is. So, I mean, the things Barack could walk the water right now and pass out a hundred dollar bills and people will complain. There's no two ways about it. And that those complaints come from the color of his skin. So my heart, again, to be the first black, any of you African Americans in this room who are the first black in your high school or first black in your college class or the first African American to get a PhD at this university or that university, that's a very hard road. That's a very hard road to hold. That's a hard one. My heart goes out to him, but I get it to him. He is the man. He does it. He really walks the walk. And he really is, he's the president that I'm really proud of. From right here in Chicago, you got to say, he's the real deal. As is his beautiful life. I would love to meet her someday. She's just the epitome of class. She's the epitome of class and beauty. The last time I went to the White House, I went with Renee. And Renee was sick then. And we were in a room, we were at a Christmas party, and I know this is a shock everybody, but I was chowing down. I was like, at the eating office, I was like, oh, this food is so good. This is the best peanut brittle. So Renee turns to me and she says, I really want to go over and get Michelle a hug. I said, what? They're like 150 people ahead of us. I'm going to get us some more peanut brittle. I said, hey, I'll be right back. I turned around. When was Renee? Okay, Michelle. I looked across the room. That was my girl. She had made it through all these people. She was right up front hugging the president, the first lady and just chit chatting and talking. And it just made me so happy to see her. And I gave her a little toast. And of course, I ate her peanut brittle for a night. What is spiritualism to you? Spirituality? Spirituality is very important to me. Really, without spirituality, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be here having this conversation with you. It is my spirituality that really picks me up and gets me going. You know, the hard part of working in religions, other than Judaism, other religions, there's the talk of hell and evil. But when I worked at 26 in California, I saw hell. I saw the evil. I saw the worst of the worst. I saw, you know, baby murderers, baby rapists. I saw things so horrendous and horrible in terms of child abuse cases that I wouldn't even want to say them again out loud. So I need the spiritual because the spiritual is what picks me up every day. The spiritual is what keeps me in community. Of all the awards I have, my most important award is my human first award because we're all human first. We all want to be loved. We want to be touched tenderly. We want to be talked to in a certain way. We don't want to be treated in a certain way. I spent some time living in a monastery in France, a monastery at Tézé. And that spiritual time, one gave me the time to pray for us to create this incredible gay community. And two, it gave me a time to really get to peace and to know what peace was within myself. And since I was out at that time in a lesbian and a hippie, my spirituality gives me that spark of light of it. It's what keeps me going. I don't quite know how to say that. And that spirituality is in the lake, it's in the moon, it's in the stars, that again are over all of us. We all see the same moon. Somebody in Cancun right now is seeing that same moon on the beach and the heat and I'm a little jealous of them. But the truth is we are all under the same moon and we are all under the same stars. And really, we are all human firsts. So my spiritual is very important to me. What do you miss about the old days of the gay and lesbian community? Wow. Well, first of all, I miss being able to stay up here as midnight. Yeah. I miss that. I miss looking at K. I couldn't even count the number of times that K and I close bars at three o'clock in the morning and then we went out to breakfast and then we did this and that and got home, you know, at five o'clock in the morning. Now if K called me to do that, I'd have to call the senior abuse hotline. Girl, please. I mean, what's the point of the gay? Look, I've got that. I asked you what you missed about the old days of the gay community. Oh, yeah. I miss being young, of course. I miss that excitement that we all had to just be together. There wasn't a color thing. We were so happy to just be gay and drag queens and clowning and acting a good time and twirling and go ahead and this thing and do your thing. And you know, you looking like the stud of studs and it was a certain kind of freedom that we really had and a certain kind of camaraderie that we don't have as much now. Now that we've all have a letter, like get to your letter. You and the G, get to the G's. You know that's me, get to the L. Really? You the trans, well, we didn't have trans, but we just had drag queen. That was it. That's all we know. You're a drag queen. She's the flaming queen. She's the drama queen. But she was some kind of queen. And as you know, we got to treat them like queens. And so now we have that kind of, you know, I think was after trans, now we got questioning. What else? There are other letters. I can't keep up with all the letters. Now that's gender queer, queer that I can't remember and keep up with all that. On the other hand, in seriousness, it is all of my community. And it is what change is about. But yeah, of course I missed the safe. I was just hanging out. The other thing though that I don't miss, I love it now, talk about politics that we've identified things as hate crimes. Back then, if a police officer caught you on the street and beat the hell out of you, you was just beat. There was no place for you to call. There was no phone that you could pick up the phone and call the police. If you picked up the phone and call the police and said, Hey, I got beat up on the street. Yeah, well, boom. They wouldn't have even come out. So that I don't miss. I like the fact that now we have hate crimes and we call it that. What's the biggest misconception about you? The biggest misconception about me. Wow. Okay. I would probably think the biggest misconception about me is that I'm probably really butchy butch. But when it get home, I'm like Hannah housewife. I'm always vacuuming and cleaning the house. You know, doing this, I get all the little decorations for Christmas. You know, I'm always doing something in the house. I'm little Hannah housewife and home. Pat is just grinning from eating. Go ahead, baby. Back of your little butt off. Yeah. I'm Hannah housewife of the house. What's been your greatest accomplishment or achievement? My greatest accomplishment, achievement. Wow. Well, my greatest accomplishment is just being here and seeing my community come to a real fruition, seeing gay papers, seeing gay people go to events, seeing Lambda, seeing HRC, seeing gay and lesbian people have children and have their children be a part of their family. That's incredible. Yeah, when we came on the 60s, there was no gay family. You brought the kids, people were like, what the hell you bring them kids? Well, you know, so I seeing the incredible changes, even though I make jokes about them, I love it when I turn on my Facebook and I like to see the two gay men I know who have twin girls and they're taking the girls to the park and they're taking the girls to the zoo. I love seeing the lesbians I have were out buying shoes for the girls and it's really, it has been, that has been incredible seeing us go to the White House. Really, you know, everybody else is walking in and I'm standing there like, you know, an old color lady crying, my little eyes just filled up with tears. I feel like that I am so blessed in my life to see my life be both full and filled that young people now can just say, you know, I'm coming out of the closet for all the people who laugh, you know, the Kardashians and all that insanity to see women's role is changed. Hey, I married a dude, 70 days later, I'm not happy. I'm done. Really, the roles for women. Again, I grew up with a grandmother who never left the house. Her job was to cook and to clean. That was it. She was from a generation where she didn't need to go to college because women didn't need to do that college. That was for men. Women didn't need to go to med school. That was for men. So again, I get to as a woman see how women's lives have changed and I get to see women be newspaper editors and film editors and doctors and lawyers and have lives that are both full and filling. So I get to see a lot of, I found it to see a lot of incredible change. That which I probably, I'm really proud the year, I think it was 94 when we marched in the budgillican parade. That was a real proud day for me because it was like bringing all of my culture together. The parade of my childhood that I had seen a gazillion times and now to be a part of that parade. That was an incredibly proud day for me. I was a little scared on that day too because people that called us since it really means things, but we did it. I'm proud on Gay Pride Sunday. When I step out on the street and see tens of thousands of people party, it is beyond my belief and that that would ever happen. When I looked at the newspaper and they said we got a rain in the Gay Pride parade of 750,000 people, I was like hell to the yes. That's the way it should be. Absolutely positively. And not only do we have this incredible parade, but we don't have any violence in our parade. We had 750,000 people. We don't have any shooting. We continue to be the least violent minority. They used to tease me at 26 in California because we had like a gang crime room with pictures of all these gang bangers on it and you know the detectives and say when we go get a gay crimes wall. You know you're decorated over there. I mean think about it. There are certain kinds of crimes that you don't see a lot of because we don't want to go to jail. You know that ain't a part of our culture in that little room. You can't really rehab that or redecorate that. Serious. Which is something that I feel I can bring to other communities. As a member of the African-American community, I'm going to come to the Gay Pride parade. I'm going to be in one community but we're going to party all day and all night and drink and fall over and we don't have to shoot each other. So when I go into my other community, African-American community, when I'm out, I want to know how come we can't do that? So maybe we need to get some people from our GOVT community to go to the African-American community and the Hispanic community because when I turn on the news every day, I can't think about it. You see all these kids who are shooting each other. When is the last time? I mean we cry over a shooting here on Haas District like you know it's mass murderers out there. But look at what the rest of our city is going through right now. Kids are terrified to go to school. Now gay and lesbian kids are afraid to go to school because of other issues of course. But yeah I'm just very proud of a lot of the things that I've seen and again that 750,000 people from 80 to 90 hippies would never have thought that it could never have thought it would happen that way and at the same time I'm very very proud of that thing.