"The Beautiful Thing Website"

Greg Louganis uses a quote from the musical The Wiz by Charlie Smalls to open his book, Breaking the Surface, that states:

In January of 1999 a group of friends and I were in the city of Louisville for the "Fairness" vote and rally, it would prove to be a true testament of the hatred that people have for members of the gay and lesbian community. However, it would be the first time that I would experience this hatred and disgust for those who are openly gay first hand. Nevertheless, this day has been and forever will be a day that I will remember for the rest of my life, not only for the sadness and anger I felt there, but for the unbelievable amount of love and happiness that I felt there as well.

Founded in 1993, the Kentucky Fairness Alliance was created in order to protect Kentucky's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens from right-wing efforts to re-establish the state's sodomy statute, which the Kentucky Supreme Court declared unconstitutional earlier that year. In 1994, KFA sent lobbyists, mostly volunteers, to the state capital to lobby against efforts taken to once again make consensual sodomy a crime. Through the efforts taken by the KFA, the passage of the sodomy law as well as 18 additional discriminatory bills aimed at LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi, trans) community were blocked and or subsequently defeated. In January of 1999 the efforts of KFA would once again be put into action in the city of Louisville, where equal protection for the LGBT community under the law was being put to a vote by Louisville's city council board of aldermen.

At the time I was attending Transylvania University, here in Lexington, and through the persuasion of a friend I would regularly attend T-Unity Meetings, which was at the time Transylvania's club for the advancement of relations between the LGBT and Straight communities. At a meeting in November, we were paid a visit by Jeff Jones, a prominent gay activist here in Lexington, who discussed with us the subject of the Fairness Campaign. The Fairness Campaign, a campaign set up by the KFA, was, and still is, fighting to create laws that would provide civil rights protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens in employment, housing and public accommodations. At the meeting we were told that Fairness was meeting in Louisville on January 25, 1999 to back the proposed passage of a Fairness Bill for the city of Louisville, a feat that had been previously defeated 14 months earlier. Jeff told us how we could support the campaign by writing letters and making phone calls, or better yet by simply being there on January 26 as a part of the rally. After hearing everything Jeff had to say, we decided that we would not only write, but that we would be there. Later, we were told that we were not going to be the only University from Lexington to be there, but that the University of Kentucky's LGBT group, UK-Lambda, would be there as well. Which made us somewhat relieved, because this meant that there would be a lot of our friends there, and that we would not be alone. So, T-Unity members met with UK-Lambda members and decided that we would meet at Transylvania and go to Louisville together.

On the unusually mild morning of January 26, 1999, things  did not go exactly as planned, for only four of us actually showed Dion, Greg, Alexa, Jennifer and myself. However, we pressed on, for this was something  that we as group felt very passionate about. The whole trip there all we did was listen to the radio, mainly 104.5 The Cat and some Louisville Station, but when we arrived in Louisville the conversation was mainly about what was gonna happen there, and "let&'s try to stay together people..." and "if you get lost look for..." And I will never forget how in the middle of a deep conversation, mainly about getting to actually be inside for the vote, Jennifer abruptly calls out, "Chris, please remember to behave yourself" As if I was going to do something wrong, imagine me, the sweet and innocent one of the bunch, being told to behave? After parking the car we began our journey to the municipal building, where the vote was to be held. Although we were just a block away from the municipal building we could see a raging sea of supporters and non-supporters, young and old, gay and straight, black and white, and the list goes on, with only the street between them. When we arrived we joined with the other volunteers from the Fairness Organization,and began to form a line so that we would be in chambers for the vote. After meeting with Fairness Organizers we decided that we would join the line of people trying to enter the municipal building for the vote; nothing and I do mean nothing could have prepared us for what would see and hear from so called members of different Christian Denominations. While there, we heard everything negative you could say about a person, but what was worse was that it was coming from so called "Christians" mainly. Things like "Remember what happened at Sodom" and "Pedophiles don't deserve rights." But nothing and I do mean nothing sticks out in my mind more than the conversation that would occur between an African-American preacher and me. I had seen this preacher walking up and down the line speaking to people, some would leave, others would have a look of rage, and someone just sat back and laughed with him. I had hoped that I wouldn't have to deal with him, but I would. I thought to myself I should probably hide my "Fairness" sticker, and play his game, and just agree with everything he said, that way he'd move on, but for some reason, I froze, I couldn't get my hand to move, I just couldn't, then, there he was.

"How can you support these faggots?" he asked.

To which I responded "Because I am one of these faggots!"

He replied by saying that "Black people can't be gay, it's just not in them, this is just some white fad that has just gotten out of control."

To which I said "You've gotta be kidding me."

"Son," he said, "You are a disgrace, not only to your family, but to those who came before you as well."

I stood there, stunned, here was a man, a member of a people who were thought of as nothing, to be "3/5 of a human" if he were lucky, doing the same thing that was done to him, with no remorse. A moment or to passed and the preacher turned away from me and began to walk away. I imagined in my mind, it's now or never, I imagined how I wanted to tap him on the shoulder and tell him, "You, you are the disgrace, it's sad to see that people like you continue the hatred that those before us fought so hard to end" It was at that point that I truly understood what Greg Louganis was talking about in that quote, because right then and there, I began to have a hunger and drive to see this thing through. And I understood that if I didn't have the faith and the belief in not only myself but in this group of supporters, and this cause, then who was I to expect it from anyone else? But, not only that it made me realize that just how strong the power of one could be, I mean look what that one preacher did.

As time went on and they began to let people into the Chambers, sadly they began to run out of spaces, but Jennifer and I made it in for the vote. And by a margin of 7-5, the bill would pass.

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