[This Senior Spirit column appears in the July/August 2019 issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.]
On June 28, 1969, Paul Glass and Charles Evans both found themselves in the center of the Stonewall uprising. The men, 19 and 20 at the time, had recently begun a long-distance relationship between Boston and New York City, where Evans was living. After leaving Bon Soir, a popular night club in Greenwich Village, Evans was on his way to a deli in Sheridan Square, which is where most of the after-hours scene gathered in those days. Glass was approaching the square from the other side of town. Both heard all the shouting and screaming and joined the crowds to see what was going on. As they got closer they saw the police lights and the fighting. Before they knew what was happening they were pulled right into the uprising.
Evans said when it was on the news the next day people really mobilized because “we felt we were fighting for our lives.’”
They had a lot to be angry about in 1969. Police raids on gay bars were routine occurrences. Evans recalls that some clubs had a bouncer who flipped a light when the police arrived warning patrons to run out the back door. At another one of Evans favorite clubs the bartender would quickly unplug the jukebox, which signaled people to stop dancing and pretend to be straight when the police poured in.
Evans had just turned 20, and the club scene was the only way for him to connect with the gay community. But he was constantly afraid of being caught in a raid because he was not out to his family and the newspapers printed the names and photos of the “sexual perverts” who were arrested. This could mean the end of one’s career and often the severing of family ties. A huge price to pay for someone just starting out in life. The evening after the first night of riots Evans was at home sitting on the couch watching the Sunday news with his family. They were showing the footage from the Stonewall uprising and his parents made disparaging remarks about the homosexuals. Evans panicked. “If the cameras had panned six more inches to the left my parents would have seen me standing there and my life would have been over.”
Flash forward 50 years and Evans and Glass, now married with two children and four grandchildren among them, were riding in a convertible with Dale Mitchell, Boston Pride’s Grand Marshal at the start of this year’s Pride parade. Times have certainly changed over the course of 50 years. Neither Evans nor Glass ever imagined themselves leading a Pride parade. In fact, Glass, who is HIV+, never expected to live past 40.
Naturally both men had moments during the route when their minds went back to the events of the Stonewall uprising. “There were big crowds back then and big crowds today,” Glass said, but he noted two major differences: “In 1969 the crowd was angry, I was angry, and we all felt suppression and oppression.” Today the crowds were filled with pride. The other difference was the makeup of the crowds. Back then the only ones in the streets were the LGBT people fighting and no one stood by them. Today the streets were filled with families of all types. “It was amazing to see so many folks who were not gay lining the streets to cheer us on and affirm who we are and that we survived.”
There is one other difference about this year’s Pride for Evans and Glass. Evans recently turned 70 and Glass will turn 70 this November. Glass adds, “We have now embraced being older adults. We don’t have the same stamina for all the Pride events that we used to, but now we know the restorative wonders that a nap will bring.” In fact, both men went home for a power nap after the parade to rest up before attending another event later in the evening where Glass was presented with the Stonewall Pioneer Award from Unity Pride. Evans adds “We still have it in us, we danced for three solid hours at a Pride Tea Dance on Sunday in Hyannis. I just won’t tell you how we felt the following day!”
“At the end of the day, what matters most,” Evans adds, “is that we are still here, we are still together and we are recognized by our family and our community. Our grandchildren were posting all kinds of photos of us in the Pride parade on Facebook, proudly saying, ‘Look at our Grand Dads!’ I have to say, it wasn’t easy growing up black and gay. I’ve come a long way from that Sunday night in 1969 watching the news with my parents. But look at us now. We survived. Paul and I are still together and we were in the news again.”
This time Evans and Glass were front and center!
Bob Linscott is assistant director of the LGBT Aging Project at The Fenway Institute
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