Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

It’s Pride Month—Happens every June. Members of the LGBTQ+ community take pride in what they are, and allies show their support. I’ll be wearing a selection of rainbow shirts with Bigfoot, Mothman, or ghosts on them, because while I’m showing support, I gotta be me.

And I wanted to write a column about Pride Month, to show my support. The thing is, I write about local history, and this particular thing gets a bit tricky. When I write about the LGBTQ+ cause, I’m not really able to write about the documented history so much as the lack of it.

For most of American history, being gay was not talked about, at best. Anyone who was gay, bi, or anything else other than straight was forced to shut up about it and pretend otherwise. So it’s not like there’s a whole lot of documentation to show the gay people from our history who made amazing contributions.

Without a doubt, there were some. I have a few historic figures I’ve written about who may have been gay. But I can’t prove it, and I don’t want to be getting hate mail from homophobic descendants, so I won’t name any of my suspects here. But if you’ve been reading my work for a while, you’ve already gotten familiar with some of the names.

Hell, the first president from Pennsylvania may have been gay. James Buchanan had a very close friendship with a male friend, and at the time, it was speculated that it may have been romantic. It’s been considered a possibility ever since, and Buchanan seems to have been about as close to being openly gay as you could be back in those days.

Gay marriage has been legal in Pennsylvania since 2013. That’s not that long; only about twelve years. The first gay marriage happened in Pennsylvania in Montgomery County—-Alicia Terrizzi and Lauren Bloodgood got married after 18 years when county clerk Bruce Haines announced he would issue a license to any couple who came to him and asked, regardless of sexual inclination.

Not too long after that, Clinton County had our first gay marriage. A couple was in the newspapers, going under the assumed names of Mary and Alice for their own protection. It’s pretty likely I could find out who they actually were through the local documentation, but I don’t feel it’s my job to reveal their identities—Not my choice to make. If they want to conceal their names, I support that.

They’d met through work some thirty years previously, and fell in love while visiting Mary’s family for Thanksgiving. In August of 2013, they got married in a friend’s garden in Lock Haven, a setting remarkably similar to my own wedding. I’d like to think they’re still together and doing well.

Today, we have a more open LGBTQ+ history, and better recorded. (There’s still a long way to go on this, I’ll admit. But it’s been improving.) I have plenty of friends who are gay or trans. Some of my paranormal investigator friends are openly gay, which I like. I have a couple of friends who are gay, but not openly. They’re still in the closet, and I’ll respect that and not tell anyone—But I’m pleased that they trusted me enough to tell me. That means a lot.

As we go on, we’ll get more open about this, and better at documenting it. Given time, we’ll have a full, provable LGBTQ+ history available, and I look forward to that. History is history….And love is love.