June is Pride Month.  Pride Month is celebrated by the LGBTQ community, by parades, poetry readings, and peaceful protests to raise political awareness of the issues facing the gay community.  There was a time in my life when I wondered why?  Is there a point when it appears simply living one’s life is sufficient?  Practically speaking, why the hoopla?

As one learns from life experience, as well by the focus of philosophy — appearance is one aspect of what is going on, and most likely not the most important dimension of reality.  Pride month began as a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in 1969, when in the early morning police raided a gay establishment in Manhattan, beating up and arresting many, because they were the police, and represented the state.

It seems that because we are fundamentally social creatures, that any way of life, any way of thinking that does not conform to that of the majority is proscribed, a lightning rod for the pent up self-loathing to which we are so vulnerable.  So, it was and is necessary for all of us to remember the Stonewall event in 1969, to remind ourselves that injustice takes many forms.

“Live and let live,” is a cheap, too easy deflection of the work that everyone must do, if we are to become truly human.

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I think that this tune is an apt accompaniment to Pride Month.  When The Whip Comes Down by The Rolling Stones.

In a 1978 interview with Rolling Stone magazine to mark the release of Some Girls, Jagger responded to questions regarding the song’s lyrics: “…There is one song that’s a straight gay song—”When the Whip Comes Down”—but I have no idea why I wrote it. It’s strange – the Rolling Stones have always attracted a lot of men… I don’t know why I wrote it. Maybe I came out of the closet {laughs}. It’s about an imaginary person who comes from L.A. to New York City and becomes a garbage collector… I sure hope the radio stations will play it. – Wikipedia

When The Whip Comes Down

By The Rolling Stones

Yeah, Mama and Papa told me
I was crazy to stay
I was gay in New York
Which is a fag in L.A
So I saved my money
And I took the plane
Wherever I go
They just treat me the same

When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down

Yeah

Yeah, I go to 53rd Street
And they spit in my face
But I’m learning the ropes
Yeah, I’m learning a trade
The East River truckers
Are churning with trash
I’ve got so much money
But I spend it so fast

When the whip comes down, yeah
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down

When the shit hits the fan
I’ll be sitting on the can
When the whip comes down

Yeah, some call me garbage
When I’m sweeping up the street
But I never roll
And I never cheat
And I’m filling a need
Yeah, I’m plugging a hole
My Mama’s so glad
I ain’t on the dole

When the whip comes down, yeah
When the whip comes down

Yeah, when the shit hits the fan
I’ll be sitting on the can
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down

When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down

Yeah, go ahead, sugar

Yeah, baby

When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
Yeah I’ll be running this town

I’ll tell you
When the shit hits the fan, baby
I’ll be sitting on the can
When the whip comes down

Yeah
Oooh!
Shh!

Why baby, why, why baby?
I’ll tell you
I’ll be running this town
Check it out, check it out, check it out, check it out, check it out, check it out, check it out, check it out

Yeah, when the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
Yeah, when the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down

Lyrics by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards