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GMs Toni Pizanie & Stewart Butler
To Lead 19th New Orleans Gay Pride Parade
by Patrick Shannon

The New Orleans Gay community will be holding its 19th celebration of being a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered human being on the weekend of Sept. 26 & 27 in a new venue, Armstrong Park on N. Rampart Street. The St. Ann Street gate will serve as the entrance to this colorful event in this landscaped park of man-made lagoons and hills. A smaller park, Washington Square, was used for years, but Armstrong Park borders the west side of the French Quarter and is much larger. Its increased size and proximity to the French Quarter and its adjacent parking lot are all considered more desirable due to the larger crowds expected for this year's huge homo fest of fine foods, craft merchants, games, gospel singers, drag shows and continuous activities. The New Orleans Alliance of Pride presents this event and this year's theme is Planet Pride. The event is being Co-chaired by Pastor Kay Thomas, of Grace Fellowship In Christ Church and Sonny Cleveland, Ambush Staffer and Gayles activist.

Grand Marshals XIX, Ms. Toni Pizanie, and Mr. Stewart Butler, will be riding in the leading two horse-drawn buggies that will open the event by clip-clopping through a pre-planned route through the famous streets of the Vieux Carre to Armstrong Park on Saturday, Sept. 26th, 12 noon.

One the two Honorary Grand Marshals is a true legend in the world of professional music and local Gayles history, Ms. Dixie Fasnacht. Ms. Dixie, as she has lovingly been known for years, once owned Dixie's Bar of Music, a club which was not afraid to cater to the hidden homos of times past beginning around 1946, not to mention a host of celebrities from the world of entertainment. Ms. Dixie was the leader and lead vocalist of one of the earliest all-girl bands, The Southland Rhythm Girls, in the 1930s, and has several records to her credit. The other honorary Grand Marshal is the late Mr. Andy Boudreaux, a quiet philanthropist, who was the owner of several businesses among which were two Gay bars, Mississippi River Bottom and Wolfendale's.

I first met Stewart Butler many years ago during the 1980s. I returned to New Orleans in the 1970s after living a few years in New York City and became an active reporter in the 1980s. At that time he was one of our most persistent and outspoken Gay activists--one special voice among a few brave souls publicly fighting for our civil rights and respect. My most vivid image of Stewart is that of a man wearing a loose T-shirt, baggy trousers and a floppy straw hat. His hat and shirt were always decorated with buttons promoting some civil rights cause. Younger then, I thought he looked a bit like a young Ben Franklin. I consider Ben Franklin to have been one of our most famous and craftiest of American statesmen; therefore, Mr. Butler's slight resemblance gave him a dignity and credibility in my eyes. Now, a bit older, he resembles him even more. I often suspect he is our own Benjamin Franklin reincarnated. He's wise, crafty, persistent, tenacious, generous and warm-hearted. I've never known him not to share his home with someone in need.

Ms. Toni Pizanie made a lasting impression in my mind one Christmas a few years ago. She is a more recent activist than Mr. Butler and that year she was raising money for some civil rights cause dressed in the costume of Mrs. Santa Claus. She was seated on a tiny chair on a little stage set up in what has since become one of our most famous Gayles clubs, Rubyfruit Jungle. For a couple of bucks you could take a picture with her. I sat on her lap and did so. How she managed, I wonder to this day, since I had begun to resemble a disheveled old 2000 pound buffalo back then. But she did; the pic was snapped, and I treasure it to this day. She was one of the cutest and most demure Mrs. Santa Clauses I certainly ever sat on. She currently works on the staff of this publication and writes a very well done and popular column, Sappho Psalm. She is an idealist and a gentlewomyn, a special womyn who combines a rare and delicate balance of Lesbian activism and humanitarian compassion with hard work, long hours, and a giving spirit.

We met at Ms. Pizanie's recently restored home on Royal Street in the Marigny, a small village which borders the Vieux Carre. Butler was seated in an old rocking chair. I was sitting on a small sofa across the room and Ms. Pizanie was on a couch forming this perfect little area designed for congenial conversation. But I was too far away for my tape recorder to pick up Stewart Butler's voice.

"That was my grandmother's chair," she said to Stewart, as I tried to get them close enough for the tape recorder to pick up their comments. "You should be very comfortable in it." I detected no irony in her comment. It was said with sincerity and was not meant to be a reference to anyone's elderly status. "Well then what we could do is let Patrick sit here and I'll sit over there," Butler said, immediately taking charge of a somewhat addled reporter based, no doubt, upon his born leadership abilities and many many years of practice. Butler is used to meeting with our kind. He emphasized his suggestion with his famous laugh, a staccato little sound that goes heh, heh, heh, heh, heh.

We moved around and resat ourselves. I did not sit on Ms. Pizanie's lap that time. All resettled, we looked at each other and smiled-old friends together again (I hoped). Ms. Pizanie's new faithful friend, a beautiful giant pure white poodle named Fred, seemed to enjoy licking my hands. I had been petting my cat, Ned, earlier. We fell in love instantly, even though I missed Ms. Pizanie's other faithful friend, Tom, a really great Great Dane, who had passed away not too many months ago.

"Well, here we are in Ms. Pizanie's beautiful little completely renovated cottage in the 1200 Block of Royal Street," I began.

"Not the 1200 Block, dear," interjected Butler.

"The 2000 block," said Pizanie with a demure smile of patience.

"I keep saying the 1200 block," I stuttered.

"I know," she said smiling, "because you want me to live inside of the Golden Lantern. You think just because we're Grand Marshals that all Grand Marshals are supposed to be attracted to the Golden Lantern," she said jokingly.

"It's true. It's true," I said idiotically, in a feeble attempt to cover up my clumsy verbiage. After all, I was speaking to two of our most admired and well known Gayles/civil rights activists both of whom had probably put in more pro bono volunteer hours on our behalf than all of my sleeping hours put together, and that would be a lot now that I'm 49 again. "Ms. Pizanie, I don't think you have been active for very long, as a openly Lesbian activist I mean, have you?"

"In the Gay community in New Orleans since 1992. I was living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast--"

"I thought you were going to say the Mississippi River Bottom," I said trying for some quick wit.

Without missing a beat she said, "Well, in the 60s I lived in the MRB but in those days it was called the Seven Seas!"

I gasped. "Well, you do go back," I said smiling at her inner-circle joke and surprised that she would have even known about that somewhat notorious watering hole which now did actually house the late Andy Boudreaux's MRB, redone of course, with taste from those 7 Seas days. We all laughed-I, louder than anyone else, Mr. Butler did his heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, and Ms. Pizanie did so with a light demurity of sound.

"What does it feel like to have this honor bestowed upon you?" I asked her.

"Well, I'm quite thrilled. I think it's ummmmm. . ." (she paused and thought)

"It's an honor!" snapped Butler from across the coffee table putting a quick end to Ms. Pizanie's long introspection.

"It's an honor," repeated Ms. Pizanie. "It's a gift. It's a gift from the Community. And to think that Stewart and I were voted upon by a jury of our peers makes it even more exciting since we were not appointed, we were elected."

"We were wondering about all this. I must ask you bluntly because there are small minds in our community that think that perhaps you were chosen because of your affiliation with Ambush. Street talk has the Ambush people in control of everything. What's your response?"

"Not at all, No. Ambush has nothing to do with The Alliance of Pride other than the fact that they give a great deal of time and money and supplies. But as far as any kind of influence I would say that Ambush has absolutely no influence over that Board."

"Isn't Sonny Cleveland on the Board? Sonny Cleveland is on the staff of Ambush." "Sonny Cleveland is the Co-Chair of the New Orleans Alliance of Pride, along with Pastor Kay Thomas of the Grace Fellowship In Christ Church. Sonny works for Ambush, yes," she said calmly.

"How many people are there on the Board?"

"Oh, my goodness, I don't know. I've never been to one of their board meetings, but I understand it's quite a large number."

I turned to Stewart Butler. "Let me ask you how does it feel to be awarded this honor after so many years of activism? How many years have you been active in civil rights causes?"

"More or less since 1980 since LAGPAC was founded," he responded.

"You came out late in life I understand. You're in what, your mid-fifties now?

"Aren't you sweet," he said through clenched teeth. Ms. Pizanie giggled in the background. "I'm sixty-eight, dear!"

"No one would ever believe that you're even past sixty," I responded. "But how do you respond to this honor of being Co-Grand Marshal with Ms. Pizanie of this 19th Pride Fest?"

"Well, that's a difficult question to answer except to say, of course it's an honor. I share Toni's sentiments in that regard."

"Considering all the terrorism happening around us, do either of you have any personal fear of riding in an open carriage at a time when there is so much unbridled hate everywhere? To be symbolically promoting our Gay and Lesbian life-style as the enemy calls it?"

"The biggest fear I ever faced was telling my mother that I was a Lesbian," said Ms. Pizanie. "After that it's all been down hill. I could care less about those who don't agree with me!" she said energetically. "I'm a very happy out Lesbian!"

"Have you any idea what route has been established," I asked them.

"My understanding," said Butler, "is that they're going to be starting out at Washington Square Park, winding around the French Quarter and ending up at Armstrong Park."

"Do you have any fear of riding in an open carriage in this Gayles parade?" I asked him.

"Until you mentioned something like that, I mean that would have been the last thing I would have thought about," he stated.

"Absolutely not, heh, heh, heh, heh. In all of these years, as far as I know there has never been any serious incidents of that nature and I would think that as time goes on that would be less likely," he opined, "at least as far as Gays and Lesbians. It's perhaps not impossible, but rather unlikely I think, in New Orleans."

"Mr. Butler, a lot of people really think of you as the Father of Gay Rights, at least in this town? Do you accept that honor?"

"Well, (a deep sigh), "You know I think it's fine but I don't think that's a consensus or anything approaching a consensus. And that's all right too. But yeah, I mean some people called me 'uncle' and some people call me 'mother' and some people called me 'auntie.' I've been called 'brother' and 'sister,' but no, I've never been called 'father' that I know of. I don't think there's any particular individual due that honor. There's been a lot of people on the scene before I was and there are a lot of younger people whom I regard as being my heroes."

"What do you think is the most important thing that the coming generation of young Gays and Lesbians, and even people in our own generation, should be thinking about now relative to the cause of civil rights for Lesbians and Gay?"

"Oh, that's easy," he said. "We've got to get over our hesitancy to include the Transgendered people as part of our community because they have been. It's only perception on the part of some that has excluded them in certain important areas."

"Who are these people? Organizations, groups?"

"Well, we don't have to name any individuals," he said, "I mean they know who they are. Organizations? The Human Rights Campaign has been particular and almost singular for that matter."

"I want to say something about Stewart being the Father of the movement," Ms. Pizanie said. "When I moved back here and started becoming involved and worked as a volunteer with the Task Force working with Fred, he was really wonderful to me and one of the people I heard about was Stewart. And Stewart really is thought by very many people to be kind of the Father of, the backbone of, because Stewart has the ability to speak openly and honestly. He doesn't have to waste words, he's very forthright and I'm really thrilled...that you know...you can talk to Stewart, you can agree or disagree with Stewart but he always shows you a great deal of respect and caring. For those reasons I've always had a great feeling of warmth towards Stewart," she concluded with feeling.

"What, in view of your position now, as a role model-because that's what you become symbolically when you lead this parade-would you both like to say to the community?"

"Unity," she responded. "We definitely need unity. We are doing to one and other what the straight community does to us. We're too class conscious. Too worried about what area of town we live in, about whether we have coins in our pockets...one of the things that concerns me very much is that there are vocal organizations that give lip service to the community as a whole and they say they include Transgenders. But to date they have done nothing to include Transgenders. Right now one of the things I'm discussing with someone locally is the inclusion of Transgenders in their mission statement. And it's not just unity as far as including Transgenders. It's having respect for one another. I'm tired of Lesbian separatists. I'm tired of Gay men who think they don't need the womyn of the community. When I first got involved with the AIDS movement as far as volunteers were concerned, most of the volunteers and caretakers I was trained with were womyn. Womyn have worked very hard in the Gay arena because we love our Gay brothers and they should have a high quality of life. Unfortunately, I find that Gay men have not supported us in our needs: breast cancer is very, very serious among Lesbians and I don't see very many Gay men out at the walks or doing anything to promote the health of womyn. So what happens is that you have some very radical Lesbians who get very angry and all of a sudden we have this gap in our community. I would like to see us all coming together and showing the kind of love that I've witnessed at Pride Celebrations in the past where everyone has a smile on their face and a kind word for one another. I would hope that that would carry out throughout the whole year," she said.

"Mr. Butler, tell us a little bit about how you're planning this day. Will you be in any costume, who will be riding with you, etc.?"

"Well, I was thinking of bringing back Dame Edna but some of the people who helped me put that together are no longer with us, and it might be hot and my mascara might run, so no, I'm not going to do Dame Edna. My partner of 25 years, Alfred, says he wants to ride with me, but knowing him, he may or may not. It may even be a surprise to me what kind of a getup I go in," he said.

We'll see those two worthy activists leading our parade on Sept. 26, and we wish them both Godspeed and a successful carriage ride. The honor is well deserved and we praise you both for your years of work on our behalf. Happy Planet Pride and happy 19th festival to you both.

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