Today we have Wendell Quigley and Manny Furtado, one of the married couples here in the park
today.
What brings you here today?
We are here to represent Better Vallejo, it's a group of us that have got together and we're
wanting to Better Vallejo in any way that we can and get to all of the communities that
we can to participate in this.
It's going to be a long, hard struggle, but I think it can be accomplished and I think
it will be great.
We've been married June of 2008.
Good thing you remembered.
And you married us.
I did.
I did.
It was a great day.
It was a Hawaiian theme if I remember.
Yes, indeed.
So do you have any advice for gay couples that are planning to get married some day
when it becomes legal again?
Listen, learn and share.
What's a gay pride being for you?
It's a day to celebrate the diversity in our community and that includes the LGBT community
as part of that community and I think Vallejo has a tremendous amount of diversity and I
am always excited to come out and celebrate that and for me it's celebrating equality
for LGBT community.
One of the things this year that's happened that I think is really exciting, which there's
a table right over here.
In fact right now it's Better Vallejo and I think that that is an exciting development
over the last six months in terms of trying to bring the community closer together and
working with all different groups of people and do just providing a little more education
and understanding about the LGBT community and how diverse that community is and what
they have to offer and bringing unity to our entire community.
Well, it sounds like a noble goal.
Well, thank you Marty.
Really appreciate your time.
Thank you.
Okay.
All they're concerned about is we want to make Vallejo a better place and everybody
is helping to make it a better place, all the gay community and everybody is helping.
So it doesn't matter what your orientations are, we all want to work together to make
Vallejo a better place I think and we're glad that the gay community is involved in
speaking up and you know.
What are your impressions of today so far?
I think it's a wonderful idea and I'm glad to see so many people here and I'm hoping
more people turn out and I hope it gets covered well in the news media as well.
Can I ask a couple of questions?
Ask me, baby.
Okay.
We're here at June Gay Pride picnic here in Vallejo and City Park.
Let's see.
In my park.
In your park.
Do you live nearby?
I live right across the street.
This is my park.
Oh dear.
I live right there.
Okay.
So I take care of this park.
So what brings you here today?
I have to come to the park for the children and for everybody else that are enjoying
their self like everybody here today is enjoying themselves.
Indeed.
So you come to most of the celebrations in the park?
Everything that comes along, I come over here and enjoy myself with everybody.
Well, it's nice to have you here.
What's the significance of Gay Pride for you?
It's about equality.
Everybody deserves equal treatment, equal rights.
It's just, it's humanity and it's very important and Vallejo is an open, inclusive city and
everyone talks about our diversity and we need to live it, we need to walk it.
There's a new group called Better Vallejo and Vallejo together and it sounds to me
from talking to those folks that they're really trying to develop some unity in our diversity
and diversity in our unity.
Is that a fair statement?
Most definitely and I think with a lot of the issues and the problems that Vallejo has
right now, it's people that's going to bring us out of it and it's by uniting and crossing
each other's lawns and joining with our neighbors and working together.
So that's what these groups are doing and I'm really appreciative of it.
Gregory is one of the representatives for Better Vallejo and has been on the founding
committee.
What can you tell us, Gregory, about the Better Vallejo?
Better Vallejo is a group of people who came together to try to create an environment in
which everybody in Vallejo is welcomed and respected and encouraged to participate to
create a Better Vallejo.
We felt that there had been some unfortunate comments made by some leadership in the city
that tried to marginalize a certain subsection of the community and we felt that as opposed
to being anti anything or a reactive in a negative way, we actually thought it would
be more important to try to create a moral high ground, one that represented a kind of
progressive plurality here in Vallejo of people who do recognize the contributions of all
people and specifically do welcome the gay and lesbian transgender bi community into
Vallejo and recognize that we can be a part of the solution for the economic and cultural
and spiritual health of our community and we felt that the mayor's comments were unfortunate
at the time and on the other hand we feel like there's water under the bridge and this
isn't about being anti-Osby or anti anything, we're really about promoting a better Vallejo.
You know what almost always gets glossed over is the bisexuals.
I like to say every chance I get that I think it's harder for me to be out into the LGBT
community as a bi person than it is in the straight community and I think that needs
to be given voice every once in a while.
Regardless of race, religion, nationality, age, ability or who we love, individuals in
a healthy community treat each other with respect and strive to work together to promote
peace, understanding and unity among all residents.
We're here with Rick Durran and Rick is the Grand Poupa of the Vallejo Gay Network.
How long has Vallejo Gay Network been around Rick?
It started with a handful of people 4th of July, a barbecue potluck and that was in 1998.
Since then it's expanded out to over 600 households coming and going.
People have moved out of Vallejo, people are moving into Vallejo and it isn't necessarily
just the population of Vallejo.
We expand out into the East Bay, over into Marin, we even have one person who's a member
who's up in Yucaya and who has friends and works here on occasion.
How long has the picnic been in place?
I know a few of us were talking about earlier tonight or this afternoon and weren't able
to remember exactly how many years it's been in the city park.
Well this is the 4th annual pride potluck and picnic.
I know the community is very pleased to have your presence.
You've been one of the most dedicated people on the City Council to be in solidarity with
whoever really who has social justice challenges and that includes the LPGT community and speaking
for the LPGT community as well as others.
I've known you to be someone who really reaches out to the disenfranchise and to the fore and
those who are marginalized and it's much appreciated and much needed in this city.
Thank you and it comes from the heart.
After I had polio and became a member of the disabled community, I experienced firsthand
what discrimination was all about.
What else do you think needs to be done from your experience as a City Council person in
Vallejo to help welcome lesbian and gay, bisexual, transgendered people into Vallejo?
I think what we need to do especially now because the city is in a state of bankruptcy
and when you read the local paper you just see negative comments and negative articles
about everything.
I think everybody needs to put that on the back burner and I see it happening and I really
do of everybody coming together as a community, you know, forgetting your biases, forgetting
your prejudices, you know, and what we need to do to bring this city back to where it
should be and I really truly believe that that will happen because I think and I believe
it that there's so many people out there that are willing to come together and let's
just fight for this city, let's bring it back to where it should be and I see that happening
so I think some good positive things are going on.
I remember my very first VGN June Pride picnic here and you were so welcoming, you had such
a amount of hospitality, you came over and you laid out a blanket so that I could lay
down the grass and very much make myself at home and it was nice to encounter someone
with such grace as yourself.
Well thank you very much, thank you.
You know, the fact that we didn't have a specific Pride Month event in Vallejo didn't make a
lot of sense and the year before that the Heritage Foundation had tried, we had tried
to do something that was like a sort of an awards ceremony for the gay community and
their contribution to helping maintain and preserve our historic, the fabric of Vallejo.
So that was sort of where the whole thing started but then the next year sort of seems,
this isn't, you know, it's perfect, it's very Vallejo, you know, it's very homey, it's
very family, you know, we had this incredibly beautiful historic park which of course the
Heritage Foundation was working to salvage and rehabilitate anyways and we were working
on developing that playground back then so it seems like a perfect fit.
What is it that drew you to coming to this gay Pride picnic?
Well just the support of the community and I'm part of Better Vallejo so I wanted to
support Better Vallejo to bring together the diversity of Vallejo and celebrate the diversity
of Vallejoans, all Vallejoans.
So that's why I'm here and just this, it's a great crowd.
Great friends, great crowd, great food.
Hey watch this, I'm going to play something, it might not be political correct but it's
going to be the blue.
Alright hit it.
They got them six months, they got them solid, they got them solid, oh from the DA, yeah they got them six months, oh they got them solid, yeah, oh if I roll that highway,
you know I got a friend somewhere, so the judge I pleaded, to the judge I wrote it, to the
judge I wrote, baby I wrote it down, to the judge I pleaded, to the judge I wrote it down,
to the judge, to the judge.
Only if I roll that highway, you know I ain't gonna be ma'am for this bad.
