last week would have been the 58th birthday of bernard baran, who was imprisoned in 1984 at the age of 19 after a pair of parents failed to get him expelled from his position as a teacher's aide via a complaint about his uncloseted homosexuality and resorted to fabricating claims of pedophilia and sexual abuse. refusing a plea bargain for 5 years that demanded admission of guilt by maintaining his innocence, he received multiple life sentences and ultimately spent 21 years in prison. a scrawny boy of less than 100 pounds whose photo was published in the newspapers, he was beaten and sexually tormented, received threatening letters and a bounty was placed on his head. his conviction came in record time despite a total lack of evidence, countless contradictory and objectively impossible stories, and preschooler child witnesses outright asking for the "prize" they were "promised" after giving their testimony. his immediate appeal was denied, and afterwards his family was too poor to continue paying a lawyer. not a single lgbt organisation chose the side of a gay teenager being subjected to a kangaroo court in the middle of the satanic panic. ultimately, his release took until 2006, a few days after his 41st birthday, when a local advocacy group successfully proved the absurdity of his trial and the deliberate manipulation of evidence. he only got to live another 8 years in freedom, bearing mental and physical damage from years of abuse and negligent medical care. he needed a full set of new teeth to replace the ones that were punched out or broken and extracted. nevertheless, he enjoyed gardening and found work as a landscaper. his record has not been cleared to this day.
This is what pride is for.
Yes the parades are fun. That's not why we fight
