Sistahs (and brothers) celebrate Pride

"There's always going to be struggles but today is about us getting together and celebrating Pride, pride in our unity, pride in our race and pride in our community," Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons said as she kicked off the annual Sistah Summit, which this year was held on the out lesbian mayor's turf for the first time.

The event, part of the 10th annual Black Pride festivities, drew a crowd of about 30 - including a handful of men - to Z Square Caf? in Harvard Square on June 13.

"This is a historical occasion," said Sistah Summit host Judah Dorrington, noting that it marked the first time the event had crossed the bridge from Boston to Cambridge and the first time men - among them Gary Daffin of the Multicultural AIDS Coalition, Diego Sanchez of AIDS Action Committee and Paul Glass of Men of Color Against AIDS - were a visible presence at the event.

"We're a whole community," said Dorrington. "I mean, we're all taking about the whole gender thing, but one thing about black people is that we're all one. Contrary to what people may think ... we just can't get caught up in the separation stuff of gender." While she noted that separate gathering spaces for men and women are important, Dorrington added, "We are family. We are family and we wanted to see the unity this year that Black Pride started with."

In addition to Simmons, among the esteemed guests was state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, who contrasted the ease with which Gov. Deval Patrick's 18-year-old daughter Katherine came out to her family (See "With love and pride," June 12) with that of Wilkerson's sister, who didn't come out to her family until about 10 years ago, when she was 35 years old. Wilkerson recalled how her mother drove all the way from Boston to Delaware to visit her sibling, and, upon finding she was living with another woman, promptly got in her car and made the eight-hour trek back to Massachusetts.

"She was absolutely undone," said Wilkerson. "She didn't know what to do." So she showed up on Wilkerson's doorstep. "She was out of breath," said the senator. So distraught was her mother, Wilkerson feared the worst had happened to her sister, ticking off a list of tragedies from cancer to eviction to imprisonment. "I'm, like, running the list," Wilkerson said, eliciting laughter from the crowd. When her mother finally blurted out that her younger daughter was gay, Wilkerson laughed with relief, just as First Lady Diane Patrick did when Katherine finally came out to her after some dramatic build-up. Wilkerson's mother, however, didn't see the humor in the situation.

"It brought back memories," Wilkerson said of the Patrick family's story. "I think it just kind of reinforces, really, not just how far we've come but how far we have to go. I think about what it's like today for the governor's daughter; it's so different from where my sister was, who didn't get there -- to the point where she could talk about it -- until she was thirty-five."