SF Castro James Baldwin plaque (1225)

Embedded in the new, widened, sidewalks of the Castro are short memorial plaques of famous gay people. I liked that the plaques honored people such as James Baldwin that are not always named as gay heroes and whose relation to gay history is complicated.

BUT, I'm always bothered by the fact that all such efforts do not acknowledge the people, the 'foot soldiers', who actually made gay liberation happen -- the faceless and unacknowledged thousands who stuffed envelopes, filled the ranks in marches, blew safety whistles, faced off with police and fag-bashers, came out at work, and on-and-on. The people who were the day-to-day face of gay liberation.