Lambda rising!

When I came out 30 years ago, as a college student in the DC area, the first gay place I went to was a LGBT bookstore called Lambda Rising, which proudly hung this neon sign in their window. 

Yesterday, coincidently on the day of the Prop. 8 case before the Supreme Court, my 22-year-old gay "nephew," Jason Edward Tucker, was photographing the same sign, for the Smithsonian's LGBT archives, that greeted me at Lambda Rising when I came out at 22. Imagine my surprise when I saw this photograph on his Instagram account!

So much has happened during these 30 years. But one thing is clear: we are Lambda rising, indeed.