The 1960s and preceding years were a hard time for LGBT (now LGBTQIA+) members, public holding hand, kissing, or dancing with members of the same sex were illegal. Gay bars and clubs, a small refuge were LGBT members could go to socialize and express themselves freely, were also being shut down for being 'disorderly'. By 1969, the tension between the gay community and police had been building up with no release. A police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay club and bar, was the final snapping point. While the raid was legally justified as the bar didn't have its liquor license, the community had long suspected the police of targeting gay clubs while turning a blind eye towards the straight ones. Violence broke out as hundred of people barricaded themselves inside the bar and many more began rioting against the police outside on the streets.
Several days later, marches and demonstrations were made down the streets of New York city protesting LGBT rights. In 1970 the first pride parade set off from Stonewall New York and marched up 6th avenue designating June as pride month. These protests over Stonewall were largely considered to be the start of the gay rights movement, kicking off years of civil and cultural protest against gender discrimination in America.
Since then Stonewall still exists today in Greenwich Village New York. It stands as a symbol of resistance for the gay community and the start of the gay rights movement. The movement has been largely successful in civil terms. Gays and the rest of the LGBTQ+ community can no longer be discriminated against in the law. However, cultural stigma surrounding them still remains and private institutions still discriminate on the basis of sexual preference and identity.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/the-stonewall-riots
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-stonewall-riot
https://www.britannica.com/event/Stonewall-riots
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/an-amazing-1969-account-of-the-stonewall-uprising/272467/
After reading your post, I was interested in seeing how the Stonewall Riots started. In the early morning of June 28, 1969, two transgender women of color, Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera, fought against the police officers who tried to arrest them. One legend has Johnson throwing a shot glass across the bar (known as the “shot glass heard around the world”), and another has her throwing a brick. Despite being shut down by the cops, Stonewall Inn continued to open the next night. A large group of supporters and gay activists showed up to spread information and build the community that would fuel the growth of the gay rights movement. The exact breakdown of who did what first remains unclear, but what is clear is that Johnson’s and Rivera’s refusal to comply with the police served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.history.com/news/stonewall-riots-timeline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsha_P._Johnson
As you mentioned, "cultural stigma surrounding [the LGBTQ+ community] still remains." This reminded me of America's recent political advancements in helping dissolve this stigma, starting as far back as President Barack Obama's election into office in 2008. The President before him, George W. Bush, had pushed for a Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Since his first term, Obama passed a series of executive orders prohibiting discrimination against federal employees for being in the LGBTQ community. In 2010, Obama banned "don't ask, don't tell," thus allowing gay soldiers to openly serve in the US military. In 2013, he ended the federal ban on same-sex marriages, and the state ban in 2015. Despite all such progressions, the overall stigma still unfortunately exists, with a person's sexuality still being a subconscious point of consideration when accessing a person, present even in the recent presidential primary elections.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/17/14214522/obama-lgbtq-legacy