Each
February, the United States celebrates Black History Month. For many Americans,
this celebration consists of watching the public service announcements telling
us of the achievements of African Americans. From these ads, we’ve learned that
a black man invented the stoplight and that the first female self-made
millionaire in the US was black. Indeed, the month-long celebration provides
the public with lessons of the vast contributions blacks Americans have made to
this country.
June is Gay Pride Month. However, you won’t be seeing similar public service announcements about the vast contributions gays and lesbians have made to American society. Well, maybe on Logo, Out!, or the gay network for straight people, Bravo. Sure, a couple of shows may work in gay-friendly stories and the movie channels will dig out Brokeback Mountain and All Over the Guy for a few more screenings, but largely the month will go unobserved by the mainstream media.
So
allow me to step in and fill the void, only with more of an international
flair, since Gay Pride is a worldwide event, not just an American one. Were
American networks brave enough to highlight significant gays and lesbians, as
well as important events in gay history, one important story you might see
concerns the Stonewall Riots.
The
single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern
fight for gay and lesbian rights in the United States occurred at the Stonewall
Inn in Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City on June 28. 1969. It
started in the early hours of the morning with a routine police raid.
Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people
in the 1950s and 1960s. The Stonewall Inn, at the time, was owned by the Mafia
and it catered to an assortment of patrons, but it was known to be popular with
the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens,
representatives of a newly self-aware transgender
community, effeminate young men, male prostitutes,
and homeless youth. Although Police raids on gay bars were routine in the
1960s, officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn, and
attracted a crowd that was incited to riot.
Tensions between New York City
police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more
protests the next evening, and again several nights later.
The Stonewall Inn lasted only a few weeks after the riot.
By October 1969 it was up for rent. Village residents surmised it was too
notorious a location, which discouraged business. Village residents quickly
organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places
for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without
fear of being arrested.
Within
two years of the Stonewall riots there were gay rights groups in every major
American city, as well as Canada, Australia, and Western Europe. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was soon
formed, the first gay organization to use "gay" in its name. Previous
organizations such as the Mattachine
Society, the Daughters of
Bilitis, and various homophile groups had masked their purpose by
deliberately choosing obscure names. The GLF borrowed tactics from and aligned
themselves with black and antiwar demonstrators with
the ideal that they "could work to restructure American society". Four
months after they formed, however, the group disbanded when members were unable
to agree on operating procedure. In late December 1969, several people who had
visited GLF meetings and left out of frustration formed the Gay Activists Alliance
(GAA). The GAA was to be entirely focused on gay issues, and more orderly.
Their constitution started, "We as liberated homosexual activists demand
the freedom for expression of our dignity and value as human beings".
On
June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride
marches took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York
commemorating the anniversary of the riots. Similar marches were organized in
other cities. Today, Gay Pride events are held annually throughout the world
toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots.
In
June 1999 the U.S.
Department of the Interior designated 51 and 53 Christopher Street,
the street itself, and the surrounding streets as a National Historic Landmark,
the first of significance to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
community. In a dedication ceremony, Assistant Secretary of the Department of
the Interior John Berry
stated, "Let it forever be remembered that here—on this spot—men and women
stood proud, they stood fast, so that we may be who we are, we may work where
we will, live where we choose and love whom our hearts desire."
On
June 1, 2009, President Barack Obama
declared June 2009 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, citing
the riots as a reason to "commit to achieving equal justice under law for
LGBT Americans".
Obama
also referenced the Stonewall riots in a call for full equality during his second
inaugural address on
January 21, 2013:
"We,
the people, declare today that the most evident of truths—that all of us are
created equal—is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears
through Seneca Falls,
and Selma,
and Stonewall. . . . Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and
sisters are treated like anyone else under the law—for if we are truly created
equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”
This
was a historic moment, being the first time that a president mentioned gay rights or the word "gay" in
an inaugural address.
Remember Stonewall, a spark for Gay Liberation.
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