The Stonewall Rebellion

All over the world, including in the United States, people face discrimination, inequality, and violence based on who they are. In the short story “A Letter to Harvey Milk” by Lesléa Newman, readers encounter characters that advocate for the rights of minorities, particularly Harvey Milk. Though Harvey Milk didn’t participate in dialogue throughout the short story, he had an immense impact on not only the two main characters Harry and Barbara, but the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community as well.

The Stonewall Riots were the spark for the LGBTQ+ rights movement, affecting the social and political environments for people of the LGBTQ+ community. It took decades of organized struggle to get the political and social environment for queer people to where it is today. The watershed moment for that struggle was started in the early morning of June 28, 1969

The Stonewall Riots are a perfect example of a group of people being stigmatized and persecuted for being outside of what's considered normal. It is an iconic example of discrimination and persecution of the LGBT community in America. Not many establishments welcomed openly gay people in the 1960’s. The businesses that did accept them tended to be gay bars. One place in particular that did so was The Stonewall Inn in New York City. The Manhattan bar, accepted all types of people who were not revered highly in society at the time. The Government back then did not have legislation that supported the LGBT community. “Homosexual acts” were decriminalized in all states but one, and those convicted faced fines or jail time. In the 1950’s and 60’s

Throughout the 50s and 60s in the United States, the FBI along with local police departments kept close watch on what they believed to be "homosexual activity".

After nearly one-hundred and fifty years of living in the New World, the colonists were anxious to be separated from their mothering country, England. Thomas Jefferson and other colonists got together to write an official document called the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776 to send to King George III. This document stated how the colonists were being treated unjustly and how independence should be granted to the citizens. The Declaration of Independence promises natural rights for all men, however, some rights such as suffrage, are not realized for some disenfranchised groups.

Before becoming an established LGBT community, people in these sector fought a long way in order to give themselves an identity and a space on society. During the 1950’s wherein the LGBT community weren’t brave enough to voice out there concern, they were only called as “third gender”. A lot of social movements like African-American Civil Rights Movement, Counterculture of the 1960s and Opposition to United States involvement to Vietnam war occurred during the 1960’s which made the LGBT community to fight their own call to end discrimination. The Stonewall Riots is the most important event of the gay community in fighting their own rights which led to a massive gay liberation movement. It was held on June 28, 1969 in Stonewall Inn at Greenwich Village at Manhattan City, New York. Stonewall Inn is owned by Mafia and it provided a home of drag queens, transgenders, effeminate young men, butch lesbians, male prostitutes and homeless youth. It was considered as the most poor and marginalized people in the gay community. A year after of a series of demonstrations and riots, it was June 28, 1970 when the first Gay Pride March was held in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. In today’s society, a lot has changed in terms of representing the LGBT and I believe that their community has now a solid foundation. But, it does not stop there. We still call to end discrimination, abuses and violence to the LGBT people. Discrimination and non acceptance of the LGBT is still

The Civil Rights Movement gained traction around the 1950s, paving the way for many other oppressed groups. These groups fought for different rights, but they still had a similar struggle to the original movement. One of these groups is the Gay Rights Movement. The comparison between the black civil rights movement and the gay civil rights movement is “typically a sensitive subject, even among liberals” (Williams). Some people believe that it is unfair to compare a fight for marriage to a fight to gain equality in every aspect. If they step back and see the bigger picture, they could tell that the structures are very similar. The Gay Rights Movement is similar to the black Civil Rights Movement.

Freedom was equated to sexual promiscuity and embracing one’s sexual self. No longer would young women feel constrained to reject pre-marital sex. Rather during the 1920’s “necking” and “petting” were terms used to describe the new definition of courtship. Young women embraced their new found sexuality. This “new order” of culture, “reflected indulgence, and an emphasis on immediate gratification, often in the form of sex and other bodily pleasures.” Sexual experiences combined with sexual promiscuity liberated young women to own their own bodies and to reject shame for doing so. Young women flaunted their new found sexuality by the specific clothing they chose to represent the flapper

“A group of people decided they’d had enough. They took a stand and in doing so

African Americans have had a long history of oppression. They were forced to be slaved and kept under the white man’s control. They were segregated so that Blacks and Whites do not mix. Today, police brutality on the African American community led to the “Black Lives Matter” movement. The LGBTQ community has also been oppressed. They were described as ‘sinners’ by dominant groups. They were stereotyped to more likely molest and rape heterosexuals. There was also a devastating shooting in an Orlando LGBT night club, killing 49 individuals and injuring countless. Homosexual African Americans are denied access to resources due to their sexual orientation. Resources such as housing, employment, fostering, and other services. They also experience

Because of their relative invisibility in public life, many people have a poor grasp on what being transgender really is. To be fair, this is a complicated issue, encompassing its own subsection of the LGBT+ community with its own unique groups. To put it simply, a transgender person is somebody who identifies as a gender other than the one written on their birth certificate. This often means identifying as the opposite sex, but some transgender people live in between the gender binary or outside it altogether. Typically, transgender people live express their identity in different ways: dressing as their preferred gender, going through hormone therapy to alter their bodies, undergoing sex reassignment surgery to change their genitals, or a

In this and the last century our Human Rights issues, no matter the issue, all follow the same pattern. As these go throughout time, with racial and gender equality in the past showing similarities, and issues of today following suit. Also, the many genocides throughout time also follow a pattern, too.

In his article ‘Movements before Stonewall need to be remembered, too’, Adam Dupuis discusses the fact that while the Stonewall Uprising was an important event in LGBT history, the events before it should not be dismissed as lesser. The author emphasizes the Annual Reminders, seminal protests which took place in Philadelphia every Fourth of July from 1965 to 1969. Not only were the Annual Reminders the first sustained LGBT demonstrations, but they were the first gay rights protests to have members from multiple cities, with forty activists from Washington, D.C., New York, and Pennsylvania participating. However, these events were discontinued upon the occurrence of the Stonewall Riot in 1969, when the organizers of the Reminders made the decision

Beth Loffreda, author of “Losing Matt Shepard,” accentuates the bewilderment that raged through America following the death of Matt Shepard. Matthew Shepard was a twenty-one year old, University of Laramie student in Wyoming when his life was ripped from him. Shepard, described as a small barely over a hundred pound young man, “In dramatic and widely reported testimony, Fluty [ the biker who found Shepard] would later state that at first she thought Matt would have been no older than thirteen, he was so small( Matt was only five feet two inches, barely over one hundred pounds),” ( Loffreda 371) was out alone on a Tuesday night when he picked up Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. The two men led him to their car and drove to the edge of

Queer women frequently felt unsecure and disgrace toward their sexuality in the mid twentieth century greatly influenced by governmental anti-gay policies and the notion of medicalized homosexuality. Changes were seen during the homophile movement in 1950s, queer women fought for their voices to be heard by establishing their organization – Daughters of Bilitis (abbreviated as DOB) – to connect with other lesbians via The Ladder magazine throughout the world and gaining support from well-educated individuals such as a group of San Francisco clergies. During the period, they also battled for their civil and political rights by organizing silent protests against government’s anti-gay policies and challenging the notion of medicalized homosexuality.