Abdulmajid Salleh. I like how you described and summarized the Toronto Riots by explaining the effect of Bill C- 150.
Erica Focht that’s a really good question you brought up. In my opinion, I really think that if the law were more specific enough it would have stopped the riots and police invasions at the time. This issue would not have gone that far, the police officers would have at least act according to the law there were provide and be more respectful toward the gay people.
The person made the biggest impact on Canadians in 2017 are Omar Khadr, he was fifteen when he allegedly killed Christopher Speer, who was part of the US army, other soldiers were injured from the grenade in Afghanistan. I think that this is important to know because he now lives in Red Deer in Alberta and is going to Red Deer college. Some people agree with the 10 million dollars because his charter of rights were ignored and so the government gave him the money as an apology but others disagree because he killed and injured Us soldiers.So a bit about his life is that he is born in Toronto, Canada on the ninth of September in 1986. He has two sisters and four brothers. His father so-called brainwashed him in a way. His father had connections
“This was the Rosa Parks moment, the time that gay people stood up and said no. And once that happened, the whole house of cards that was the system of oppression of gay people started to crumble”. (The Stonewall Uprising) Homosexuals were tired of being made fun of and discriminated for their way of life. “Something snapped. It's like, this is not right”. (The Stonewall Uprising) People were sick of the treatment, the weird looks, the removal of work, the feeling of someone refusing to be next to them, and the constant advice to change or they will end up ruining their lives. So, on June 28th, 1969, around 11:00 at night, in Greenwich Village, New York City, gay people decided to do something. The decided to say no, we aren’t doing this;
The Importance of the Stonewall Riots and Their Lasting Effects on the Gay Rights Movement
The throng became raucous as the time passed; people began throwing bottles and bricks at the police and shouting “gay power!” The riots really started when a lesbian woman who has been described as “a typical New
Stonewall Riots: the Events that Sparked the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement When most think of the gay rights movement of today, most realize that it is all very progressive, and many people, regardless of gender or sexuality, fully support the movement. Although this is the case now, things for the LGBTQ+ community have not always this accepting. According to a popular news website, "[The LGBTQ+ community] were viewed as some kind of freak show," said Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt. "Something to be avoided." (cbsnews.com) Around the mid 20th century and before, anyone who did not identify, or was suspected of not identifying as straight was highly discriminated against, and, in most cases, persecuted.
This persecution ended with Mexican independence. However, the rising American population meant the resurgence of sodomy laws. California's own was installed in 1850. An 1855 law expanded the crime of sodomy to include "assault with an intent to commit" sodomy, penalizing the crime with 14 years imprisonment. (LGBT History in California. Wikipedia) In the early hours of June 28, 1969, a group of gay customers at a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village called the Stonewall Inn, who had grown angry at the harassment by police, took a stand and a riot broke out. As word spread throughout the city about the demonstration, the customers of the inn were soon joined by other gay men and women who started throwing objects at the policemen, shouting "gay power." (Stonewall Riots: The Beginning of the LGBT Movement. The Leadership Conference). Eight years later, Harvey Milk was elected as the first openly gay man to be in a San Francisco public
The conditions faced by queer people leading up to the stonewall riots were appalling. Laws and Statutes made it legal to discriminate against LGBT+ individuals based on dress and behavior and to limit other basic freedoms as well. In the 50’s and 60’s, 49 of 50 states in the United States had some form of law that stated homosexuality was illegal and was punishable by fines or imprisonment (Staff). Up until 1987, homosexuality was considered a mental illness in the DSM (American Classification of Mental Disorders). In following, it was illegal to serve gay people alcohol in New York City up until 1966, thirty three years after prohibition was repealed (History). Under the statement that the gathering
The history of LGBTQIA+ rights in the United States is long and complicated. The identities within the LGBTQIA+ community that are accepted have shifted over the years as the majority of the population comes to understand some identities to be commonplace and struggles to understand others. However, the gaining of rights and acceptance by the LGBTQIA+ community has nearly always been tied to legal recognition. Lawrence v. Texas questions whether or not a Texas statute that bans homosexual sodomy is constitutional. Although LGBTQIA+ rights issues are controversial, the statute that convicted John Lawrence and Tyson Garner for having private, consensual gay sex as well as the means of conviction are clearly unconstitutional on several grounds,
The government, knowing very little about people and hardly any evidence would take anyone they thought was suspicious of anything odd for questioning and if they were suspected of homosexuality they would be fired right away. The government thought people who were gay were disloyal to the United States and made it so gay and lesbian people were without jobs in the state departments, which later started the Gay Rights Movement and till this day is still a very controversial topic. Not so much within employment in government jobs but more of people not being able to love and marry the people they please. Any person who was thought to be gay or lesbian were perceived as a security risk because they were thought of as disloyal to the United States and were discriminated against. People had a hard time distinguishing between political disloyalty and security risk.
Before continuing onto an analysis of how the Stonewall Riots happened and what came of them, one must first take a closer look at the events and opinions that came before and brought upon the anger and frustration that many LGBT individuals felt on that fateful night. According to many historians, the years before Stonewall were considered a “dark age” for LGBT individuals, where their very existence was
The Stonewall Riots in 1969 leading to the first Gay Pride Parade in 1970 started a public discourse on LGBT rights (The Stonewall Riots). In the years to follow, two opposing mass movements manifested: the LGBT movement and the Religious Right movement. The LGBT movement aimed to get equal rights for homosexuals. The Religious Right focused on stopping the perceived moral decay of America and protecting children from lesbians and gays. While these movements had polar opposite goals, they used surprisingly similar methods to get their messages across.
Though there were many groups appearing to help shape the way for gay civil rights, there were also organizations trying to prevent gay people from gaining any ground.
This newspaper article from The New York Daily News was extremely biased and homophobic which allowed us to realize how the public viewed the LGBT+ community back in 1969. The article also included interviews with police and participants of the riots that described the violence that took
The warm summer day of June twenty-eighth, 1969 was not a quiet one. Although the New York City police had a justification to raid the bar of the Stonewall Inn, which was a safe haven for members of the LGBT community, nothing could prepare them for the uproar their actions would cause on Christopher Street that early morning. Crowd., crown police began their arrests for the selling of liquor without a license, the intense crowd of gathering people did disperse as it was supposed to. In fact, a lesbian named Stormé DeLarverie had refused to move for an officer who was attempting to throw an arrestee into the police vehicle, which not only caused the officer to club her in the face,
Fifty years ago, in the early sixties, being gay was illegal in every providence in Canada, and in every single state in the United States. In the 1950’s, many gay individuals saw the men who had devoted their lives to being out and they knew what a horrible life that made for those men. This caused many gay men to “pass,” or live their entire lives in the closet. They would marry women for the soul purpose of protecting their secret. Before the stonewall riots, many Americans did not even believe gay people existed. Due to the lack of education and bigotry amongst Americans, being gay was very dangerous. Sexual acts in the gay community were commonly done in unsafe places and in public because they simply had nowhere else to go. Homosexuality was not just criminalized it was medicalized (Bawer). If you were gay, you could be subject to go into hospitals and were viewed by society as having a disability and a disease. In April of 1965, the very first gay protest took place in Washington DC. This protest was revolutionary and it began to pave the way for the future of gay men and women and reshape gay culture. In 1969, not long after the first gay protests of 1965, Canada decriminalized homosexual sexual acts in the privacy of one’s own home (Guerre). This was groundbreaking and gave the gay community hope that change was coming. Also, taking place in 1969 were the historic stonewall