The Stonewall Riots And The Lgbt Rights Movement Into Motion

Sylvia was electrified; after years of harassment and discrimination, the LGBTQ community was finally waking up and expressing its rage. As the crowds swelled and began to fight back against the police reinforcements that had arrived, Sylvia howled through the streets, “The revolution is here!”

In today's era, one of the most progressive civil rights movements is that of the LGBT+ community. For many decades, gays, transgenders, and other queers have been under fire for who they love and who they are. On June 28th, 1969, a group of queers subjected to police brutality took a chance to stand up for themselves. Thus starting one of the most widely revered LGBT+ movements: the Stone Wall Riots. This group of courageous men and women (and those in between) were pioneers in the United States gay rights activism, and can even be considered the spark to LGBT+ rights.

The 1960’s was a decade of great change in America, from civil rights for African Americans to equal rights for women, the American people were rising up and discovering that their voice in the political discourse was just as important as those they elected to office. One other such group that awakened and challenged the existing status quo that kept them silent and scared were the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities across the country. From the first large-scale associations of LGBT individuals that formed in San Francisco in the 1950’s to the political and social groups that came to be following the Stonewall Riots of 1969, they would speak out and not allow themselves to be kept down anymore. The aim of this paper is to establish the events and opinions that led up to the uprising at the Stonewall Inn such as perceived and real discrimination by police, medical professionals, and society itself, what actually happened at Stonewall, and how they sparked the modern LGBT movement in the United States over the next half century to the present day.

“The movement has been so successful that LGBTQ+ members that had once lived on the streets, now are professors and doctors.” (cbsnews.com) The Stonewall Riots paved the way for the majority of LGBTQ+ rights events. For example, the first ever, “Pride Parade,” a parade that takes place every year, all over the world, to commemorate the actions of activists, to celebrate differences, and to express pride and culture. Often times these parades often also serve as demonstrations to protest for rights such as same-sex marriage. These events still happen to this day, and each year these parades grow and become more of a symbol for the perseverance and passion of the LGBTQ+ community.

This photo shows Sylvia Rivera taking a stand against LGBT+ discrimination. It allowed us to better picture how Sylvia Rivera was one of the most influential LGBT+ people of her time.

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by people who were apart of the LGBT community against the police raid that happened on the morning of July 28,1969, at the Stonewall Inn, located in Manhattan, New York City. It’s believed that Sylvia Rivera, a trans woman, was the first one who rightfully threw the first brick. These events are widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the LGBT liberation movement and the current fight for LGBT rights in America.

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,

In this occasion, large groups of people would congregate and march with the demand of legalized gay marriage. All the people marching had one objective which was to have the freedom to make their own choice when it comes to who they marry. Instead of being the followers in society it is time for you to become leaders, thus you must preserve your own freedoms. Many of you may disagree with gay marriage, but these people have fought for their freedom to make a decision based on who they are and you must respect that. In the case of people fighting for legalized gay marriage, they are trying to preserve their own individual freedoms of marrying who they are sexually attracted to.

The author lists recent protests held by the trans community over a movie that places a cisgender, white, gay male at the center of the revolutionary Stonewall Riots, despite the widespread fact and acknowledgement that trans-women of color were the revolutionaries of the riots. The Stonewall Riots were the pivotal moment in the on-going movement towards equality for the LGBT communities. During the riots that took place in the 60’s, queer men and women worked alongside trans and gender nonconforming people for the purpose of making the LGBT voice heard across not only America, but world. The conjoined efforts of both the trans and gay communities are what have led us to the legalization of gay marriage this past year. Together, both communities have created so much progress. Wouldn’t dividing ourselves into separate communities effectively stop us from continuing this progress towards

Everyone knows what happened at Stonewall. The story has been glorified and romanticized throughout the decades since the original riot in 1969. The public perception of the Stonewall Riots is that this three day long episode was the beginning of modern LGBTQIA organization, or, as it is commercially referred to, LGBTQIA "pride". However, another police raid occurred four years earlier at California Hall in San Francisco, California. This narrative has been trivialized into local history, while the succeeding police raid has made it into national history. The religious groups and the homophile movements tell an extremely contrasting story of the LGBTQIA community and the chronicles of the police raids they faced from the common

The LGBTQ+ community had fought for rights throughout history so that they would be able to live “normal” lives. By the end of the 1960’s the Stonewall riots created a movement that inspired people of the

To be homosexual in the sixties was looked at on the same scale as a crime. Whenever there is a picture of the monumental marches of the sixties, there is generally a picture of men, arms locked, on the front line, and prepared for battle both physiological and physical. On the physiological end the picture sends a message of strength. If we look further into the image there is a mass of black women in the crowds, just as the men, locked in arms, just not on the front lines. That is a very intriguing idea.

This photo called attention to the issues in civil equality that are still prevalent today, it was the start of a very long fight for equality.

Until the last half of the 20th century, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals were victims of discrimination in American society and in statutory laws, which limited their basic rights. On the night of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, and arrested three drag queens by using excessive force. Bar patrons and spectators, tired of police oppression, stood up and fought back. This was the first major protest based on equal rights for homosexuals. The Stonewall Riots became a turning point for the homosexual community in the United States sparking the beginning of the gay rights movement, and encouraged lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual, or "LGBT," to fight for their rights.

Going around the Square there is more than just produce and baked goods; there are also people that are trying to sell their message. There is always a booth, or maybe two, that try to spread their religious opinions by using pamphlets and traditional persuasive methods. However, there are more than a few captivating individuals who want to share their extremely thought-provoking performance. Usually, there is a group of elderly women sitting in lawn chairs on one corner of the Square. They are the kind of older women who have appear harmless and extremely grandma-esque. Except these grandmas hold signs spreading the message of equality for the LGBTQ+ community. At first, they all just seem like cool grandmas trying their best to protest, but every once in awhile they will get up from their lawn chairs. They start to sing and dance! They are all connected, not only through the message they are trying to send, but through the elbow lock they have on each others’ arms which prevents them all from falling over. They are so happy and proud of themselves; it really is a sight to see at least once in a