The Stonewall Riots And Women 's Rights Movement Essay

After that instance, they started to listen. Rivera spent her time doing everything to try to get the bill to pass, including getting arrested. Yet over time, a struggle within the group arose when those who were in favor of a class-based agenda, like Rivera, who wanted a movement centered around issues of poverty and oppression, clashed with assimilation-focused leaders who suggested that the only thing wrong with the U.S. culture was that it was antigay (Shepard, 99). Rivera quickly learned that even amongst the most radical gay activist, they weren’t interested in the struggles of trans and gender non-conforming people.

Life for most homosexuals during the first half of the Twentieth century was one of hiding, being ever so careful to not give away their true feelings and predilections. Although the 1920s saw a brief moment of openness in American society, that was quickly destroyed with the progress of the Cold War, and by default, that of McCarthyism. The homosexuals of the 50s “felt the heavy weight of medical prejudice, police harassment and church condemnation … [and] were not able to challenge these authorities.” They were constantly battered, both physically and emotionally, by the society that surrounded them. The very mention or rumor of one’s homosexuality could lead to the loss of their family, their livelihood and, in some cases, their

The idea of peacekeeping and the maintaining of order began centuries ago. However, long ago women were not involved in this. As women did enter within 20th century their role was limited. As time passes, change takes place.

Two sources, “Movements and Memory: The Making of the Stonewall Myth” by Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Suzanna M. Crage, and Stonewall: the Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution by David Carter, are used to form a proper analysis. Carter effectively reflects on the monumental spirit of the riots, while Armstrong and Crage focused on the lack of lasting significance of the riots, which directly refutes the beliefs of Carter.

In “Transgender Liberation” by Susan Stryker, she writes about what lead to the Compton’s Cafeteria riot in 1966. There was a large population of transgender women living in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. They lived in chap residential hotels, and worked as prostitutes or maids in order to support themselves. This, being caused by the “housing and employment discrimination against transgender people” (Stryker 435). This became, according to Stryker, an “involuntary containment zone for transgender women” (Stryker 435), and police perpetuated this by sending them there. They also discriminated them by putting them in jail for suspicion of prostitution. In response to the economic insufficiency, the “Tenderloin residents launched a grassroots campaign for economic justice in 1965” (Stryker 436). Around the same time, Vanguard, now known as the earliest known queer youth organization, was started by and made up of “young gay hustlers and transgender people”

“Sex was something mysterious which happened to married couples and Homosexuality was never mentioned; my mother told me my father did not believe it existed at all ‘until he joined the army’. As a child, I was warned about talking to ‘strange men’, without any real idea what this meant. I was left to find out for myself what it was all about.” Mike Newman, who was a child during the 1950s America recalls how homosexuality was perceived during the post-World War II era (F). This sexual oppression was not only in Newman’s household, but in almost everyone’s. While the civil rights movement began in the mid-1950s and ended late 1960s, the LGBT community started to come out of the closet slowly. The gay rights movement stemmed from the civil rights movement

A self-described “bitch on wheels”, Sylvia Rivera was a teenage runaway who became one of the world’s earliest and most passionate advocates for transgender rights. “In many ways,” one writer noted in a Village Voice obituary following her death in 2002, “Sylvia was the Rosa Parks of the modern transgender movement, a term that was not even coined until two decades after Stonewall.”

If I were to ask you what was the Stonewall riots and when did they take place, could you tell me? Well, no need because that is the exact reason why I’m writing this paper. In order to better inform you, my peers of what happened, where they took place, and why they are so important to American history. The 1960’s were not a welcoming time for those who fell into the LGBT community, ally or not. So those in the community who were affected came together and turned Inns into a place of refuge. Therefore, the Stonewall Riots were an important event in American History because it brought to the attention of the people; social injustices, police corruption, and sparked a social movement for peace and rights for all.

The riot began while the bystanders were throwing bottles at the police officers; by being surrounded by approximately 400 people the police officers had no choice but to barricade them within the bar while waiting for reinforcement. Even though there were other protests by gay groups, the Stonewall riots was the first time gays, lesbians, and transgender individuals saw the value of uniting behind a common cause, which invoked similar context to the civil rights and feminist movement.

In the past decades, the struggle for gay rights in the Unites States has taken many forms. Previously, homosexuality was viewed as immoral. Many people also viewed it as pathologic because the American Psychiatric Association classified it as a psychiatric disorder. As a result, many people remained in ‘the closet’ because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being discriminated against in the society. According to David Allyn, though most gays could pass in the heterosexual world, they tended to live in fear and lies because they could not look towards their families for support. At the same time, openly gay establishments were often shut down to keep openly gay people under close scrutiny (Allyn 146). But since the 1960s, people

The movement, using the slogan “Black Power,” followed the teachings of Malcolm X, an African American leader who died the same year and who promoted that African Americans separate from white society in favor of forming their own community. The Black Panther Party, a militant organization that viewed themselves as soldiers warring against the white hierarchy, arose from such ideals. Despite the challenge that “Black Power” proposed to the nonviolent movement, civil rights activists continued persevered in finding the end of black discrimination legally. They found success in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which both contributed to legally naming minorities as equal citizens, as well as protecting the same from discrimination. Although the strength of the civil rights movement dissipated after the 1960s, activists continue to make efforts to end entirely the racial discrimination within America’s economic and social policies.

The background of homosexuality in the 1940’s and 50’s was harsh, but people started to be opened toward the rights. There were criticisms toward homosexuality in the early days of Milk. Gay men carried the labels of mentally ill or

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.

The gay liberation movement occurred in Greenwich Village, New York. In June 1969, police invaded the Stone Wall Inn, a bar for gays. The gay people at the club became angered by the police actions, because they felt that it was unprovoked harassment. They fought for several nights, refusing to have the bar closed. This incident, generally referred to as Stonewall, has been noted as the beginning of the awakening of gays into personal and sexual liberation.

Gay Americans had enough and were no longer going to live in fear or repression that society put on them. The riots took place at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village and are considered to be the single most important event that led to the liberation of homosexuals. Because of the police raid and the proceeding violent acts, it ignited a fire within the LGBT community that they were no longer going to stand for what they had gone through. They began building alliances with other civil rights groups and protesting in the streets. The Stonewall riots finally gave them a platform to make their voices heard and so began the start of working toward LGBT