On This Day In Gay History... STONEWALL

I had to explain Stonewall to a group of 6 young people that I supervise. 2 of the group are gay. None of them had heard of Stonewall. I had to explain it to them, & they got quite an earful.

That the amazing news from New York State should have happened during NYC's Gay Pride & so close to this landmark anniversary was just icing on the wedding cake.

It was just 50 years ago, homosexuals were classified as subversives by the US Department of State; we were officially recognized as security risks to the country. The FBI kept lists of known homosexuals, as did the US Postal Service. The names of people arrested for public indecency & lewd behavior (men holding hands, women wearing suits) were published regularly in newspapers. Being queer was officially recognized as a psychopathic condition, & was a valid reason to be fired from your job. Gay men & women forced out of the government positions by the 1000s each year. If gay people regularly congregated together, the police department’s “Public Morals Squad” would be called in to intervene. Police brutality was commonplace. Hope for the future was pretty bleak; there were no substantial gay rights organizations. The only real community gay people had was in underground establishments, often maintained with help from the Mafia, or by bribing the police.

On June 27, 1969, the NYC tactical police force raided a popular Greenwich Village gay bar- the Stonewall Inn. Raids were not unusual in 1969; in fact, they were conducted regularly without much resistance. But, that night the street erupted into violent protest as the crowds in the bar fought back. The backlash & several nights of protest that followed have come to be known as the Stonewall Riots.

Prior to that summer there was little public expression of the lives & experiences of gays & lesbians. The Stonewall Riots marked the beginning of the gay liberation movement that has transformed the oppression of gay people into calls for pride & action. In the past 42 years, we have all been witness to an astonishing rise of gay culture that has changed this country & the world, forever.

Click on image in enlarge...NYTimes, July 29,

Rich Words On Frank Rich's Birthday

I am a fan of Frank Rich & his writings. His memoir- Ghost Light is one of my favorite books about the theatre. I was lucky to see him in 2008 in a conversation with Stephen Sondheim at the Newmark Theatre in Portland, What an evening! I always looked forward to his theatre reviews, even when I disagreed with his assertions & I treasure his Op-Ed pieces in the NY Times. What he says today about the Gay Rights Movement & the history of Stonewall is beautifully written & important. He is a reminder of how our straight allies make a very real difference in our struggle.

Frank Rich is a treasure. Is it really possible that he didn't know one single out person while he was at Harvard? I think this Op-Ed is a timely reminder of how much work is still to be done & that Forty Years Later: Still Second Class Americans.

For the first time, a majority of Americans (52 percent) believe “gays & lesbians should have a constitutional right to get married", according to a recent CNN poll.

Rich: "None of this means that full equality for gay Americans is a done deal. Even if it were, that would be scant consolation to the latest minority groups to enter the pantheon of American scapegoats, Hispanic immigrants and Muslims. We are still a young, imperfect, unfinished country. As a young black man working as a nurse in a 1980s AIDS clinic memorably says in 'Angels in America' by Tony Kushner:  “The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word ‘free’ to a note so high nobody can reach it.”

Rich left the NY Times this spring, after 31 years, where he was the lead Theatre Critic until 1994 when he became an Op-Ed columnist. He is now with my favorite publication- New York Magazine. Happy Birthday, Mr Rich!