Stonewall... 40 years later

"Before Stonewall, you took your life into your hands when you tried to be openly gay. Whenever we celebrate pride, a component of that pride should be that we are proud of our history & struggle & that we fought back against oppression & managed to have lives under that difficulty."
Martin Duberman, author of "Stonewall"

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, a group of Hispanics, hippies, drag queens, & queers got fed up with being harassed by the police because they were gay. It’s hard to imagine police handcuffing, harassing, & arresting gay people for simply gathering in public, but that’s what happened, routinely, before Stonewall’s spontaneous uprising of gay men & lesbians in New York’s Greenwich Village. What happened then galvanized the gay rights movemen?. For younger people, who have grown up in a world with increasing legal protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender (LGBT) community, it’s hard to imagine that just four decades ago, gay people’s jobs, families, & homes were threatened, & their lives restricted or ruined.

While not the first rebellion, the Stonewall riots are the most famous instance of homosexuals fighting back against government persecution. From all accounts, the riots were not pretty or organize. Stonewall was six nights of street riots with some of the least empowered elements of society: the closeted, fearful, & disenfranchised, fighting the police batons & pepper spray with what they had, mostly fists, signs, garbage cans, bottles, & shoes. For gay boomers, the uprising is a defining moment to celebrate as we look back at how far we have come in four short decades & look ahead to the future. In 1969, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn who refused to be intimidated by police oppression had no idea they were about to change history. They just wanted equality. In the 1950s, Rosa Parks had no idea she was about to change history when she refused to move to the back of the bus, either. As she famously recounted, "The reason that I did not move from my seat was that my feet were tired." From such humble origins, movements ignite.

I wonder what we’ll imagine next for the older LGBT community? I wonder if those on the front lines of gay "out" aging will keep walking that line between activism & diplomacy. If the first 40 years of our civil rights movement are any indication, will the next 40 take us into a future of greater equality, with more allies? Will the Stonewall legacy of fighting for being out & equality motivate us to pave new trails for gays & lesbians at age 50+? I think we owe that not only to ourselves & to the generations, but also to those who stood up for us at Stonewall.
I have continue to reflect on all the things many "baby queers" don't know about or care:
Harvey Milk?
Judy Garland?
Camp?
Musical Theatre?
you could be arrested for dancing with someone of the same sex ?
gay bars were hidden & "coded"?
no Internet?
Cole Porter?
Leonard Bernstein?
Tennessee Williams?
Truman Capote?
Montgomery Clift?
James Dean?
Dag Hammerskjold?
Rudolf Nuryev?
Ralph Waldo Emerson?
Walt Whitman?
Rock Hudson?
Tales Of The City?
Frida Kahlo?
Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert?
Billie Jean King?
Elton John?
George Michael?
Martina Navratilova?
Billie Jean King?
Greg Louganis?
no Manhunt?
no Craigslist?
Melissa Etheridge ?
no Madonna?
no Rosie?
no Ellen?
no Disco?
no Pride Parades?
no "talk" of same sex marriage?
no President or any politician who would use the word gay (Ronald Reagan?)?
no gay cable TV channels, hell- no cable TV!?!
Noel Coward?
Stephen Sondheim?
Ethel Merman?
Gertrude Stein?
Oscar Wilde?
Harvey Fierstein?
Lord Byron?
Dynasty?
Liza Minelli?
Proust?
Kander & Ebb?
Jerry Herman?
Broadway?
fucking without protection?


let us continue to add to the list...