The rt that changed Ameri's gay rights movement forever | Life and style | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE RT THAT CHANGED AMERI'S GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT FOREVER
• A VERY LGBTQ : GAY MARRIAGE, TRANS RIGHTS AND A 'RABOW WAVE'
• GAY PRI MARCH US MARK 50 YEARS OF MORN GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• STONEWALL RTS: 50 YEARS ON OM THE RTS THAT CHANGED GAY RIGHTS HISTORY
• TIMELE: KEY MOMENTS FIGHT FOR GAY RIGHTS
• STONEWALL AND THE MOB: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• 50 YEARS LATER: HOW NYC'S STONEWALL RTS SPARKED THE MORN GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• LET IT ROAR: HOW STONEWALL SPARKED A GAY RIGHTS REVOLUTN

THE RT THAT CHANGED AMERI'S GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT FOREVER

On a hot and humid summer’s eveng New York Cy 1969, the tranquily of a small park Queens was disturbed by jarrg sounds of sawg and choppg and the thump of tre topplg to the rints were angry that gay men were meetg the park at night unr a lovers’ lane of tre. They went home, grabbed saws and ax, and on that sticky summer eveng, unr the approvg eye of lol police, they chopped down all the strange cint was one of the more surreal maniftatns of a untry that June 1969 remaed trapped homophobia’s grip. By then Greenwich Village, a New York neighborhood wh a rich history of toleratg sexual diversy, had bee Ameri’s pre-ement LGBT statn, home to probably the largt populatn of gay and lbian people the flocked here search of pannship, love and secury, though even the Village safety was not guaranteed.

New York police revered a body om the Hudson River April 1969, ncludg that the young man had been strangled before beg dumped the water, a victim of the “dock scene” – probably the most dangero gay meetg place the Lanigan-Schmidt, an artist, his apartment Manhattan, New York.

She herself was attacked on the street by a homophobic man and given two black ey, though she wanted the Guardian to know that she socked him right back and later took up martial Fouratt, an actor and 1960s radil who early 1969 moved to the Village apartment which he still liv today, rells the ternal bifurtn that many felt as a rult of havg to supprs their te selv.

A VERY LGBTQ : GAY MARRIAGE, TRANS RIGHTS AND A 'RABOW WAVE'

It wasn’t illegal to serve alhol to homosexuals 1969 but that didn’t stop New York thori om whholdg licens om gay bars by g a clse liquor laws that prohibed “disorrly” Fouratt, an actor and 60s radil, the Wt Village.

GAY PRI MARCH US MARK 50 YEARS OF MORN GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Photograph: Gnrlo Valente/The GuardianAt a time when the re inty of gay and lbian people was universally nied, up to 350 gay men, together wh a few “sre queens”, transgenr dividuals and lbians uld cram together and slow dance to the sounds of Motown blastg om a je box.

Cop rs were “bubble gum mach”, police officers “Lilly Law”, “Betty Badge”, “Patty Pig” or “Della wh the Blue Drs On” of the hated raids on gay bars were led by the manr of the NYPD vice squad, Deputy Inspector Seymour Pe. As David Carter, thor of the five history of the rebelln, Stonewall: The Rts That Sparked the Gay Revolutn, put an terview wh the Guardian: “You have the natn’s largt gay ghetto the Village, you have the natn’s largt gay club the Stonewall, you have the most severe police reprsn the history of the untry – and therefore you have the settg for what was about to e.

STONEWALL RTS: 50 YEARS ON OM THE RTS THAT CHANGED GAY RIGHTS HISTORY

All the anim endured by gays and lbians – the arrts, the workplace firgs, the random vlence, the tree fellg – was Rter was one of those young trans women (though she didn’t ll herself that 1969) who had to learn to be exceptnally reful public.

Before he died 2010, Pe nfsed that he had never been more ightened – and this the man who wrote the US army’s official manual for hand-to-hand bat the send world ’s terror spoke to a new assertivens, even aggrsn, on the part of gay men and women that would bee a ccial foundatn stone of Stonewall’s legacy. ” The cry went up, and on the send night was taken up as a chant by the crowd that had swollen size as word spread like wildfire through the cy and ’s hard to appreciate through the mists of half a century how ant jt the words “Gay power” were back then. To utter the word “gay” on s own was an act of muty – the Village Voice, which nsired self at the vanguard of progrsive media 1969, refed to accept adverts wh “gay” their headl on grounds that the term was “obscene”.

TIMELE: KEY MOMENTS FIGHT FOR GAY RIGHTS

Nor was Stonewall the first exprsn of physil ristance, as monstrated by the 1966 rt at Compton’s Cafeteria the Tenrlo area of San Francis prott agast police harassment of gay and transvte those early attempts at assertn were isolated and sporadic, and their prevailg ambn was one of acmodatn, tegratn. She saw the crowd om a distance but chose to walk right past , assumg to be jt another anti-Vietnam she learned the followg day that had fact been a risg up of gay men and their transgenr and lbian ras, immediately unlocked somethg her md.

STONEWALL AND THE MOB: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

There were speech, Shelley’s among view of pair of shirtls men as they walk, arm arm through New York, durg the first Stonewall anniversary march, then known as Gay Liberatn Day (and later Gay Pri Day), on 28 June 1970. There’s “that orange-haired idt the Whe Hoe”, she said, and an anti-gay movement that is growg qualms are borne out by natnal statistics: when the FBI released their 2017 figur for reported hate crim recently they rerd 1, 338 victims of attacks motivated by hatred of sexual orientatn, almost 60% of whom were gay men.

From the choppg of that lovers’ lane Queens, through the early pri march, the stggle to nta HIV/Aids, gay marriage and now the first openly gay printial ndidate, they marvel at how long the journey has been and how far they have Lanigan-Schmidt his apartment Manhattan. He spoke to the Guardian his Village apartment surround by pots of powred pigments and pil of glterg foil and ribbons that he his 71, wh Gandalf’s long whe beard, he wel the vast progrs ma Ameri where gay people today are the ma accepted whout qutn. His livg room is cluttered wh memorabilia of half a century of stggle, cludg the origal poster of the Gay Liberatn Front that hangs pri of place on his Fouratt, right, wh his partner Joel, at their apartment Manhattan.

50 YEARS LATER: HOW NYC'S STONEWALL RTS SPARKED THE MORN GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Five s after people first parad the streets to shout out that they were proud to be gay, majori of even doctrally nservative relig groups support nondiscrimatn protectns for LGBTQ people, and many say they know someone who is gay, although fewer say they know someone who is and visibily, however, have gone only so far.

Although the cy nceled this year's official NYC Pri march bee of the ronavis panmic, LGBTQ activists wh the Reclaim Pri Coaln plan to stage an unlicensed, -person prott march lled the Queer Liberatn March for Black Liv and Agast Police Btaly, ensurg that on the 50th anniversary the streets where gay pri was born will be filled.

Herage of Pri, the nonprof that produc the official NYC Pri march, and other pri anizatns around the world will host star-studd livtreamg events, cludg a rally, performanc and a virtual a 2011 oral history project by SAGE, an advocy group for olr LGBTQ people, Jerry Hoose — a foundg member of the radil queer rights group Gay Liberatn Front who participated the Stonewall uprisg and the first Pri march — said the gural march, then lled Christopher Street Liberatn Day, was about g out of the shadows after Stonewall and fdg "pri ourselv.

LET IT ROAR: HOW STONEWALL SPARKED A GAY RIGHTS REVOLUTN

"Right after the rt, " he said, the "ant" activism that helped brg together the first Pri march was the most meangful perd of activism for the gay LGBTQ historians and lears say the renewed foc on police btaly on the anniversary of the first Pri march shows that LGBTQ activism, and the event of Pri self, is beg more like was 50 years ago. "We are a moment where every Amerin is beg lled upon to rporate a new way of thkg about social jtice to their everyday liv, and every person and anizatn that fds a way to thentilly do that should be appld and supported that attempt, " Carter Broidy, a -founr of the first Pri march and a former member of the Gay Liberatn Front, appld Pri Month's renewed tersectnal foc. "I'm thrilled to see all the young people, the diversy of the people, the tersectnaly, people marchg for a range of issu but keepg Black Liv Matter the foreont, " Broidy said, addg that the "gay liberatn movement" of the '60s and the '70s that she and her ntemporari advoted for was tersectnal before the word existed this ntext.