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Before Stonewall shows the timeline of important events in the LGBTQ community and how the “approval” of society fluctuates throughout the seventy years that are looked at in this documentary. Up until 1920, no one spoke of sexuality. It was not taught in schools and there was only gossip. This is partially due to the idea the heterosexuality was normal and the only option. At this time, being homosexual meant that there was something wrong with these people and they needed to go to jail or a mental facility. There was no word for gay, it was only a behavior and they were associated with the prostitutes and the men and women of “doubtful virtue”. During the 20s, being gay was still not something people spoke about. Many had been living in isolation but bohemian neighborhoods became That was very liberating. On June 28, 1969, an event occurred that changed the lives of many people from the LGBTQ movement. There was severe police brutality occurring in the streets of New York and on that night, the lesbian and gay community decided they were not jus going to keep taking the violence, they were going to fight back. This is not known as the Stonewall Riots. They continued for a few days, but the impact still continues to this day. The spirit carried to the creation of the Gay Rights Movement. The power and respect given to a “movement” allowed the community to finally be taken seriously. This also allowed many more people to join, support, and come together. Earlier, this year Obama named Stonewall Inn a National Monument. Throughout Obama’s presidency he has made strides to continue making the United States more inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community through a government and law perspective. This, though, is the first National Historic Site dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community and this gives the community a sense of place and belonging. This shows to those who still may be ignorant, that the
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 lives. Geanne Harwood, interviewed on an National Public Radio Broadcast commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, said that “being gay before Stonewall was a very difficult proposition … we felt that in order to survive we had to try to look and act as rugged and as manly as possibly to get by in a society that was really very much against us.” The age of communist threats, and of Joseph McCarthy’s insistence that homosexuals were treacherous, gave credence to the feeling of most society members that homosexuality was a perversion, and that one inflicted was one to not be trusted.
The stonewall riots happened june 28, 1969. It took place in the the Stonewall inn which is located in Greenwich Village which is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. “The stonewall inn is widely known as the birthplace of the modern LGBT rights movement and holds a truly iconic place in history” (gaycitynews). This means that the Stonewall riots was the event that started the gay rights movement. This is saying that The Stonewall is where the gay rights movement started for gay people to have same rights has anyone else. It all started with A number of incidents that were happening simultaneously. “There was no one thing that happened or one person, there was just… a flash of group, of mass anger”(Wright). This means that everything was happening at once and a bunch of people were angry. People in the crowd started shouting “Gay Power!” “And as the word started to spread through Greenwich Village and across the city, hundreds of gay men and lesbians, black, white, Hispanic, and predominantly working class, converged on the Christopher Street area around the Stonewall Inn to join the fray”(Wright). So many gay and lesbian people were chanting “gay power” . “The street outside the bar where the rebellion lasted for several day and night in june”(gaycitynews). so the stonewall riot lasted many days and
By following this idea, it is clear that the constant creation of new meaning- and new words- blurs the lines so that nothing is really black or white. With this in mind, reading a piece from even as early as 1923 and finding the word “heterosexual” in it would lead to the wrong interpretation if changing definitions and cultural contexts are not taken into account. Furthermore, in 1892, “heterosexual” had a published definition that also was used to describe “inclinations to both sexes” (44). A term that did not exist at that time is bisexual, which is a term that would most accurately be used to describe this kind of sexuality, while heterosexual has taken on a completely new meaning. Without taking this into account, a person who reads a piece from that time period would mistakenly understand the word heterosexual in the way it is used
The Newark riots of 1967 were very extreme and terrible time in Newark, New Jersey, one of the worst in U.S. history. The riots were between African-Americans and white residents, police officers and the National Guard. The riots were not unexpected. The tension between the city grew tremendously during the 1960's, due to lack of employment for Blacks, inadequate housing, police brutality and political exclusion of blacks from government.
The Chicago riot was the most serious of the multiple that happened during the Progressive Era. The riot started on July 27th after a seventeen year old African American, Eugene Williams, did not know what he was doing and obliviously crossed the boundary of a city beach. Consequently, a white man on the beach began stoning him. Williams, exhausted, could not get himself out of the water and eventually drowned. The police officer at the scene refused to listen to eyewitness accounts and restrained from arresting the white man. With this in mind, African Americans attacked the police officer. As word spread of the violence, and the accounts distorted themselves, almost all areas in the city, black and white neighborhoods, became informed. By Monday morning, everyone went to work and went about their business as usual, but on their way home, African Americans were pulled from trolleys and beaten, stabbed, and shot by white “ruffians”. Whites raided the black neighborhoods and shot people from their cars randomly, as well as threw rocks at their windows. In retaliation, African Americans mounted sniper ambushes and physically fought back. Despite the call to the Illinois militia to help the Chicago police on the fourth day, the rioting did not subside until the sixth day. Even then, thirty eight
Homosexuals targeted by the Nazis lived all over Germany. Homosexuals would meet in many of the gay and lesbian bars in the cities allowing them to be open and meet new people.
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 psychopathic. Often times, gay men committed suicide from harsh judgement and criticism that always followed them. Even though population of homosexuality grew and had jobs, they were harassed and beaten by the police. There were a lot of disapproval and hostility of homosexuality. Anita Bryant, a singer, made a campaign to oppose the rights of homosexuals. Christian forces and activists withdrew gay-right legislation which lead to Proposition 6. The harshness from background of homosexuality back in the 1940’s and 50’s took the freedom away from the homosexuals. After the harshness, there came a little bit of hope for the homosexuals in San Francisco. Castro, a city in San Francisco, became the center of gay neighborhood. In 1964, gay men formed Society of Individual Right (SIR), and 1,200 members joined. Homosexuals started having good views when Sipple who was gay saved the president from a gunshot. Finally in 1972, Board of Supervisor banned the discrimination law for homosexuals. Even though in 1940...
In 1969, the US was preparing to land the first man on the moon, the first case of HIV/AIDS was confirmed, and members of the gay community were harshly discriminated against because of their sexuality. Family incomes had started to fluctuate and become unstable, and disputes with police were common among the population. On a mild Friday night in 1969, a riot broke out in Greenwich Village after a police raid that sparked rebellion. Police raids on bars that had patrons suspected of ...
Not only that but woman were still repressed back then and I think for woman to have participated and even a book published on their participation was outrageous to think about back then. Men were in control back then, woman were the housewives who dedicated their lives to home making and being the perfect wife, sex was not something woman even “needed”. Sex in regards to woman was more about reproduction and not so much satisfaction. I think it was shock for men and more conservative woman who did not participate to believe that woman would even talk about this openly. When Kinsey released his second book on woman and sexuality, people were not happy and the counterattack was so horrendous that the congress opened an investigation into his financing to figure out who was funding his programs, that’s when one of his big funders the Rockefeller foundation backed out taking a chunk of money. He was even sued by U.S. customs for having erotic photos after his second book was released, this would cause any fear for any new funding, no one wants to be associated with any legal trouble , justified or
The Charlottesville protest, also known as the “Unite the Right” rally, started as an opposition to the proposed removal of the Robert E. Lee statue in Emancipation Park of Charlottesville, Virginia. Protesters present at the rally included Klansmen, Neo-nazis, white nationalist and white supremacists. The group participated in a torchlit procession, which was a symbolic march used by these types for groups for the past 100 years (Heim, 2017). The members of the group were carrying semi-automatic weapons through the streets of Charlottesville, while chanting racist and antisemitic slurs. The rally turned violent when the group came upon resilient counter-protesters who were actively trying to stop the rally (Heim, 2017). The rally that took
The history of the gay rights movement goes as far back as the late 19th century. More accurately, the quest by gays to search out others like themselves and foster a feeling of identity has been around since then. It is an innovative movement that seeks to change existing norms and gain acceptance within our culture. By 1915, one gay person said that the gay world was a "community, distinctly organized" (Milestones 1991), but kept mostly out of view because of social hostility. According to the Milestones article, after World War II, around 1940, many cities saw their first gay bars open as many homosexuals began to start a networking system. However, their newfound visibility only backfired on them, as in the 1950's president Eisenhower banned gays from holding federal jobs and many state institutions did the same. The lead taken by the federal government encouraged local police forces to harass gay citizens. "Vice officers regularly raided gay bars, sometimes arresting dozens of men and women on a single night" (Milestones). In spite of the adversity, out of the 1950s also came the first organized groups of gays, including leaders. The movement was small at first, but grew exponentially in short periods of time. Spurred on by the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the "homophile" (Milestones) movement took on more visibility, picketing government agencies and discriminatory policies. By 1969, around 50 gay organizations existed in the United States. The most crucial moment in blowing the gay rights movement wide open was on the evening of July 27, 1969, when a group of police raided a gay bar in New York City. This act prompted three days of rioting in the area called the Stonewall Rio...
During the 19th century, of course, homosexuality was acknowledged by heterosexuals (particularly of the upper classes) as an existing activity among the lower classes - an activity that thrived in London's own East End. Those who were thought to be homosexuals were often blackmailed. With the Labouchere Amendment in 1885, homosexuals faced a greater threat of exposure through blackmail. In fact, "the threat of exposure as a sodomite is the basis of more than half of the prosecutions throughout the eighteenth century" ("Jekyll & Hyde," par. 8). Other Victorian writers, like Oscar Wilde, faced this threat, which often damaged their reputations if the affair ever made it to a court.
The Nazi’s were not fond of homosexuality. During the Holocaust it was stated that the gay men were the “forgotten victims” because it is almost like they were erased from that age in history. They were not acknowledged as victims of Nazi persecution, and reparations were refused. The men that were arrested as homosexual were not shipped off to Nazi ghettos. The homosexuals weren’t even thought of as victims of Nazi persecution. Even when traced back by research their history was erased. The history of the homosexuals was obstructed by social stigmatization (Homosexual: Victims of the
Gay individuals were not hired in many jobs, could not attend the schools they desired due to people not accepting their difference. What many people brought up was The Declaration of Independence states, “That all men are created equal”. In this case, they were not treated equal at all. It wasn’t until the early 1950’s where Harry Hay, Chuck Rowland, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon funded groups to take action and “informed and outreach to thousands”(Cory, The homosexuals in America). These organizations were not as accurate because no one supported them and people did not want to be a part of it. Back in the 1970’s being gay or lesbian was labeled as an illness, and if these individuals were found, they would either arrest them, and send them to jail or send them to a mental health institute. People against gay and lesbians believed that they were “sick, criminals, or immoral,” (Cory, The homosexuals in America). These actions caused a lot of gay and lesbian individuals to hide who they truly were, and act like a person they were not. When the government found out that some parents were gay, they took their children away, and didn’t give the parents’ permission to see their
People today are not as stiff and rigid as the "Happy Days" era. Old movies, television shows, and even discussion with the older generation tells us that sex was not a popular subject. The word sex, itself, was taboo.