[Commentary] [USA] Why we celebrate

[Stephanie Stevens]

QNotes, NC, USA


Why we celebrate

Remembering Stonewall and looking at where we’ve come from

by O'Neale Atkinson | Editor | edi...@goqnotes.com

June 9, 2012


[Photo: An early activist in the Gay Pride Movement, the late Frank
Kameny, continued to fight for equality even up to his death.]

With June in full effect, cities across the country are soon to be
bombarded with rainbows as Pride returns to celebrate the spirit of
the LGBT community and the movement for equality. Day, and even
week-long, celebrations are scheduled filled with marches, parades, a
variety of entertainment, street fairs, film festivals and more. You
can find rainbows on everything in online stores and a variety of
unique and clever Pride shirts, so you can be prepared for the events
that will be running from now until later in the year.

From an outsider looking into LGBT culture, Pride month and Pride
festivals can appear to be simply huge parties and even for members of
the LGBT community it is easy to be pulled into the fun of the
celebration and to forget about the origins of the movement.

For many members of the LGBT community, especially older generations,
they know exactly what Pride represents and embodies because they
lived through the experiences that have made Pride what it is today.
For younger generations, the origin of Pride may be a bit more
ambiguous; kind of like the outsider looking in. Regardless of which
category you fall into, by remembering and recognizing the origin of
Pride and the movement it symbolizes, we can honor the efforts of
those who have brought the Gay Rights Movement to its current position
today.

For many, when asked to identify the start of the Gay Rights Movement,
they will reference Stonewall as the origin. While the Stonewall Riots
of 1969 are a pivotal moment in the Gay Rights Movement, the reality
is that there were events across the country prior to 1969 which
provided the foundation for the movement.

After being fired from his government job in 1958, activist Frank
Kameny became one of the earliest and most influential advocates for
equal rights of LGBT people. Although the United States Supreme Court
denied his petition in 1961, his case is landmark as the first civil
rights claim based on sexual orientation.

Kameny is credited with bringing an aggressive and more militant
stance to the Gay Rights Movement. He was responsible for co-founding
the Mattachine Society of Washington, an organization which fought
throughout the 1960s for gay civil rights. Kameny and the Mattachine
Society of Washington pressed for fair and equal treatment of gay
employees in the federal government and worked with other groups such
as the Daughters of Bilitis to press for equality for gay citizens.
Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement’s phrase “Black is Beautiful,”
Kameny coined the phrase “Gay is Good” to counter social stigma about
the LGBT community in the 1960s.

During the 1950s and 1960s, organizations such as the Daughters of
Bilitis and the Mattachine Society coordinated some of the earliest
demonstrations of the modern Gay Rights Movement. These two
organizations, in particular, carried out pickets called Annual
Reminders to inform and remind Americans that LGBT people did not
enjoy basic civil rights protections. These Annual Reminders began on
July 4, 1965, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

In August of 1966, a riot in Compton’s Cafeteria, a chain of
cafeterias in San Francisco, marked one of the first documented
LGBT-related riots in the country and sparked a response three years
before the Stonewall Riots. Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin
district of San Francisco was one of the few establishments where
transgender clients could publically gather. At the time,
cross-dressing was illegal and so having transgender individuals in a
bar was enough cause to allow police officers to raid establishments.
This stigma ousted the transgender community from many gay
establishments at the time.

On the night of the riot, police were called to deal with a group of
transgender customers who were reportedly being loud. When the
officers attempted to arrest one of the suspects a riot began and
spilled outside of the establishment and into the streets of the
Tenderloin. The following day Compton’s would not allow transgender
people into their establishment. This led to further picketing of the
establishment from a more organized and outraged LGBT community.

From the aftermath of the Compton’s Cafeteria riot came a much more
organized series of resources for the transgender community,
especially in San Francisco. In 1968 the National Transsexual
Counseling Unit was founded. The NTCU was the first such peer-run
support and advocacy organization in the world offering social,
medical and psychological support for transgender individuals.

On the morning of June 28 1969, LGBT community members rioted
following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar at 43
Christopher St. in the Greenwich Village area of New York City.
Historically, the Stonewall Inn was known as a Mafia run bar which
openly welcomed gay and lesbian customers, an uncommon trend for
establishments in the 1960s. A majority of the gay clientele included
drag queens and transgender individuals, as well as many other members
of the local LGBT community.

[Photo: The birthplace of the modern Gay Rights Movement, The
Stonewall Inn burst into riots in June 1969 during a police raid
resulting in weeks of protests and more. Photo Credit: Joseph
Ambrosini]

While police raids on bars like the Stonewall Inn were not uncommon,
the reaction from the LGBT community on this evening in June
spontaneously escalated into a riot which carried over into a string
of protests for the following days and weeks.

In November of 1969, the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile
Organizations (ERCHO) proposed the first Pride march to be held in New
York City. ERCHO proposed that the Annual Reminder be held annually on
the last Saturday in June to honor the spontaneous riot at Stonewall
which served as a catalyst for the Gay Rights Movement. The Annual
Reminder was dubbed the Christopher Street Liberation Day
demonstration. The organization encouraged other homophile
organizations of the time to put on similar demonstrations on the same
day as a sign of solidarity and national support for Gay Rights.

On June 28, 1970, the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots,
Christopher Street Liberation Day occurred with a march on Christopher
St. This was the first Gay Pride march in U.S. history and covered 51
blocks to Central Park. Similar marches occurred across the country in
Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.

Following the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in 1970, the
organization of the Gay Rights Movement grew exponentially across the
country. Of the years following the Stonewall Riots, Kameny noted that
“by the time of Stonewall, we had fifty to sixty gay groups in the
country. A year later there was at least fifteen hundred. By two years
later, to the extent that a count could be made, it was twenty-five
hundred.”

As we approach the 43rd anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and enter
into the 42nd national Annual Reminder, much has changed for the LGBT
community since the pre-Stonewall era. In 2012 alone, the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled Proposition 8
unconstitutional and in violation of the 14th Amendment, Washington
and Maryland have become the seventh and eight states respectively to
legalize same-sex marriage and the President of the United States has
endorsed same-sex marriage alongside the Vice-President. On May 31,
the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit found that
Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is
unconstitutional.

This year, as we work within our communities to put together Pride
events and celebrate the diversity and the spirit of the LGBT
community, let us not forget those who fought before us so that we can
freely demonstrate. There is still much work to do as we continue to
fight for our complete inclusion and equality. Pride season should
continue to serve as an Annual Reminder for us all of where we have
come from so that we may continue to push forward together to where we
want to go. : :


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