The Stonewall Riots: The Significance Of The LGBT Community

1295 Words3 Pages

Beginning in the early 1900s, the homosexual community was constantly stigmatized. It was considered a filthy sin, mentally dysfunctional behavior, or a temporary phase to name a few. When parents and societal figures found out that someone was gay or lesbian, they were exiled and forced to lead a refugee lifestyle. Though the deeply cutting words used against the LGBTQ community were overwhelmingly harsh and inhumane, communities and advocacy groups emerged to help those to cope, letting them know that they were never alone, and they always had someone to count on. After World War II the emergence of these advocacy groups became more prevalent, as gay and lesbian citizens were meeting other gay and lesbian citizens. The disruptions of World …show more content…

Stonewall is still considered a watershed moment of gay pride and has been commemorated since the 1970s with "pride marches" held every June across the United States. Recent scholarship has called for better acknowledgement of the roles that drag performers, minorities, and transgender patrons played in the Stonewall Riots. During stonewall, “everything came together”, and those who participated in this movement knew that this was what they had been waiting for all along. The fact that President Obama signified Stonewall as a National Historic Site speaks volumes. It says that we are progressing towards the wide acceptance of the LGBTQ community, although its important to note that we still have a long way to go. Slowly but surely, it is also becoming a domino effect for the support for gay marriage in different states. As I was watching TV the other day, a Cover Girl commercial appeared on my screen, and it was a young boy, with his make up done astoundingly, and it was such a beautiful site. It’s showing society that we do not have to live up to the old standard of what someone should like. You as a person can choose to be or do whatever you want in life, and that’s the way it should

Obergefell V. Hodges: Case Analysis
1298 Words | 3 Pages
In Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the court determined gay marriage to be a constitutional right, striking down several dozen state laws against SSM. While there has been some residual pushback against this decision, overall there has been broad complacence due to a high level of public support for the decision. Little scholarship has been done on how this decision has been implemented because the discussion was made so recently, but some measures show that “99.87 percent of the U.S. population [lives] in a county where same-sex marriage licenses are available” ("Local Government Responses to Obergefell v. Hodges." n.d.). While there are some pockets of resistance it is clear that there is broad local compliance with this decision, likely because of its broad popularity. Instances in which local bodies choose to disregard the Obergefell decision are highly publicized, and generally receive a great deal of public criticism. Thus, the SSM marriage example has fulfilled the two conditions for successful policy, as interest groups were able to use the courts to accomplish a set of aims, and local support has allowed for the implementation of the policy. While there has been some pushback along the way, this pushback has only served to further raise awareness of issue in the minds of the American people, and helped this cause gain
Read More
Stonewall Riots Research Paper
1479 Words | 3 Pages
LGBTQIA stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual. The LGBTQIA topic is still an issue in society. There are people who are still against it. Some people in society still see this topic as a negative thing. The Stonewall riots was an important event for the LGBTQIA community. Stonewall is where the gay rights movement started. The transgender community is an important part of the LGBTQIA community. Same sex marriage was an important event that happened and impacted people of the community. The LGBTQIA community has many influential people like Laverne cox and Caitlyn Jenner. The L and G stands for lesbian and gay which means you are attracted to the same sex. The B stands for bisexual which means you are
Read More
Outlaw Hero Essay
645 Words | 2 Pages
They stood for the “American trust in collective action, and the fair legal process that transcended private feelings of what is considered right and wrong.”
Read More
The Stonewall Riots
1224 Words | 3 Pages
In the past decades, the struggle for gay rights in the Unites States has taken many forms. Previously, homosexuality was viewed as immoral. Many people also viewed it as pathologic because the American Psychiatric Association classified it as a psychiatric disorder. As a result, many people remained in ‘the closet’ because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being discriminated against in the society. According to David Allyn, though most gays could pass in the heterosexual world, they tended to live in fear and lies because they could not look towards their families for support. At the same time, openly gay establishments were often shut down to keep openly gay people under close scrutiny (Allyn 146). But since the 1960s, people have dedicated themselves in fighting for
Read More
The Resistance Movement of Queer People of Color
2878 Words | 6 Pages
There is arguably no group that has faced more discrimination in modern society than queer people of color. Although often pushed together into a single minority category, these individuals actually embrace multiple racial and sexual identities. However, they suffer from oppression for being a part of both the ethnic minority and queer communities. As a result, members are abused, harassed, and deprived of equal civil rights in social and economic conditions (Gossett). In response to the multiple levels of discrimination they face in today’s society, queer people of color have turned to the establishment and active participation of support organizations, resources, and policies to advocate for overall equality.
Read More
The Civil Rights and the LGBT Movements
875 Words | 2 Pages
Although the conclusion of the Civil War during the mid-1860s demolished the official practice of slavery, the oppression and exploitation of African Americans has continued. Although the rights and opportunities of African Americans were greatly improved during Reconstruction, cases such a 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson, which served as the legal basis for segregation, continue to diminish the recognized humanity of African Americans as equal people. Furthermore, the practice of the sharecropping system impoverished unemployed African Americans, recreating slavery. As economic and social conditions worsened, the civil rights movement began to emerge as the oppressed responded to their conditions, searching for equality and protected citizenship.With such goals in mind, associations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which came to the legal defense of African Americans and aided the march for civil rights reforms, emerged. By working against the laws restricting African Americans, the NAACP saw progress with the winning of cases like Brown v. Board of Education, which allowed the integration of public schools after its passing in 1954 and 1955. In the years following the reform instituted by the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the fervor of the civil rights movement increased; mass nonviolent protests against the unfair treatment of blacks became more frequent. New leaders, such as Martin Luther King, manifested themselves. The civil rights activists thus found themselves searching for the “noble dream” unconsciously conceived by the democratic ideals of the Founding Fathers to be instilled.
Read More
Stonewall Riots: Birth of the Modern Gay Rights Movement
1772 Words | 4 Pages
One of the world’s greatest social movements known as the Gay Rights Movement stemmed in the late 1960’s in America. After events known as the Stonewall riots, the Gay Rights Movement gradually became increasingly influential and empowering for all sexual minorities and gender identities.
Read More
The Spark of the Stonewall Riot
1756 Words | 4 Pages
For many generations, especially in North America, homosexuality was not accepted in any way, shape, or form. Many believed that it was a medical illness that was curable, when in reality, people were, and still are, ignorant and could not come to terms that everyone in this world is different from one another. For many instances of being treated unjust, many individuals in the gay community did not want to “expose” themselves and remained in the “closet”. As means to make gays and lesbians proud and take a stand for who they are, a movement spread across internationally. This movement is known as “The Gay Liberation” movement which occurred between the late 1960s and the early to mid 1970s (“Gay Liberation”). The Gay Liberation movement urged individuals of the gay community to “come out,” revealing their sexuality to their loved ones as a form of activism, and to counter shame with gay pride (“Gay Liberation”). The Stonewall Riots are believed to have been the spark that ignited the rise of the Gay Liberation movement; it influenced the way the gay community is viewed socially and how their rights are politically present day.
Read More
The Stonewall Riots
1946 Words | 4 Pages
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.
Read More
The Causes Of The Stonewall Riots
1014 Words | 3 Pages
On June 28, 1969, an event occurred that was to be the start of one of the most powerful movements in US history. On that Friday in June, the New York police force raided a popular bar in Greenwich Village called the Stonewall Inn because it was suspected of operating without a liquor license. Raids usually went on undisturbed by people involved, but during this raid the area around the inn exploded into fierce protest. The repercussions and multiple disputes that resulted from the initial raid would come to be known as the Stonewall Riots.
Read More
The Gay Rights Movement
1050 Words | 3 Pages
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...
Read More
The Black Panther Party
1545 Words | 4 Pages
...oes have a place in society because without it, there would be no stability within our society and everything would be chaotic and confusing. However, for those who don't want to be controlled, and do have a form of agency which they feel will free them really don't seem to be free anyway. It seems to me that no matter what you do, say, or learn you are always controlled.
Read More
Group project proposal
851 Words | 2 Pages
Gadding, S. T. (2012). Groups: A counseling specialty (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education
Read More
Graduation Speech: Christ is Still the Only Way
879 Words | 2 Pages
Life is very much like driving. You are free to choose any one of the many options before you both now and in the future, but not every option will take you where God would want you to go.
Read More
The Impact of The Internet in Your Daily Life
2351 Words | 5 Pages
All people have their own freedom to do whatever they want. But not all the things that they do are good to them o...
Read More

Open Document

Wait a second!

The Stonewall Riots: The Significance Of The LGBT Community

Obergefell V. Hodges: Case Analysis

Stonewall Riots Research Paper

Outlaw Hero Essay