Remember Stonewall? Do we even know what Stonewall meant?

The Stonewall Inn, a gay and lesbian neighborhood bar with a large number of African American and Latino patrons, was also well-known as a safe space for those who did not conform to gender norms: butch lesbians, effeminate gay men, and transsexual and transgendered persons before the terms were in popular use. All of these factors brought the police to Stonewall in 1969 for the purpose of illegally raiding the bar, and arresting its occupants -- an action not unknown in New York in the 1960s. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the New York City police raided The Stonewall Inn. On that fateful day, however, the Stonewall’s patrons had enough. Nobody knows who threw the first bottle that day. It may have been Sylvia Rivera, a transgendered activist and later a founding mother of political movements on behalf of transgendered and transsexual Americans. It may have been a still unidentified butch lesbian arrested in the bar. Over 2000 GLBTQ Americans clashed with 400 police officers on June 28. Arrests and beatings were concentrated among Stonewall’s African American, Latino, butch and trans patrons. What ensued was known in the New York press and among the police as the Stonewall riots. For gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual and queer Americans, and later the world, that fateful day marked the beginning of the Stonewall Rebellion. With shouts of “Gay Power,” the rebellion that lasted five days in New York began to spread across the country. Gay, lesbian, trans and other queer Americans took to the streets to protest their continued oppression, objectification, and criminalization. This singular event, the Stonewall Rebellion, marked the beginning of the modern GLBTQ liberation movement, and brought GLBTQ political and social struggles out of the closets on onto American streets. Using this date as the flashpoint, cities across America and around the world continue to celebrate the last week of June as Pride Weekend, a weekend where we remember the Rebellion, organize to continue the fight for queer liberation, and celebrate our culture, community, families and history.

Stonewall never meant fundraising at black-tie galas. It never meant focusing on marriage as the sole agenda. It always meant, it still means, freedom and pride. The fight for marriage is just one piece of a worldwide fight about
rights. In American states GLBTQ people can still be fired, evicted, violated, attacked, and murdered for being anything except a heterosexual. There are 1,100 federal and state rights that are guaranteed only to “legally
married” couples in America in 2009. Among these are rights to government and veteran’s pensions, judicial rights, and the right to be considered one’s next-of-kin in an emergency. Hate crimes against GLBTQ individuals are up 6% from 2008 already, with only half of the year behind us. Americans serving in the military are denied these 1,100 rights, and must remain silent for fear of being harmed and discharged under the repressive “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” doctrine. Everyday GLBTQ Americans are attacked, harassed, and forced to live in fear, but Americans are not the only ones. In Brazil, a GLBTQ person is killed every two days. In Iraq, homosexuality is still legally punishable by death. Stonewall was about refusing to submit to fear, tyranny, and violence. Stonewall was, and is, about a community that repudiated the very idea that being GLBTQ made you anything less than human. On this 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, remember that.

Remember Stonewall.