We missed Pride Month. Much of the nation did, and it was almost by design. The LGBTQ+ community largely agreed to secede the spotlight in June to the Black Lives Matter movement. But it’s worth mentioning the protests that eventually gave us Pride Month and LGBTQ+ rights.
On June 28, 1969, a police raid on a popular gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City. At the time, homosexual and non-gendering conforming activities were expressly illegal, and LGBTQ+ havens were frequently raided by police. Usually, patrons would scatter and the process would start all over again. That night was different.
It was the second raid on Stonewall Inn in a handful of days. According to History.com, 13 people were arrested, including employees for serving alcohol without a license and patrons for violating the state’s gender-appropriate clothing statute, which targeted “drag queens” and transgender women in particular. This was the spark that ignited what would go down in history as the Stonewall uprising or Stonewall riots, depending on your source.
The Stonewall uprising was spearheaded by trans women, such as Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman who was honored with a Google Doodle Tuesday, and Sylvia Rivera, a Latinx trans woman. Johnson and Rivera were on the front lines of the Stonewall uprising.
Five days of thousands of people protesting didn’t magically convince the government to acknowledge LGBTQ+ rights. But it was the galvanizing force for a new movement that brought together all the different parts of the LGBTQ+ community to fight as one united force, rather than as smaller factions.
In the 51 years since Stonewall, we’ve made great strides. In 1973, homosexuality was no longer considered a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. In 2011, the military ended “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a 1993 policy that barred openly gay individuals from serving their country. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that all states must recognize same sex marriage. And just a few weeks ago, June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled to protect LGBTQ+ individuals from workplace discrimination.
Legally, we’ve come a long way. Socially and societally, we still have work to do.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community make up around 4.5% of our population, according to an NBC News report. However, in 2018, 19% of hate crimes were anti-LGBTQ+, a 2% increase from 2017. In that same time period, crimes against transgender individuals increased by 34%. And in 2018, 66% of hate crimes were directed at people instead of property. And these are just the hate crimes that get reported.
And this past Monday, June 28, the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, police clashed with peaceful pride marchers in New York City, an eerie echo from the 1960s and 70s that shows history does, in fact, repeat itself.
Morgantown Area News
'Friday, November 15, 2024'
