Stonewall Movement Research Paper

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by people who were apart of the LGBT community against the police raid that happened on the morning of July 28,1969, at the Stonewall Inn, located in Manhattan, New York City. It’s believed that Sylvia Rivera, a trans woman, was the first one who rightfully threw the first brick. These events are widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the LGBT liberation movement and the current fight for LGBT rights in America.

The Stonewall Riots marked the start of the gay rights movement, and inspired members of the gay community to fight for their rights instead of being condemned for their

I once had a friend who never read Harry Potter books. Why? Because someone in her school district decided the themes of witchcraft and sorcery were not proper for a Christian young woman. Examples of this and similar experiences bring up the question who has the right to decide what information you see. information is key to the human race. it is the reason that we have the planet. we are the only species that can learn from our mistakes. but troublingly, all across the country, information in places of learning is being swept under the rug. increasing censorship of school textbooks, libraries, and media is a misguided and poorly thought out attempt to force facts to fit on particular worldview. schools have fallen victim to this ideology, by being pressured to

Stonewall Riots: the Events that Sparked the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement When most think of the gay rights movement of today, most realize that it is all very progressive, and many people, regardless of gender or sexuality, fully support the movement. Although this is the case now, things for the LGBTQ+ community have not always this accepting. According to a popular news website, "[The LGBTQ+ community] were viewed as some kind of freak show," said Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt. "Something to be avoided." (cbsnews.com) Around the mid 20th century and before, anyone who did not identify, or was suspected of not identifying as straight was highly discriminated against, and, in most cases, persecuted.

The conditions faced by queer people leading up to the stonewall riots were appalling. Laws and Statutes made it legal to discriminate against LGBT+ individuals based on dress and behavior and to limit other basic freedoms as well. In the 50’s and 60’s, 49 of 50 states in the United States had some form of law that stated homosexuality was illegal and was punishable by fines or imprisonment (Staff). Up until 1987, homosexuality was considered a mental illness in the DSM (American Classification of Mental Disorders). In following, it was illegal to serve gay people alcohol in New York City up until 1966, thirty three years after prohibition was repealed (History). Under the statement that the gathering

Many people from the United States hold the belief that being gay is something that has always been considered to be okay. They believe that it is just a given. Despite people’s current beliefs on the subject, for a very long time, it was something that was widely believed to be taboo. In the past, people were imprisoned due to their sexuality. Regardless, throughout the decades, people have pushed for the widespread acceptance of people who are part of the LGBT community. Today, homophobia still exists in some parts of the United States, but we have come a long way since the early 1900s.

The riot began while the bystanders were throwing bottles at the police officers; by being surrounded by approximately 400 people the police officers had no choice but to barricade them within the bar while waiting for reinforcement. Even though there were other protests by gay groups, the Stonewall riots was the first time gays, lesbians, and transgender individuals saw the value of uniting behind a common cause, which invoked similar context to the civil rights and feminist movement.

The next major event was the birth of the movement, The Stonewall Riots, which was the mother of all LGBT-themed associates and groups. There have been a large number of eyewitness accounts, articles and stories of how the riot began and ended, as well as what it immediately brought about. People began to start doing “radical” acts, one man decided to begin writing his college papers in terms of having a prominent gay

In today's era, one of the most progressive civil rights movements is that of the LGBT+ community. For many decades, gays, transgenders, and other queers have been under fire for who they love and who they are. On June 28th, 1969, a group of queers subjected to police brutality took a chance to stand up for themselves. Thus starting one of the most widely revered LGBT+ movements: the Stone Wall Riots. This group of courageous men and women (and those in between) were pioneers in the United States gay rights activism, and can even be considered the spark to LGBT+ rights.

General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is best known for being a war hero and one of the South’s most outstanding figures of the Civil War. His war tactics, leadership, and success in battle cemented him as one of the most significant generals of early American history. Thomas was born on January 21, 1824, in Clarksburg, Virginia. Throughout his life he faced much adversity especially within his family with his older sister and father passing when he was of young age. In his late teens (1842) he enrolled at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He graduated in 1846 after finding his way academically with much hard work. As Jackson was leaving West Point, the Mexican War was starting and he was sent to Mexico. During the war he was quickly recognized

The 1960’s was a decade of great change in America, from civil rights for African Americans to equal rights for women, the American people were rising up and discovering that their voice in the political discourse was just as important as those they elected to office. One other such group that awakened and challenged the existing status quo that kept them silent and scared were the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities across the country. From the first large-scale associations of LGBT individuals that formed in San Francisco in the 1950’s to the political and social groups that came to be following the Stonewall Riots of 1969, they would speak out and not allow themselves to be kept down anymore. The aim of this paper is to establish the events and opinions that led up to the uprising at the Stonewall Inn such as perceived and real discrimination by police, medical professionals, and society itself, what actually happened at Stonewall, and how they sparked the modern LGBT movement in the United States over the next half century to the present day.

Fifty years ago, in the early sixties, being gay was illegal in every providence in Canada, and in every single state in the United States. In the 1950’s, many gay individuals saw the men who had devoted their lives to being out and they knew what a horrible life that made for those men. This caused many gay men to “pass,” or live their entire lives in the closet. They would marry women for the soul purpose of protecting their secret. Before the stonewall riots, many Americans did not even believe gay people existed. Due to the lack of education and bigotry amongst Americans, being gay was very dangerous. Sexual acts in the gay community were commonly done in unsafe places and in public because they simply had nowhere else to go. Homosexuality was not just criminalized it was medicalized (Bawer). If you were gay, you could be subject to go into hospitals and were viewed by society as having a disability and a disease. In April of 1965, the very first gay protest took place in Washington DC. This protest was revolutionary and it began to pave the way for the future of gay men and women and reshape gay culture. In 1969, not long after the first gay protests of 1965, Canada decriminalized homosexual sexual acts in the privacy of one’s own home (Guerre). This was groundbreaking and gave the gay community hope that change was coming. Also, taking place in 1969 were the historic stonewall

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

Until the last half of the 20th century, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals were victims of discrimination in American society and in statutory laws, which limited their basic rights. On the night of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, and arrested three drag queens by using excessive force. Bar patrons and spectators, tired of police oppression, stood up and fought back. This was the first major protest based on equal rights for homosexuals. The Stonewall Riots became a turning point for the homosexual community in the United States sparking the beginning of the gay rights movement, and encouraged lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual, or "LGBT," to fight for their rights.

Another huge social and cultural change during this time was the gay liberation movement. During the 1960’s, many groups decided to fight for their rights and equality. One of these groups was the gay and lesbian members of society. Many of these individuals were discriminated against and had no rights, but they decided enough was enough. In the 1960’s, gays decided to begin the fight for their own rights. One example of this was made after New York officers decided to raid the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York’s very own Greenwich Village on June 27, 1969. This type of raid was not unusual, being that many police officers made it a habit of raiding gay and lesbian bars. This became known as the “Stonewall Riot”, which many view as the starting point of the gay liberation movement. The gay liberation movement was the fight by gays and lesbians for equal rights, one of these rights being the right to not be discriminated against, and most importantly, to be able to openly “come out” to their family and friends. The gay liberation movement helped to impact our current times greatly. Today, a gay person has rights just like anyone else. A gay