Friday, June 26, 2009

Stonewall....never heard of it...Wonder why...?
"Selective" everything in this country.
Here is to the people who dare to be different...who dare be themselves.





From Democracy Now:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/26/stonewall_riots_40th_anniversary_a_look
Commemorations are being held across the world this weekend to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising that launched the modern gay and lesbian rights movement. The uprising began in the morning on June 28, 1969, when New York City police officers raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. As the police began dragging some of the patrons out, members of the gay community decided to fight back, sparking three days of rioting.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/exhibitions/sw25/gifs/1dub3.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/exhibitions/sw25/case1.html&h=452&w=404&sz=72&tbnid=sgzmWS3YxDC8vM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=114&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstonewall%2Briots%2Bphotos&hl=en&usg=__JTE035fMlbsJxflNUx_dl8MJbRk=&ei=mDNFSrKSNoi6NtO-gaMB&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image
The Stonewall Riot and Its Aftermath
Ken Harlin, Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University
On Friday evening, June 27, 1969, the New York City tactical police force raided a popular Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn. Raids were not unusual in 1969; in fact, they were conducted regularly without much resistance. However, that night the street erupted into violent protest as the crowds in the bar fought back. The backlash and several nights of protest that followed have come to be known as the Stonewall Riots.
Prior to that summer there was little public expression of the lives and experiences of gays and lesbians. The Stonewall Riots marked the beginning of the gay liberation movement that has transformed the oppression of gays and lesbians into calls for pride and action. In the past twenty-five years we have all been witness to an astonishing flowering of gay culture that has changed this country and beyond, forever.
Featured here are clippings from the local New York City press reporting the "melee" in 1969, along with firsthand accounts published in later years about that night.

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