Stonewall: 50 Years Later; NYPD Formally Apologizes

[Kannap]

HRC celebrates 50 years of Pride, and two momentous anniversaries in LGBTQ history: the 50th anniversary of the uprising at Stonewall in 1969 and the first Pride parade a year later.

“50 years ago the heroes of Stonewall stood up and fought back against brutality and oppression,” says HRC President Chad Griffin. “Early activists at Stonewall, led by brave transgender women of color such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, boldly kickstarted a modern movement. Now, we must continue to honor them with action. In the scope of history, Stonewall was not that long ago. While our community still faces challenges, these activists taught us resiliency -- a resiliency that helps us fight harder and smarter today to win today’s battles for equality.

“50 years since Stonewall, there is still much work to be done,” Griffin continues. “We must pass the Equality Act, defeat the forces of hate in the White House and around the world, and uplift and protect transgender people, LGBTQ youth, queer communities of color, and our community’s most marginalized. Our community stands on the shoulders of giants, and we must honor them with action by continuing to work towards a world where every person can thrive no matter who they are or whom they love.”

Fifty years ago, in the early morning hours of June 28, the Stonewall Riots began. The riots at Stonewall helped ignite the modern LGBTQ rights movement and harness the political power of LGBTQ people. Harassed by local police simply for congregating, Stonewall’s LGBTQ patrons -- most of whom were trans women of color -- decided to take a stand and fight back against the brutal intimidation they regularly faced at the hands of police. One year later, the first LGBTQ Pride marches were held, establishing June as Pride Month. For the better part of a decade, several other riots took place to demand LGBTQ rights, including at Cooper Do-nuts in 1959, at Compton’s Cafeteria in 1966, and the Black Cat protests in 1967.

In recent years, the LGBTQ community has made great strides toward full equality in the U.S. through legal victories and political change built on decades of grassroots activism. More recently, LGBTQ Americans have proven to be a crucial, powerful voting bloc. In November of 2018, more than 7 million. LGBTQ voters -- 6 percent of total turnout -- cast ballots, making the difference in key races from coast to coast. This unprecedented turnout helped to usher in a pro-equality House of Representatives, and led to the historic passage of the Equality Act through that chamber by a bipartisan vote of 236 to 173. This vote marks the first time in history a chamber of Congress has passed comprehensive LGBTQ non-discrimination protections.

However, even in the last few weeks, the relentless attacks on our community by the Trump-Pence White House have continued, threatening the rights and welfare of millions of LGBTQ Americans. Within the last week, the administration announced its intentions to propose a rule that would allow federally-funded homeless shelters to deny transgender people. And earlier this month, it issued a proposal to drastically roll back health care protections for transgender people under the Affordable Care Act. And breaking with past norms, this White House has never released a Pride Month Proclamation, while its State Department has failed to issue issue cables instructing that Pride to be recognized.

Today, in 30 states, LGBTQ people remain at risk of being fired, evicted or denied services because of who they are. LGBTQ youth continue to face elevated levels of bullying and rejection, and many associated physical and mental health challenges. According to FBI hate crimes statistics from 2017, the most recently available data, the bureau reported a surge in hate crimes disproportionately affecting LGBTQ people, black people and religious minorities, especially those living at the intersection of multiple identities. And at least 100 transgender people -- most of whom are transgender women of color -- have been murdered in the United States since the beginning of 2015.

HRC is committed to defending our community from attacks on our rights by the Trump-Pence White House and anti-equality forces in the U.S. and around the world, while pushing for the Equality Act and pursuing other legislative and legal avenues that will ensure full lived equality for all LGBTQ people, everywhere.

As the LGBTQ community celebrates the progress we have made in the 50 years since Stonewall, it is more important than ever that we recognize the distance we still have to go to achieve full equality, and the power that this community can harness to achieve that goal, together.

Source

This year, June 28th marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. This event is commonly regarded as the start of the gay liberation movement in the United States. In the fifty years since, the LGBT community has made great strides towards equality. Regardless, we've not entirely completed the goal of full equality in the country.

So, let's take this moment to reflect on history - LGBT history and American history. Do you think the people at Stonewall knew how historic their actions would be in the long run? Do you think they would be surprised to see how far we've come in the past 50 years or do you think they'd assumed we'd be much further in our pursuit of equality - perhaps even beyond the goal - by this time? What do you thing the timeline of LGBT history will look like in the next 50 years?

Personally, I think the people at Stonewall were simply just tired of being treated they way they were always being treated. They finally broke and had to do what they felt needed to be done in the moment. I don't think they knew it would explode into a movement that night, but I am sure they had better ideas of where the movement was going in the years and decades following Stonewall. I think that we're facing a short set-back by Trump's administration, but I hope and have to believe that we'll continue to make strides and movements towards our goal of full equality within the next 50 years - hopefully much sooner than that.

So, NSG, what say you? Happy Pride!

New York Police Department Commissioner James P. O’Neill on Thursday apologized for the 1969 police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, that caused an uprising and helped launch the modern-day LGBTQ rights movement.

“What happened should not have happened. The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong, plain and simple,” O’Neill said at a briefing on security preparations for the 50th anniversary of the riots on June 28. “The actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, I apologize.”

In the early hours of Saturday, June 28, 1969, the NYPD attempted to enforce a law that made it illegal to serve alcohol to known homosexuals. While gay bar raids were not unusual, on this particular night, the patrons decided they had finally had enough. The police were met with resistance, which then unfolded into a full-on rebellion. The uprising lasted several nights and is widely credited with being the spark that ignited the modern-day LGBTQ rights movement.

The Stonewall Inn and the surrounding area has since become a national monument — the first to tell the story of the LGBTQ rights movement — and the bar, in the words of one of its current owners, has become a "gay church" of sorts.

The NYPD had never formally apologized for the raid, but pressure had been building from local politicians and civil rights organizations.

On Wednesday, for example, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who is gay, told 1010 WINS news that the NYPD should apologize, and on Thursday, Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit organization that runs the official NYC Pride March, said in a press release that it had voted unanimously to demand that the department do so.

“The department can never take back what it has done to LGBTQIA+ people, but it can and must take responsibility for it,” Heritage of Pride said. The group offered O’Neill a slot on the stage at the Stonewall commemoration rally to deliver an apology, writing “the platform is yours on June 28th.”

Their press release was sent just over an hour before the commissioner delivered his apology at NYPD headquarters.

Mark Segal, a long-time LGBTQ activist who was at the Stonewall Inn on the night of the raid, encouraged the NYPD commissioner to apologize to veterans of the Stonewall uprising in person on June 30, during the annual NYC Pride March.

"It would not only be welcomed, it would close the books on this chapter and give some of us closure," Segal told NBC News.

The NYPD's overall security briefing on Thursday touched upon the growing threat of right-wing extremism both domestically and abroad; NYPD officers said that this year’s Pride celebrations face new threats from white supremacists and jihadists.

Source

Just adding this article here to continue the discussion instead of creating a new thread. The NYPD has finally officially apologized for their actions at Stonewall. Personally, I think that this is a great thing and is long overdue, what do you guys think?

[Arcturus Novus]

I think it would do my gay and trans siblings well to remember that our first Pride was a riot. Nothing is ever won from oppressors by asking politely.

[Kannap]

I think it would do my gay and trans siblings well to remember that our first Pride was a riot. Nothing is ever won from oppressors by asking politely.

Absolutely, I think we are prone to forget that we need to get angry and push for progress, not sit quietly and beg nicely.

[Des-Bal]

I think it would do my gay and trans siblings well to remember that our first Pride was a riot. Nothing is ever won from oppressors by asking politely.

Friendly reminder that the way you respond to being caught in a pay dispute between the mafiosos running your dive bar and corrupt cops is appropriate in very very few circunstances.

[Saiwania]

Absolutely, I think we are prone to forget that we need to get angry and push for progress, not sit quietly and beg nicely.

If the majority is pissed off too much, it can only backfire. This Inn was a secret homosexual bar which bribed police officers to look the other way so that it could continue operating without a liquor license and in violation of public indecency laws. It was owned by the Genovese mafia, the police were performing their normal job in trying to shut it down but got rioting.

It shouldn't matter in my view, that it was the only gay bar in NYC at the time, where dancing was allowed. The fact is that non-cisgender people could've gone to any bar within NYC if they were sufficiently closeted or within the norms of the majority.

[New haven america]

Absolutely, I think we are prone to forget that we need to get angry and push for progress, not sit quietly and beg nicely.

If the majority is pissed off too much, it can only backfire. This Inn was a secret homosexual bar which bribed police officers to look the other way so that it could continue operating without a liquor license and in violation of public indecency laws. It was owned by the Genovese mafia, the police were performing their normal job in trying to shut it down but got rioting.

It shouldn't matter in my view, that it was the only gay bar in NYC at the time, where dancing was allowed. The fact is that non-cisgender people could've gone to any bar within NYC if they were sufficiently closeted or within the norms of the majority.

But they didn't want to be closeted.

[Threlizdun]

I think it would do my gay and trans siblings well to remember that our first Pride was a riot. Nothing is ever won from oppressors by asking politely.

Completely agreed. We also need to hold the corporations profiting of our culture, bodies, and images accountable for the donations they send to homophobic and transphobic politicians, to the business they do with governments that engage in human rights violations against queer and trans people, those that abuse and harass their LGBTQIA employees, medical companies that profited off of us as we died during the AIDS epidemic, and all those that have nothing to say about us until we become a marketable demographic for consumption.

This Pride Month, give your money directly to LGBTQIA individuals in need of support, not to companies co-opting our images and selling them to line their pockets with.

[Des-Bal]

If the majority is pissed off too much, it can only backfire. This Inn was a secret homosexual bar which bribed police officers to look the other way so that it could continue operating without a liquor license and in violation of public indecency laws. It was owned by the Genovese mafia, the police were performing their normal job in trying to shut it down but got rioting.

It shouldn't matter in my view, that it was the only gay bar in NYC at the time, where dancing was allowed. The fact is that non-cisgender people could've gone to any bar within NYC if they were sufficiently closeted or within the norms of the majority.

The police weren't really doing their jobs, they were gettinga cut of the bar but not the extortion racket and they weren't pleased with that.

[Kannap]

Absolutely, I think we are prone to forget that we need to get angry and push for progress, not sit quietly and beg nicely.

If the majority is pissed off too much, it can only backfire. This Inn was a secret homosexual bar which bribed police officers to look the other way so that it could continue operating without a liquor license and in violation of public indecency laws. It was owned by the Genovese mafia, the police were performing their normal job in trying to shut it down but got rioting.

It shouldn't matter in my view, that it was the only gay bar in NYC at the time, where dancing was allowed. The fact is that non-cisgender people could've gone to any bar within NYC if they were sufficiently closeted or within the norms of the majority.

Except, of course, that non-cisgender people (or even cisgender gay people) were tired of being in the closet.

Out of the closet and into the streets!

[Kowani]

As I always say, violence is a legitimate political tool.

[Cossack Khanate]

Of course, violence is a useful tool. Sometimes violence is the only answer. Actually, not sometimes. Most of the time.

And although I am a social conservative, I am not going to debate anyone on this topic in this thread. And if you want to attack me, that just proves liberals are becoming more aggressive. Tee hee.

[Nakena]

Of course, violence is a useful tool. Sometimes violence is the only answer. Actually, not sometimes. Most of the time.

And although I am a social conservative, I am not going to debate anyone on this topic in this thread. And if you want to attack me, that just proves liberals are becoming more aggressive. Tee hee.

What other topics do you would like to debate?

[Communist Zombie Horde]

Nice to see gays are celebrating violent crime. Doesn't make me afraid at all.

As I always say, violence is a legitimate political tool.

But only if it is left wing.

[New haven america]

Of course, violence is a useful tool. Sometimes violence is the only answer. Actually, not sometimes. Most of the time.

And although I am a social conservative, I am not going to debate anyone on this topic in this thread. And if you want to attack me, that just proves liberals are becoming more aggressive. Tee hee.

What other topics do you would like to debate?

Or are they even willing to debate other topics?

[Des-Bal]

As I always say, violence is a legitimate political tool.

Im sure that's what those guys in Peshawar said before they decapitated that Transgender woman.

[Communist Zombie Horde]

As I always say, violence is a legitimate political tool.

Im sure that's what those guys in Peshawar said before they decapitated that Transgender woman.

That is an evil thing to do but the liberals will still disapprove because their double standards.

[Nakena]

As I always say, violence is a legitimate political tool.

Im sure that's what those guys in Peshawar said before they decapitated that Transgender woman.

Thats because the later didn had guns.

[New haven america]

It's funny how the more Right-Leaning users are now decrying acts of violence when it's used against them and their beliefs.

[Saiwania]

Except, of course, that non-cisgender people (or even cisgender gay people) were tired of being in the closet. Out of the closet and into the streets!

If some people out themselves as deviant or makes a habit of challenging the norms of society, the larger society doesn't have to just roll over and accept what they're doing as objectively good or something to approve of or admire. Desmond Napoles for example, upsets me a lot. Were he my son, he'd of brought great shame and consternation to me at minimum. I'd want to punish him for dressing as a girl would. There is no RuPaul anything in my world or household.

[Des-Bal]

Thats because the later didn had guns.

Then it becomes a game of who has the most guns and the least regard for human life. It's not an especially fun game and it really sucks for minority groups.

[Communist Zombie Horde]

It's funny how the more Right-Leaning users are now decrying acts of violence when it's used against them and their beliefs.

It's funny to see how the leftists approve of violence except when the attacker is a straight white male and .make strawmen to protect themself. I never approve of illegitimate violence except when overthrowing a totalitarian regime.

[Nakena]

What other topics do you would like to debate?

Or are they even willing to debate other topics?

I dunno. I havent seen them often on NSG so far.

It's funny how the more Right-Leaning users are now decrying acts of violence when it's used against them and their beliefs.

Depends whom you ask. I am fairly right-wing by modern liberal standards and I am growing increasingly to admire the fighting spirit expressed by some pro-LGBT folks.

[Kowani]

As I always say, violence is a legitimate political tool.

Im sure that's what those guys in Peshawar said before they decapitated that Transgender woman.

How would you have freed the slaves?

[New haven america]

It's funny how the more Right-Leaning users are now decrying acts of violence when it's used against them and their beliefs.

It's funny to see how the leftists approve of violence except when the attacker is a straight white male and .make strawmen to protect themself. I never approve of illegitimate violence except when overthrowing a totalitarian regime.

I'm not a leftist, kiddo.

[Kannap]

Nice to see gays are celebrating violent crime. Doesn't make me afraid at all.

Perhaps we could be celebrating American values, togetherness, and the democratic process today but people were so vehemently and violently opposed to LGBT people that we had to literally fight for our lives.