The GLBT March Toward Equality

by Michael Dean Shelton

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the start of what many term as the gay liberation movement. With the death of Harvey Milk and the advent of HIV/AIDS, the movement for equality stalled till early 2003/2004. There were a few spikes, such as President William Jefferson Clinton, who signed into law, the now disastrous Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. In my opinion though, the GLBT equality movement sped up with the state of Massachusetts allowing gay marriage. In this blog, I explore what steps I believe that we need to take to move our fight forward, with a brief history of the benchmark of the gay liberation movement, the Stonewall Riots.

It is important to note that there was a level of activism by the GLBT community prior to the weekend of June 27-29 1969. The confrontation though between the New York City police and demonstrators at the Stonewall Inn brought the GLBT fight for equality to new levels.

On the night of June 27, 1969, gays and lesbians had gathered in bars to mourn the loss of an iconic figure in the community, Judy Garland. For the record, the death and funeral of Ms. Garland was not the cause of the Stonewall Riots, but there were more gays and lesbians out than normal according to some historians. Early in the morning of June 28, the police carried out a raid (which was not uncommon) on a small bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village named the Stonewall Inn. The reason given by the NYPD was the illegal sale of alcohol and one by one police escorted the patrons outside. For some reason unknown, the usual festive mood of the crowd turned hostile. Some blame it on the death of Judy Garland, or that raids were occurring more frequently than normal, or that it was the site of several drag queens being handcuffed and forced into paddy wagons.

Whatever it was, the crowd of several hundred started losing patience and someone threw the first punch, essentially defying the NYPD. For the police, this was a surprise, and they clearly had no plan in place for this type of resistance. So in retaliation, they beat members of the crowd with their nightsticks, eventually having to take refuge in the Stonewall Inn.

The first night of riots ended early on the 28th of June. The second night, demonstrators embraced the banner of Gay Pride and flocked to the streets around the Stonewall Inn. Once again, there were confrontations with the police.

What was learned those two nights that there was a sense of anger underneath the riots, that there were strength in numbers when gays unite, and we came to realization that, as a minority group, we no longer needed to accept the norm of bullying and harassment at the hands of government. Thus the modern liberation movement was born.

As we learn from the lessons of the past, I believe that there are three steps we need to take for our movement to continue the push forward:

1. We need to form one cohesive group with one set of leadership. For so long now, we have operated with several groups and no clear leadership which has created chaos and disastrous consequences, i.e. Proposition 8. In addition, we have out of control, very visible, and ego driven spokespeople, like Perez Hilton, who make us look ridiculous, intolerant and uneducated. My solution would be having Ellen DeGeneres (who has the like ability factor) and Rosie O’Donnell (who has the legislative experience. She recently succeeded in getting the Florida gay adoption ban overturned). We need to have a clear agenda and game plan. One Voice. One Goal. Its that simple. Finally, we need to move out of our comfort area. Protesting in areas that are predominately gay friendly is irresponsible. We need to be knocking on doors in African American areas and show family friendly PSAs in areas that are overwhelming religious, as two examples.
2. We need to focus our energies not only on the state level but the federal level as well. As a community, we need to work with Ted Olson (Republican) and David Boies (Democrat) who have taken up the mantle of same sex marriage as a team and their intent is for this issue of equality to end up in the United States Supreme Court. This is a positive and important step because the GLBT community, by definition, falls under the parameters of a suspect class of citizens. By labeling us as such, the government must show that by denying those rights would be beneficial to society as a whole due to national security or the defense of the country. It is almost virtually impossible for the government to do such. In addition, this classification was used in striking down two anti-gay laws, Romer v. Evans (discrimination against gays) and Lawrence v. Texas (sexual privacy). As a side note, this status would only be applicable to those states that do not offer full equality to its citizens, not to states such as Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
3. Finally, we need to look for candidates that openly support AND have a track record in gay equality. In addition, we need to work together to oust those that do not or have lied to us to get elected. We have now seen what happens when we blindly put our faith in a person (Mr. Obama) that made hollow, fraudulent statements to get elected . As I have stated before, it seems like the only change that Mr. Obama has brought to Washington is an open prejudice to certain minorities. I know its a gamble to pick a person that we feel may not win. One way we should look at it is from a view point of respecting ourselves and our community. We have made huge strides in the last few years, and by continuing to believe in our government, will only move us backwards not forward.

As we celebrate the pride of our community this month and remember those that participated in the Stonewall Riots, we have an obligation and responsibility to act with civil disobedience, tolerance, and a unified front. I honestly don’t see any other solution. We need to mourn the loss of what we thought Mr. Obama would bring to Washington and not fall into the victim mentality that other minorities in the country have done. We owe ourselves and our children to be responsible and passionate for equality. Many of us may never see full equality, but remember our children will. Happy Gay Pride 2009!

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This article was originally posted on Ramblings of a Gay Southerner.