30 years ago today, police sparked a riot at a place called the Stonewall Inn. It eventually had 400 policeman battling 2000 people, beating them and arresting 14, all for being gay. Homosexual rights had been fought for for nearly 20 years by that point by the Mattachine Society, and had been attempted in 1924 by the Society for Human Rights (all members were arrested after a few months). However Stonewall is credited as a turning point in the story of homosexual oppression in this country.
That story is far from over.
Yesterday Michelle Obama linked the civil rights movement to the gay rights movement in a speech to the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council. Reading about it brought tears to my eyes as the gravity and weight of discrimination in this country was again brought home. We are a nation that has been taught that our founders sought to flee oppression in England and beyond. Yet the stories I know; burning single women (so-called witches), to enslaving an entire race (ongoing), to interning members of the community because we were at war with the country of their ancestors (Japan for instance), to stealing the land and raping the bodies of natives (where do I even begin), to children being murdered by other children because their parents taught them that gays are bad (even this year), to the continual suppression of rights only given when enough people have fought and died... I wonder how much we do value "freedom"? "liberty"? or "justice for all"?
Mrs. Obama struck a cord with her simple words:
“We are all only here because of those who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall, in the pursuit of a more perfect union”
So on this historic night, I begin to ask myself about my own pride and what that "more perfect union" means to me.
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