It’s hard to contemplate that some forty two years ago this very week the eyes of the world looked to New York and the horrible scenes of brutality to gay people. It was an uprising, a fight back, a time to make a stand, it was what has become known as The Stonewall Riots, many claim it was the birth place of the gay pride movement, at least in America. It also spurred on gay people in other nations, that the time to stand up for equality had finally come.
It’s hard to say how much of an impact those first fledgling steps on the road to equality have had over the intervening years. We, as a global community have come along way, a very long way since those days of discrimination, prejudice and hate. That’s not to say that we’ve got what we want, there is a long way to go. Many believe that we are never truly free and equal until everyone of our brothers and sisters around the world are free and enjoying equality.
However, perhaps now is an ideal time to thank those brave souls who had had enough of the pain, the discrimination, the beatings, the prejudice some forty-two years ago. Now, as New York bathes in the glory of a massive step on the road to equality, legalized same sex marriages, we can accept the true birth of the gay rights movement in the city with that unplanned unorganised uprising. Perhaps this week, more than any other, we say a heartfelt thank you to those people that stood outside of The Stonewall Inn on June 28th 1969, watching the mass arrest of a gay people in an all too common raid on gay establishments by a heavy handed prejudiced police department. Over the next couple of days, the word spread, the power of people started to take over, ‘no more will we be pushed around’ the collective community seemed to be shouting out. People gathered, joined and stood up. They were proud of who they were, they were showing New York and the world of this pride, this stand against oppression and the Pride March was born.
Some of the New York milestones since those days include.
- 1969 saw the Stonewall riots –
- 1970s Christopher Street Liberation day march organised to commemorate Stonewall riots.
- 1973: American psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses.
- 1986: Activists organise a charity walk for gay health crisis Hotline, due to a horrid illness that was striking at the very heart of the gay community.
- 1990 New York gay and lesbians took part in a sponsored rally against hate crimes and were recognised as no longer being disposable community.
- 1995: A poll on social attitudes revealed that support for gay marriage in NYC topped 30 per cent.
- February 26, 2004: Jason West, mayor of the village of New Paltz, announces that the village would start performing same-sex civil partnerships.
- 2011 After trying four times, same sex marriages are made legal and signed into law by governor Cuomo.
- 25 July 2011. The date the first legal gay marriages can take place in New York
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