A Toast to the Pride Pioneers of Stonewall
http://www.justout.com/news.aspx?id=225
by Kathryn Martini
6/4/2010
June 28, 1969 was two months before Woodstock, and a few weeks before
Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I was just a few months old苞ertainly
not aware of much of anything, especially an event in New York City
that would ultimately affect my life and the lives of many other
people. On June 28, 1969, a large group came together要ot to have a
parade or a tea dance苑ut to join in solidarity against the
persecution of gay and lesbian people. It wasn't a planned event; it
was a reaction to a police raid on a gay bar, but it forever altered
history. Unknown to those who engaged in those violent
demon貞trations at The Stonewall Inn, it marked the beginning of the
gay rights movement.
Before Stonewall, being gay got you a lo苑otomy, electric shock
therapy, castrated, fired from your job, sent to a mental
institution, arrested for perversion, labeled a communist, harassed
or killed. Before Stonewall, the gay community was underground.
Underground networks and enclaves began in the 1920s and '30s in
cities like New York and San Francisco at a time when the medical
establishment deemed homosexuality a "con茆enital condition or
defect." These "diseased" individuals got together to support each
other, forging a community that continued to grow.
During World War II, the government needed soldiers苞oncerns about
their sexual orientation were not as great as the country's need for
service personnel. The enlistment of gay and lesbian troops opened a
door of tolerance that was quickly shut after the war's conclusion.
The propaganda campaign that reestablished dichotomous gender roles
pushed women back into the kitchen and gays back into the closet.
In 1948, Alfred Kinsey published his name貞ake report, which
"normalized" homosexual behavior and bucked earlier medical findings.
It also proved that there were a lot of people engaging in homosexual
activity, which meant the gays were everywhere. Just like the fear of
communists in the 1950s, there existed a fear of homosexuals, whose
"lifestyles" threatened the post-war suburban nuclear family portrait
that was being painted by the government and society. This threat led
to the passage of new laws meant to protect society and root out the
gay folk so psychiatrists could "fix" them.
As more people were singled out and iden負ified as gay, they migrated
to neighborhoods where they could live together and nurture
relationships of any kind. The underground was growing, and so was
hostility against the community虹nstitutionalized, overt, violent.
The gay bar was a place where people could gather together and became
a cornerstone of socialization. They were secret establishments, as
it was illegal to be homosexual in public. Police would receive tips
from "well-meaning citizens" about "homosexual activity" and raid the
venue. At the very least, the patrons were arrested. At the worst,
they were assaulted.
That's what happened on June 28, 1969. The Stonewall Inn was raided
as it had been before苑ut this time people fought back, and the
following week, a thousand people united in protest. We commemorate
this event every June by celebrating Pride around the world.
Imagine sitting at CC Slaughters, having a gin and tonic with friends
or a lover, and in walk police officers to arrest you for being gay.
Imagine being beaten by the authorities and thrown in jail because of
the gender of the person you love or desire. Forty-one years later,
we who live in the progressive and gay-friendly city of Portland take
for granted that we can go to a gay bar and not have to do so
incognito. We can hold hands or kiss our boyfriend or girlfriend.
We can live openly without fear of persecu負ion, and there are laws
that protect us from blatant discrimination. The government doesn't
investigate what we do in our bedrooms, nor label us as deviants. No,
we're not quite there yet and the rest of the country要ot to men負ion
other parts of the world, where gay indi赳iduals still use the
underground虐as a long way to go to catch up with Portland. We all
need to fight to get them here with us.
The men and women of Stonewall accom計lished something that gay
people for decades prior couldn't. They opened the door for us to be
who we are today as a community, and we owe them a tremendous debt.
Some of us, my貞elf included, didn't have to pay our dues and hide in
a closet; I embraced my sexuality with觔ut a glimmer of guilt or
self-deprecation.
I hope that every person who sits in a gay bar this Pride season will
raise a glass to free苓om and being out of the underground.
.
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