Stonewall Uprising Documentary Will Mean Different Things to Different Gays
Whenever we see period footage from around the time of the Stonewall riots, on June 28, 1969, we always think: Remember when you could smoke in New York City bars?
I wouldn’t think that. I would actually think, man, look how far the movement has come and our rights have come and how far we still have to go.
If I was to think about smoking it would be more like this, “I can’t believe they actually let people smoke in bars back then.”
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Sadly, the LGBT community has few (if any) ways to communicate its history from one person (or group, generation, however you want to consider it) to the next.
Yes, I, personally learned about it in college, and live in New York so I’m reminded about it regularly, but people who are coming out now may not have the same resources I have.
Someday there will be institutions created to make this happen, but, well, yeah, they don’t exist at the moment.
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@Fitz: I couldn’t agree more. Our history, no matter how many times we tell it or different vantage points we tell it from, is part of our social identity.
In a community as diverse and unique as the LGBT crowd it’s often difficult to see the bonds that unite us. Gay men are often very separate from gay women. Black gays are often detached from white gays. Old gays are often disconnected from young.
The point is: Our history unites us all.
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Let’s not forget the true pioneers on the earlier pages of history—Magnus Hirschfeld and his daring attempt to strike down sodomy laws in late 19th century Germany. Signatories included Albert Einstein, Hermann Hesse, Käthe Kollwitz, Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann, and Rainer Maria Rilke
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Gays these days seem to have forgotten how to march and fight for their rights…