Today is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising against the police, which marked the beginning of the Gay and Lesbian rights movement in the US. Democracy Now has a video, "Remembering Stonewall," available online here.
And the SF Gate reports:
President Obama today marked an historic first when he issued a White House resolution for Gay Pride month that honors the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots -- marking the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.
Random thoughts-
ReplyDeleteI was still gestating (in one of those pre-Roe homes for unwed mothers, I think) during the big event, but attended many protests on Stonewall anniversaries in the 80s and 90s, with ACT UP and radical queer groups (often protesting more conservative gay groups, whee!). I'm writing a fantasy novel about those events for the '09 Clarion West write-a-thon, so been thinkin' on 'em.
This year my uncle Bill, who was not 'out' to my family until the late 90s but apparently (oh, internet) co-wrote a book about The Social Organization of Gay Males in 1978, died on the eve of the Stonewall 40th anniv.
He's better known for several books about "Deep Ecology" that stay in print thanks to college ENV 101 classes. His theorizing is often criticized as sexist, racist, and misanthropic, I won't say completely unfairly. But he pushed me in good ways to learn to think critically. Plus he gave me a subscription to a kid's astronomy magazine that made me a model rocket nut and led me to SF.
I hadn't realized the Stonewall connection until I saw your post this morning (Monday 6/29), but had noticed he died in the same year as the 'father' of his branch of environmental philosophy, Arne Naess. And overshadowed by the death of MJ - the ultimate icon of the superficial/ corporate/ pop culture that he spent a lot of ink criticizing (but probably saved my young queer life in the hatin' 80s - yo, Ziggy, Annie Lennox, Boy George, MJ and Prince, etc.). There's something oddly well-timed about all of that.
anyway, that's my Pride weekend musing... gotta go make my page count for CW.
-Carrie Devall