{"id":279763,"date":"2019-06-27T17:30:52","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T21:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=279763"},"modified":"2023-11-08T20:32:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T01:32:56","slug":"harvard-scholars-reflect-on-the-history-and-legacy-of-the-stonewall-riots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/06\/harvard-scholars-reflect-on-the-history-and-legacy-of-the-stonewall-riots\/","title":{"rendered":"Stonewall then and now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tStonewall then and now\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard scholars reflect on the history and legacy of the milestone gay-rights demonstrations triggered by a police raid at a dive bar in Manhattan\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\n\t

\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\tColleen Walsh\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\"Stonewall

Protesters took to the streets in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots in lower Manhattan in the summer of 1969. Stonewall marked a turning point in the gay rights movement. <\/p>

Leonard Fink\/The LGBT Community Center National History Archive<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\t\t

Michael Bronski<\/a> wasn\u2019t at Stonewall and doesn\u2019t mind admitting it, unlike many members of the gay and lesbian community of a certain age who, he says, insist they were. The joke is that if everyone who claims they took part in the famous 1969 uprising in lower Manhattan that catalyzed America\u2019s gay-rights movement actually had been there, the crowd, Bronski says with a laugh, \u201cwould have filled Yankee Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n

In truth, the crowd that day numbered about 200, at least at first. And they weren\u2019t protesters but mostly patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a popular Greenwich Village gay bar. The trouble started when the police arrived in the wee hours of June 28 to raid the Mafia-run tavern on a trumped-up liquor-license charge. Officers started pushing customers and workers into police vehicles. But instead of dispersing as they had during past routine raids, those who hadn\u2019t been grabbed began cheering those who had. The crowd of onlookers swelled as tourists and neighborhood residents stopped to investigate. Then, according to multiple accounts, a lesbian who was fighting attempts to haul her into a squad car cried out, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you guys do something!\u201d The air grew thick with chants \u2014 along with bottles and bricks. The officers barricaded themselves in the bar and radioed for back-up as a riot flared. More violent demonstrations shook the neighborhood in the following days.<\/p>\n

Today, Bronski, a Harvard professor of the practice in media and activism in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, understands why so many claim to have been present at such a pivotal moment in the history of the gay rights movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is like the shot heard around the world, or the hairpin drop heard round the world,\u201d he said, a cheeky parody coined in Stonewall\u2019s aftermath of the stanza from \u201cConcord Hymn.\u201d There had been previous riots in the U.S. involving gays and lesbians fed up with routine harassment, but Stonewall, erupting when it did amid protests over the Vietnam War and civil rights and gender equality, marked a decisive break from the more passive sexual-orientation politics of the day, said Bronski, who has written extensively on LGBTQ culture and history.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

\"The
On the window of the Stonewall Inn, "We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village \u2014 Mattachine\u201c Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

\u201cIt was really like direct action. It was like the radical feminists invading the Miss America contest, or the Black Panthers standing in front of Oakland City Hall with rifles,\u201d he said, and it ran completely counter to the approach of groups such as the Mattachine Society, one of the nation\u2019s earliest gay-rights organizations, that preferred to press for change through legal and political channels. Not long after the Stonewall raid, a message appeared on the boarded-up window of the bar, pleading for the return of \u201cpeaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the village.\u201d It was signed \u201cMattachine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s so amazing is that they would never have thought of doing anything public like that before,\u201d said Bronski. \u201cSo literally overnight, Mattachine is forced into making a public announcement with essentially graffiti.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Bronski, Stonewall represented a \u201cshocking change of consciousness for the world.\u201d And in its wake rose the Gay Liberation Front, a more radical version of the Mattachine Society unafraid to use confrontation to push reform.<\/p>\n

But there were other organizations helping drive change. Harvard\u2019s Evelynn Hammonds<\/a>, chair of the Department of the History of Science<\/a>, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, and professor of African and African American Studies, said that in the years after Stonewall the story of greater visibility for gay people in America was often seen through the lens of gay men. That perspective, she said, overlooks a key connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time of what we now call the Stonewall Rebellion, what was also happening was the second wave of the women\u2019s movement. And while there were lots of tensions in some women\u2019s organizations between lesbians and straight women, there was also a great deal of unity, and people were coming together around a shared desire for greater equality for women and gay people,\u201d said Hammonds.<\/p>\n

A look at the history<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Though their methods may not have been as radical, early so-called homophile organizations \u2014 including the Mattachine Society, Janus Society, and Daughters of Bilitis \u2014 set the stage for what followed, says Timothy Patrick McCarthy<\/a>, a lecturer in public policy and core faculty at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy<\/a> at Harvard Kennedy School<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe foundation for the movement that emerges in fuller form in the wake of Stonewall was laid in the decades before in public and private battles, in different organizations, and through the work of many people,\u201d said McCarthy, whose book, \u201cStonewall\u2019s Children: Living Queer History in an Age of Liberation, Loss, and Love,\u201d will be published by The New Press next year.<\/p>\n

Many such groups materialized during World War II and the post-war era in response to the military\u2019s anti-homosexual policies and the paranoid frenzy of the Red Scare. McCarthy points to the \u201cLavender Scare,\u201d a fear campaign that paralleled Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy\u2019s investigations into what he considered widespread subversive forces at work in the federal government in the 1950s. While simultaneously trying to expose suspected communists, the Wisconsin senator also targeted suspected homosexuals, arguing that \u201cdeviant sexual behavior, like deviant political ideology, were things that made people more vulnerable to blackmailing,\u201d said the Harvard scholar, who recently edited a special issue of The Nation<\/a> examining Stonewall\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

McCarthy\u2019s tactics initially garnered widespread support. President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued an executive order in 1953 banning homosexuals from working for the federal government, citing security risk. Thousands lost their jobs because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. Among them was the man many have called the \u201cFather of the Gay Rights Movement,\u201d Frank Kameny, who received his master\u2019s and doctorate degrees in astronomy from Harvard in 1949 and 1956, respectively. After the Army Map Service fired him as an astronomer in 1957, Kameny unsuccessfully sued the federal government and later devoted his life to fighting for gay rights. Among his many achievements, Kameny, who died at the age of 86 in 2011, was known for founding the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., picketing the White House, contesting the American Psychiatric Association\u2019s categorization of homosexuality as a mental defect, and coining the term \u201cGay is good.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n

\n
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\"A<\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n

The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year. A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969. Jackie Hormone, among the first to fight the police at Stonewall, is on the right.<\/p>

Sasha Kargaltsev\/Creative Commons; photo by Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\n

Stonewall\u2019s legacy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hammonds wasn\u2019t at Stonewall either, but the image looms large in her mind thanks in part to the actions of those eager to keep its spirit alive. During the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations in 1969, a young activist called for nationwide demonstrations each June in honor of Stonewall.\u00a0New York\u2019s first pride parade, named the Christopher Street Liberation Day, was held in June of 1970,\u00a0just a year after the riots.\u00a0The march began on Christopher Street where the\u00a0bar\u00a0\u2014 now a historic landmark \u2014\u00a0was\u00a0located, and it ended in Central Park. The event attracted thousands and signaled another important milestone. In the years that followed more cities and towns organized parades in support of gay rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe marches were among the first highly visible public events for people to express their gay sexuality and for allies to have an opportunity to support the gay people in their lives,\u201d said Hammonds, who was a graduate student in Boston in 1976 when she attended the city\u2019s Pride parade and first heard of Stonewall. \u201cThe marches also became vehicles for political expression as well, which you could see by the signs that people held up, which made the marches political moments as well as scenes of gay pride. Even local politicians recognized this and slowly, over time, more politicians would join the marches.\u201d<\/p>\n

One march in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1987 left another lasting impact on Hammonds. The event coincided with the first showing of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a massive patchwork blanket adorned with the names of those who had died. The colorful fabric covered an area on the National Mall larger than a football field and contained 1,920 panels \u201cthat captured the beautiful range and diversity of the gay experience with a kind of poignancy and sadness, but also affirmation of gay life that I had never seen before,\u201d said Hammonds.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

\"he

The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display at the Washington Monument. The massive patchwork blanket was adorned with the names of those who had died.\t\t\t<\/p>

Credit: National Institutes of Health<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

The epidemic raised the visibility of the gay community further as more and more people were forced to come out to family and friends, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen young men began to get sick, a lot of them had to return to the places where they grew up, because some didn\u2019t have anybody to take care of them in the cities where many gay people had congregated,\u201d said Hammonds. \u201cThey returned to the small towns, or smaller cities and places where many people in their lives didn\u2019t know that they were gay \u2026 of course, not everyone was welcomed home with open arms, but ironically one of the consequences of the epidemic was that more Americans became aware of gay people in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hammonds said she has been shocked at the rapid pace of change she has witnessed over the last 40 years, from attending her first Gay Pride parade to watching the faces of Pride marchers get younger and increasingly diverse to getting married and starting a family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got married the first night you could,\u201d said Hammonds, who arrived at Cambridge City Hall on May 17, 2004, with her partner just after midnight so they could be among the first in the country to be granted a same-sex marriage license. (Cambridge was the first municipality in the country to issue the licenses.) \u201cIt was the most amazing thing to come out of the front door of City Hall and see Massachusetts Avenue just filled with people singing and yelling with joy that gay marriage was now legal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Hammonds sees difficult times ahead and anticipates \u201cvery serious attempts at retrenchment.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThere appears to be a growing\u00a0backlash from people who feel that expanding gay rights and rights for transgender people means that heterosexuals have lost something they can never regain. But fortunately the younger generation sees the world differently now. Many have grown up in a world where there is more equality, more acceptance of sexual and gender difference, and they value it, and they are comfortable with it. So those of us who are older have to do whatever we can to support them in holding onto those rights we marched for a long time ago and that we continue to fight for.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n

\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t
\"The<\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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\"The<\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n

The “raided premises” sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn. Stonewall in 2011, during a pride march.<\/p>

Credit: Wikimedia Commons; Rhododendrites\/Creative Commons<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\n

McCarthy\u2019s concern about the future echoes the struggles the Mattachine Society and the Gay Liberation Front grappled with years ago. He wonders how best to work within the system while still being considered radical.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of what we have seen in policy in the modern era is an impulse to assimilation \u2014 we can get married, serve in military, be just like you. There\u2019s been a real push to become part of these mainstream institutions, part of the system of laws and politics in the country. But the most important questions are these: Who does this leave out and what kinds of bargains have to be made to prove that we are just like straight people?\u201d<\/p>\n

With his students, he says he has \u201carrived at a fairly broad consensus that we need a both\/and politics. We need a politics that is at once pragmatic and<\/em> radical. We need different kinds of change agents, working in different locations with different tactics, to achieve these larger aspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bronski is both hopeful and worried about the transgender rights movement that he likens to Stonewall in terms of the excitement and change it has helped inspire. \u201cThere is this enormous cultural change around the intersections of gender and sexuality and gender and identity and gender and, to a large degree, class and economics and money,\u201d said Bronski. \u201cBut it\u2019s also getting the most blowback from the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bronski said he could envision an effort by conservative groups to repeal the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled the Constitution protects same-sex marriage, but added that the potential outcome of such an attempt is less clear. \u201cYou do actually have hundreds of thousands of people probably who are now married. So if you repealed the law do you repeal their marriage? Do you grandfather them in? It gets complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Hammonds and McCarthy, Bronski, whose latest book is titled \u201cA Queer History of the United States for Young People,\u201d<\/a> also sees hope in the nation\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday my gay students are incredible, and they have been for 10 years. They are more progressive and radical and on the edge than most people I know,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s totally changed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Archive","displayDetails":"","displayTitle":"","categoryId":1378,"mediaAlt":"Stonewall protestors","mediaCaption":"Protesters took to the streets in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots in lower Manhattan in the summer of 1969. Stonewall marked a turning point in the gay rights movement. ","mediaId":331367,"mediaSize":"full","mediaType":"image","mediaUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Larry-Fink-photo.jpg","poster":"","title":"Stonewall then and now","subheading":"Harvard scholars reflect on the history and legacy of the milestone gay-rights demonstrations triggered by a police raid at a dive bar in Manhattan","className":"is-style-split-screen","mediaHeight":2500,"mediaWidth":1785,"backgroundFixed":false,"backgroundTone":"light","centeredImage":false,"coloredBackground":false,"displayOverlay":true,"fadeInText":false,"isAmbient":false,"mediaLength":"","mediaPosition":"","posterText":"","titleAbove":false,"useUncroppedImage":false,"lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Stonewall protestors\" height=\"2500\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Larry-Fink-photo.jpg\" width=\"1785\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Protesters took to the streets in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots in lower Manhattan in the summer of 1969. Stonewall marked a turning point in the gay rights movement. <\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Leonard Fink\/The LGBT Community Center National History Archive<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Stonewall protestors\" height=\"2500\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Larry-Fink-photo.jpg\" width=\"1785\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Protesters took to the streets in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots in lower Manhattan in the summer of 1969. Stonewall marked a turning point in the gay rights movement. <\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Leonard Fink\/The LGBT Community Center National History Archive<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-split-screen has-light-background has-colored-heading has-overlay has-media-on-the-right\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tStonewall then and now\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t<p class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tHarvard scholars reflect on the history and legacy of the milestone gay-rights demonstrations triggered by a police raid at a dive bar in Manhattan\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tColleen Walsh\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2019-06-27\">\n\t\t\tJune 27, 2019\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\tlong read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Stonewall protestors\" height=\"2500\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Larry-Fink-photo.jpg\" width=\"1785\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Protesters took to the streets in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots in lower Manhattan in the summer of 1969. Stonewall marked a turning point in the gay rights movement. <\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Leonard Fink\/The LGBT Community Center National History Archive<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"left"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p class=\"add-drop-cap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wgs.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/michael-bronski\">Michael Bronski<\/a> wasn\u2019t at Stonewall and doesn\u2019t mind admitting it, unlike many members of the gay and lesbian community of a certain age who, he says, insist they were. The joke is that if everyone who claims they took part in the famous 1969 uprising in lower Manhattan that catalyzed America\u2019s gay-rights movement actually had been there, the crowd, Bronski says with a laugh, \u201cwould have filled Yankee Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In truth, the crowd that day numbered about 200, at least at first. And they weren\u2019t protesters but mostly patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a popular Greenwich Village gay bar. The trouble started when the police arrived in the wee hours of June 28 to raid the Mafia-run tavern on a trumped-up liquor-license charge. Officers started pushing customers and workers into police vehicles. But instead of dispersing as they had during past routine raids, those who hadn\u2019t been grabbed began cheering those who had. The crowd of onlookers swelled as tourists and neighborhood residents stopped to investigate. Then, according to multiple accounts, a lesbian who was fighting attempts to haul her into a squad car cried out, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you guys do something!\u201d The air grew thick with chants \u2014 along with bottles and bricks. The officers barricaded themselves in the bar and radioed for back-up as a riot flared. More violent demonstrations shook the neighborhood in the following days.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Bronski, a Harvard professor of the practice in media and activism in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, understands why so many claim to have been present at such a pivotal moment in the history of the gay rights movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt really is like the shot heard around the world, or the hairpin drop heard round the world,\u201d he said, a cheeky parody coined in Stonewall\u2019s aftermath of the stanza from \u201cConcord Hymn.\u201d There had been previous riots in the U.S. involving gays and lesbians fed up with routine harassment, but Stonewall, erupting when it did amid protests over the Vietnam War and civil rights and gender equality, marked a decisive break from the more passive sexual-orientation politics of the day, said Bronski, who has written extensively on LGBTQ culture and history.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p class=\"add-drop-cap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wgs.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/michael-bronski\">Michael Bronski<\/a> wasn\u2019t at Stonewall and doesn\u2019t mind admitting it, unlike many members of the gay and lesbian community of a certain age who, he says, insist they were. The joke is that if everyone who claims they took part in the famous 1969 uprising in lower Manhattan that catalyzed America\u2019s gay-rights movement actually had been there, the crowd, Bronski says with a laugh, \u201cwould have filled Yankee Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In truth, the crowd that day numbered about 200, at least at first. And they weren\u2019t protesters but mostly patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a popular Greenwich Village gay bar. The trouble started when the police arrived in the wee hours of June 28 to raid the Mafia-run tavern on a trumped-up liquor-license charge. Officers started pushing customers and workers into police vehicles. But instead of dispersing as they had during past routine raids, those who hadn\u2019t been grabbed began cheering those who had. The crowd of onlookers swelled as tourists and neighborhood residents stopped to investigate. Then, according to multiple accounts, a lesbian who was fighting attempts to haul her into a squad car cried out, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you guys do something!\u201d The air grew thick with chants \u2014 along with bottles and bricks. The officers barricaded themselves in the bar and radioed for back-up as a riot flared. More violent demonstrations shook the neighborhood in the following days.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Bronski, a Harvard professor of the practice in media and activism in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, understands why so many claim to have been present at such a pivotal moment in the history of the gay rights movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt really is like the shot heard around the world, or the hairpin drop heard round the world,\u201d he said, a cheeky parody coined in Stonewall\u2019s aftermath of the stanza from \u201cConcord Hymn.\u201d There had been previous riots in the U.S. involving gays and lesbians fed up with routine harassment, but Stonewall, erupting when it did amid protests over the Vietnam War and civil rights and gender equality, marked a decisive break from the more passive sexual-orientation politics of the day, said Bronski, who has written extensively on LGBTQ culture and history.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p class=\"add-drop-cap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wgs.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/michael-bronski\">Michael Bronski<\/a> wasn\u2019t at Stonewall and doesn\u2019t mind admitting it, unlike many members of the gay and lesbian community of a certain age who, he says, insist they were. The joke is that if everyone who claims they took part in the famous 1969 uprising in lower Manhattan that catalyzed America\u2019s gay-rights movement actually had been there, the crowd, Bronski says with a laugh, \u201cwould have filled Yankee Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In truth, the crowd that day numbered about 200, at least at first. And they weren\u2019t protesters but mostly patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a popular Greenwich Village gay bar. The trouble started when the police arrived in the wee hours of June 28 to raid the Mafia-run tavern on a trumped-up liquor-license charge. Officers started pushing customers and workers into police vehicles. But instead of dispersing as they had during past routine raids, those who hadn\u2019t been grabbed began cheering those who had. The crowd of onlookers swelled as tourists and neighborhood residents stopped to investigate. Then, according to multiple accounts, a lesbian who was fighting attempts to haul her into a squad car cried out, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you guys do something!\u201d The air grew thick with chants \u2014 along with bottles and bricks. The officers barricaded themselves in the bar and radioed for back-up as a riot flared. More violent demonstrations shook the neighborhood in the following days.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Bronski, a Harvard professor of the practice in media and activism in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, understands why so many claim to have been present at such a pivotal moment in the history of the gay rights movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt really is like the shot heard around the world, or the hairpin drop heard round the world,\u201d he said, a cheeky parody coined in Stonewall\u2019s aftermath of the stanza from \u201cConcord Hymn.\u201d There had been previous riots in the U.S. involving gays and lesbians fed up with routine harassment, but Stonewall, erupting when it did amid protests over the Vietnam War and civil rights and gender equality, marked a decisive break from the more passive sexual-orientation politics of the day, said Bronski, who has written extensively on LGBTQ culture and history.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"right","id":279767,"caption":"On the window of the Stonewall Inn, \"We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village \u2014 Mattachine\u201c Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_2500.jpg","alt":"The Stonewall Inn in 1969.","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_2500.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279767\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">On the window of the Stonewall Inn, "We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village \u2014 Mattachine\u201c Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_2500.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279767\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">On the window of the Stonewall Inn, "We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village \u2014 Mattachine\u201c Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_2500.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279767\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">On the window of the Stonewall Inn, "We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village \u2014 Mattachine\u201c Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>\u201cIt was really like direct action. It was like the radical feminists invading the Miss America contest, or the Black Panthers standing in front of Oakland City Hall with rifles,\u201d he said, and it ran completely counter to the approach of groups such as the Mattachine Society, one of the nation\u2019s earliest gay-rights organizations, that preferred to press for change through legal and political channels. Not long after the Stonewall raid, a message appeared on the boarded-up window of the bar, pleading for the return of \u201cpeaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the village.\u201d It was signed \u201cMattachine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s so amazing is that they would never have thought of doing anything public like that before,\u201d said Bronski. \u201cSo literally overnight, Mattachine is forced into making a public announcement with essentially graffiti.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Bronski, Stonewall represented a \u201cshocking change of consciousness for the world.\u201d And in its wake rose the Gay Liberation Front, a more radical version of the Mattachine Society unafraid to use confrontation to push reform.<\/p>\n<p>But there were other organizations helping drive change. Harvard\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/histsci.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/evelynn-hammonds\">Evelynn Hammonds<\/a>, chair of the <a href=\"https:\/\/histsci.fas.harvard.edu\/\">Department of the History of Science<\/a>, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, and professor of African and African American Studies, said that in the years after Stonewall the story of greater visibility for gay people in America was often seen through the lens of gay men. That perspective, she said, overlooks a key connection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time of what we now call the Stonewall Rebellion, what was also happening was the second wave of the women\u2019s movement. And while there were lots of tensions in some women\u2019s organizations between lesbians and straight women, there was also a great deal of unity, and people were coming together around a shared desire for greater equality for women and gay people,\u201d said Hammonds.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A look at the history<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Though their methods may not have been as radical, early so-called homophile organizations \u2014 including the Mattachine Society, Janus Society, and Daughters of Bilitis \u2014 set the stage for what followed, says <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\/people\/timothy-patrick-mccarthy\">Timothy Patrick McCarthy<\/a>, a lecturer in public policy and core faculty at the <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\/\">Carr Center for Human Rights Policy<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hks.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard Kennedy School<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe foundation for the movement that emerges in fuller form in the wake of Stonewall was laid in the decades before in public and private battles, in different organizations, and through the work of many people,\u201d said McCarthy, whose book, \u201cStonewall\u2019s Children: Living Queer History in an Age of Liberation, Loss, and Love,\u201d will be published by The New Press next year.<\/p>\n<p>Many such groups materialized during World War II and the post-war era in response to the military\u2019s anti-homosexual policies and the paranoid frenzy of the Red Scare. McCarthy points to the \u201cLavender Scare,\u201d a fear campaign that paralleled Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy\u2019s investigations into what he considered widespread subversive forces at work in the federal government in the 1950s. While simultaneously trying to expose suspected communists, the Wisconsin senator also targeted suspected homosexuals, arguing that \u201cdeviant sexual behavior, like deviant political ideology, were things that made people more vulnerable to blackmailing,\u201d said the Harvard scholar, who recently edited a special issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/admin-taxonomy\/reclaiming-stonewall\/\">The Nation<\/a> examining Stonewall\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n<p>McCarthy\u2019s tactics initially garnered widespread support. President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued an executive order in 1953 banning homosexuals from working for the federal government, citing security risk. Thousands lost their jobs because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. Among them was the man many have called the \u201cFather of the Gay Rights Movement,\u201d Frank Kameny, who received his master\u2019s and doctorate degrees in astronomy from Harvard in 1949 and 1956, respectively. After the Army Map Service fired him as an astronomer in 1957, Kameny unsuccessfully sued the federal government and later devoted his life to fighting for gay rights. Among his many achievements, Kameny, who died at the age of 86 in 2011, was known for founding the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., picketing the White House, contesting the American Psychiatric Association\u2019s categorization of homosexuality as a mental defect, and coining the term \u201cGay is good.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>\u201cIt was really like direct action. It was like the radical feminists invading the Miss America contest, or the Black Panthers standing in front of Oakland City Hall with rifles,\u201d he said, and it ran completely counter to the approach of groups such as the Mattachine Society, one of the nation\u2019s earliest gay-rights organizations, that preferred to press for change through legal and political channels. Not long after the Stonewall raid, a message appeared on the boarded-up window of the bar, pleading for the return of \u201cpeaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the village.\u201d It was signed \u201cMattachine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s so amazing is that they would never have thought of doing anything public like that before,\u201d said Bronski. \u201cSo literally overnight, Mattachine is forced into making a public announcement with essentially graffiti.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Bronski, Stonewall represented a \u201cshocking change of consciousness for the world.\u201d And in its wake rose the Gay Liberation Front, a more radical version of the Mattachine Society unafraid to use confrontation to push reform.<\/p>\n<p>But there were other organizations helping drive change. Harvard\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/histsci.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/evelynn-hammonds\">Evelynn Hammonds<\/a>, chair of the <a href=\"https:\/\/histsci.fas.harvard.edu\/\">Department of the History of Science<\/a>, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, and professor of African and African American Studies, said that in the years after Stonewall the story of greater visibility for gay people in America was often seen through the lens of gay men. That perspective, she said, overlooks a key connection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time of what we now call the Stonewall Rebellion, what was also happening was the second wave of the women\u2019s movement. And while there were lots of tensions in some women\u2019s organizations between lesbians and straight women, there was also a great deal of unity, and people were coming together around a shared desire for greater equality for women and gay people,\u201d said Hammonds.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A look at the history<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Though their methods may not have been as radical, early so-called homophile organizations \u2014 including the Mattachine Society, Janus Society, and Daughters of Bilitis \u2014 set the stage for what followed, says <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\/people\/timothy-patrick-mccarthy\">Timothy Patrick McCarthy<\/a>, a lecturer in public policy and core faculty at the <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\/\">Carr Center for Human Rights Policy<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hks.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard Kennedy School<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe foundation for the movement that emerges in fuller form in the wake of Stonewall was laid in the decades before in public and private battles, in different organizations, and through the work of many people,\u201d said McCarthy, whose book, \u201cStonewall\u2019s Children: Living Queer History in an Age of Liberation, Loss, and Love,\u201d will be published by The New Press next year.<\/p>\n<p>Many such groups materialized during World War II and the post-war era in response to the military\u2019s anti-homosexual policies and the paranoid frenzy of the Red Scare. McCarthy points to the \u201cLavender Scare,\u201d a fear campaign that paralleled Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy\u2019s investigations into what he considered widespread subversive forces at work in the federal government in the 1950s. While simultaneously trying to expose suspected communists, the Wisconsin senator also targeted suspected homosexuals, arguing that \u201cdeviant sexual behavior, like deviant political ideology, were things that made people more vulnerable to blackmailing,\u201d said the Harvard scholar, who recently edited a special issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/admin-taxonomy\/reclaiming-stonewall\/\">The Nation<\/a> examining Stonewall\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n<p>McCarthy\u2019s tactics initially garnered widespread support. President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued an executive order in 1953 banning homosexuals from working for the federal government, citing security risk. Thousands lost their jobs because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. Among them was the man many have called the \u201cFather of the Gay Rights Movement,\u201d Frank Kameny, who received his master\u2019s and doctorate degrees in astronomy from Harvard in 1949 and 1956, respectively. After the Army Map Service fired him as an astronomer in 1957, Kameny unsuccessfully sued the federal government and later devoted his life to fighting for gay rights. Among his many achievements, Kameny, who died at the age of 86 in 2011, was known for founding the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., picketing the White House, contesting the American Psychiatric Association\u2019s categorization of homosexuality as a mental defect, and coining the term \u201cGay is good.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cIt was really like direct action. It was like the radical feminists invading the Miss America contest, or the Black Panthers standing in front of Oakland City Hall with rifles,\u201d he said, and it ran completely counter to the approach of groups such as the Mattachine Society, one of the nation\u2019s earliest gay-rights organizations, that preferred to press for change through legal and political channels. Not long after the Stonewall raid, a message appeared on the boarded-up window of the bar, pleading for the return of \u201cpeaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the village.\u201d It was signed \u201cMattachine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s so amazing is that they would never have thought of doing anything public like that before,\u201d said Bronski. \u201cSo literally overnight, Mattachine is forced into making a public announcement with essentially graffiti.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Bronski, Stonewall represented a \u201cshocking change of consciousness for the world.\u201d And in its wake rose the Gay Liberation Front, a more radical version of the Mattachine Society unafraid to use confrontation to push reform.<\/p>\n<p>But there were other organizations helping drive change. Harvard\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/histsci.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/evelynn-hammonds\">Evelynn Hammonds<\/a>, chair of the <a href=\"https:\/\/histsci.fas.harvard.edu\/\">Department of the History of Science<\/a>, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, and professor of African and African American Studies, said that in the years after Stonewall the story of greater visibility for gay people in America was often seen through the lens of gay men. That perspective, she said, overlooks a key connection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time of what we now call the Stonewall Rebellion, what was also happening was the second wave of the women\u2019s movement. And while there were lots of tensions in some women\u2019s organizations between lesbians and straight women, there was also a great deal of unity, and people were coming together around a shared desire for greater equality for women and gay people,\u201d said Hammonds.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A look at the history<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Though their methods may not have been as radical, early so-called homophile organizations \u2014 including the Mattachine Society, Janus Society, and Daughters of Bilitis \u2014 set the stage for what followed, says <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\/people\/timothy-patrick-mccarthy\">Timothy Patrick McCarthy<\/a>, a lecturer in public policy and core faculty at the <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\/\">Carr Center for Human Rights Policy<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hks.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard Kennedy School<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe foundation for the movement that emerges in fuller form in the wake of Stonewall was laid in the decades before in public and private battles, in different organizations, and through the work of many people,\u201d said McCarthy, whose book, \u201cStonewall\u2019s Children: Living Queer History in an Age of Liberation, Loss, and Love,\u201d will be published by The New Press next year.<\/p>\n<p>Many such groups materialized during World War II and the post-war era in response to the military\u2019s anti-homosexual policies and the paranoid frenzy of the Red Scare. McCarthy points to the \u201cLavender Scare,\u201d a fear campaign that paralleled Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy\u2019s investigations into what he considered widespread subversive forces at work in the federal government in the 1950s. While simultaneously trying to expose suspected communists, the Wisconsin senator also targeted suspected homosexuals, arguing that \u201cdeviant sexual behavior, like deviant political ideology, were things that made people more vulnerable to blackmailing,\u201d said the Harvard scholar, who recently edited a special issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/admin-taxonomy\/reclaiming-stonewall\/\">The Nation<\/a> examining Stonewall\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n<p>McCarthy\u2019s tactics initially garnered widespread support. President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued an executive order in 1953 banning homosexuals from working for the federal government, citing security risk. Thousands lost their jobs because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. Among them was the man many have called the \u201cFather of the Gay Rights Movement,\u201d Frank Kameny, who received his master\u2019s and doctorate degrees in astronomy from Harvard in 1949 and 1956, respectively. After the Army Map Service fired him as an astronomer in 1957, Kameny unsuccessfully sued the federal government and later devoted his life to fighting for gay rights. Among his many achievements, Kameny, who died at the age of 86 in 2011, was known for founding the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., picketing the White House, contesting the American Psychiatric Association\u2019s categorization of homosexuality as a mental defect, and coining the term \u201cGay is good.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"tagName":"figure","align":"wide","className":"wp-block-table","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/columns","attrs":{"verticalAlignment":"center","isStackedOnMobile":true,"templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"align":"","className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/column","attrs":{"verticalAlignment":"center","width":"","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"none","id":279770,"blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/New_York_Gay_Pride_2011.jpg","alt":"The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year.","caption":null,"lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/New_York_Gay_Pride_2011.jpg\" alt=\"The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year.\" class=\"wp-image-279770\"><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/New_York_Gay_Pride_2011.jpg\" alt=\"The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year.\" class=\"wp-image-279770\"><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/New_York_Gay_Pride_2011.jpg\" alt=\"The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year.\" class=\"wp-image-279770\"><\/figure>\n\t"}],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t","innerContent":["\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center\">\n\t\t\t\t","\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"],"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/New_York_Gay_Pride_2011.jpg\" alt=\"The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year.\" class=\"wp-image-279770\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"},{"blockName":"core\/column","attrs":{"verticalAlignment":"center","width":"","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"none","id":279771,"blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall-Gay-liberation.jpg","alt":"A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969.","caption":null,"lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall-Gay-liberation.jpg\" alt=\"A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279771\"><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall-Gay-liberation.jpg\" alt=\"A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279771\"><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall-Gay-liberation.jpg\" alt=\"A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279771\"><\/figure>\n\t"}],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t","innerContent":["\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center\">\n\t\t\t\t","\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"],"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall-Gay-liberation.jpg\" alt=\"A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279771\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-center media-cluster\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-center media-cluster\">\n\t\t\t\t","\n\t\t\t\t\t","\n\t\t<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-center media-cluster is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/New_York_Gay_Pride_2011.jpg\" alt=\"The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year.\" class=\"wp-image-279770\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall-Gay-liberation.jpg\" alt=\"A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279771\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"tagName":"figcaption","className":"wp-element-caption","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"align":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"className":"wp-element-caption--caption","align":"","content":"The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year. A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969. Jackie Hormone, among the first to fight the police at Stonewall, is on the right.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year. A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969. Jackie Hormone, among the first to fight the police at Stonewall, is on the right.<\/p>","innerContent":["<p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year. A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969. Jackie Hormone, among the first to fight the police at Stonewall, is on the right.<\/p>"],"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year. A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969. Jackie Hormone, among the first to fight the police at Stonewall, is on the right.<\/p>"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"className":"wp-element-caption--credit","align":"","content":"Sasha Kargaltsev\/Creative Commons; photo by Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Sasha Kargaltsev\/Creative Commons; photo by Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library<\/p>","innerContent":["<p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Sasha Kargaltsev\/Creative Commons; photo by Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library<\/p>"],"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Sasha Kargaltsev\/Creative Commons; photo by Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library<\/p>"}],"innerHTML":"<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption\"><\/figcaption>","innerContent":["<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption\">","<\/figcaption>"],"rendered":"<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year. A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969. Jackie Hormone, among the first to fight the police at Stonewall, is on the right.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Sasha Kargaltsev\/Creative Commons; photo by Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library<\/p><\/figcaption>"}],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide\">\n<\/figure>","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide\">","\n","<\/figure>"],"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-center media-cluster is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/New_York_Gay_Pride_2011.jpg\" alt=\"The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year.\" class=\"wp-image-279770\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall-Gay-liberation.jpg\" alt=\"A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279771\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year. A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969. Jackie Hormone, among the first to fight the police at Stonewall, is on the right.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Sasha Kargaltsev\/Creative Commons; photo by Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stonewall\u2019s legacy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hammonds wasn\u2019t at Stonewall either, but the image looms large in her mind thanks in part to the actions of those eager to keep its spirit alive. During the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations in 1969, a young activist called for nationwide demonstrations each June in honor of Stonewall.\u00a0New York\u2019s first pride parade, named the Christopher Street Liberation Day, was held in June of 1970,\u00a0just a year after the riots.\u00a0The march began on Christopher Street where the\u00a0bar\u00a0\u2014 now a historic landmark \u2014\u00a0was\u00a0located, and it ended in Central Park. The event attracted thousands and signaled another important milestone. In the years that followed more cities and towns organized parades in support of gay rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe marches were among the first highly visible public events for people to express their gay sexuality and for allies to have an opportunity to support the gay people in their lives,\u201d said Hammonds, who was a graduate student in Boston in 1976 when she attended the city\u2019s Pride parade and first heard of Stonewall. \u201cThe marches also became vehicles for political expression as well, which you could see by the signs that people held up, which made the marches political moments as well as scenes of gay pride. Even local politicians recognized this and slowly, over time, more politicians would join the marches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One march in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1987 left another lasting impact on Hammonds. The event coincided with the first showing of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a massive patchwork blanket adorned with the names of those who had died. The colorful fabric covered an area on the National Mall larger than a football field and contained 1,920 panels \u201cthat captured the beautiful range and diversity of the gay experience with a kind of poignancy and sadness, but also affirmation of gay life that I had never seen before,\u201d said Hammonds.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stonewall\u2019s legacy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hammonds wasn\u2019t at Stonewall either, but the image looms large in her mind thanks in part to the actions of those eager to keep its spirit alive. During the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations in 1969, a young activist called for nationwide demonstrations each June in honor of Stonewall.\u00a0New York\u2019s first pride parade, named the Christopher Street Liberation Day, was held in June of 1970,\u00a0just a year after the riots.\u00a0The march began on Christopher Street where the\u00a0bar\u00a0\u2014 now a historic landmark \u2014\u00a0was\u00a0located, and it ended in Central Park. The event attracted thousands and signaled another important milestone. In the years that followed more cities and towns organized parades in support of gay rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe marches were among the first highly visible public events for people to express their gay sexuality and for allies to have an opportunity to support the gay people in their lives,\u201d said Hammonds, who was a graduate student in Boston in 1976 when she attended the city\u2019s Pride parade and first heard of Stonewall. \u201cThe marches also became vehicles for political expression as well, which you could see by the signs that people held up, which made the marches political moments as well as scenes of gay pride. Even local politicians recognized this and slowly, over time, more politicians would join the marches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One march in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1987 left another lasting impact on Hammonds. The event coincided with the first showing of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a massive patchwork blanket adorned with the names of those who had died. The colorful fabric covered an area on the National Mall larger than a football field and contained 1,920 panels \u201cthat captured the beautiful range and diversity of the gay experience with a kind of poignancy and sadness, but also affirmation of gay life that I had never seen before,\u201d said Hammonds.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stonewall\u2019s legacy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hammonds wasn\u2019t at Stonewall either, but the image looms large in her mind thanks in part to the actions of those eager to keep its spirit alive. During the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations in 1969, a young activist called for nationwide demonstrations each June in honor of Stonewall.\u00a0New York\u2019s first pride parade, named the Christopher Street Liberation Day, was held in June of 1970,\u00a0just a year after the riots.\u00a0The march began on Christopher Street where the\u00a0bar\u00a0\u2014 now a historic landmark \u2014\u00a0was\u00a0located, and it ended in Central Park. The event attracted thousands and signaled another important milestone. In the years that followed more cities and towns organized parades in support of gay rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe marches were among the first highly visible public events for people to express their gay sexuality and for allies to have an opportunity to support the gay people in their lives,\u201d said Hammonds, who was a graduate student in Boston in 1976 when she attended the city\u2019s Pride parade and first heard of Stonewall. \u201cThe marches also became vehicles for political expression as well, which you could see by the signs that people held up, which made the marches political moments as well as scenes of gay pride. Even local politicians recognized this and slowly, over time, more politicians would join the marches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One march in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1987 left another lasting impact on Hammonds. The event coincided with the first showing of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a massive patchwork blanket adorned with the names of those who had died. The colorful fabric covered an area on the National Mall larger than a football field and contained 1,920 panels \u201cthat captured the beautiful range and diversity of the gay experience with a kind of poignancy and sadness, but also affirmation of gay life that I had never seen before,\u201d said Hammonds.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"wide","id":279765,"caption":"The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display at the Washington Monument. The massive patchwork blanket was adorned with the names of those who had died. \n","creditText":"Credit: National Institutes of Health","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Aids_Quilt_2500.jpg","alt":"he AIDS quilt in front of the Washington Monument","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Aids_Quilt_2500.jpg\" alt=\"he AIDS quilt in front of the Washington Monument\" class=\"wp-image-279765\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display at the Washington Monument. The massive patchwork blanket was adorned with the names of those who had died.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Aids_Quilt_2500.jpg\" alt=\"he AIDS quilt in front of the Washington Monument\" class=\"wp-image-279765\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display at the Washington Monument. The massive patchwork blanket was adorned with the names of those who had died.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Aids_Quilt_2500.jpg\" alt=\"he AIDS quilt in front of the Washington Monument\" class=\"wp-image-279765\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display at the Washington Monument. The massive patchwork blanket was adorned with the names of those who had died.\t\t\t<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Credit: National Institutes of Health<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>The epidemic raised the visibility of the gay community further as more and more people were forced to come out to family and friends, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen young men began to get sick, a lot of them had to return to the places where they grew up, because some didn\u2019t have anybody to take care of them in the cities where many gay people had congregated,\u201d said Hammonds. \u201cThey returned to the small towns, or smaller cities and places where many people in their lives didn\u2019t know that they were gay \u2026 of course, not everyone was welcomed home with open arms, but ironically one of the consequences of the epidemic was that more Americans became aware of gay people in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hammonds said she has been shocked at the rapid pace of change she has witnessed over the last 40 years, from attending her first Gay Pride parade to watching the faces of Pride marchers get younger and increasingly diverse to getting married and starting a family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got married the first night you could,\u201d said Hammonds, who arrived at Cambridge City Hall on May 17, 2004, with her partner just after midnight so they could be among the first in the country to be granted a same-sex marriage license. (Cambridge was the first municipality in the country to issue the licenses.) \u201cIt was the most amazing thing to come out of the front door of City Hall and see Massachusetts Avenue just filled with people singing and yelling with joy that gay marriage was now legal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, Hammonds sees difficult times ahead and anticipates \u201cvery serious attempts at retrenchment.\"<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere appears to be a growing\u00a0backlash from people who feel that expanding gay rights and rights for transgender people means that heterosexuals have lost something they can never regain. But fortunately the younger generation sees the world differently now. Many have grown up in a world where there is more equality, more acceptance of sexual and gender difference, and they value it, and they are comfortable with it. So those of us who are older have to do whatever we can to support them in holding onto those rights we marched for a long time ago and that we continue to fight for.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>The epidemic raised the visibility of the gay community further as more and more people were forced to come out to family and friends, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen young men began to get sick, a lot of them had to return to the places where they grew up, because some didn\u2019t have anybody to take care of them in the cities where many gay people had congregated,\u201d said Hammonds. \u201cThey returned to the small towns, or smaller cities and places where many people in their lives didn\u2019t know that they were gay \u2026 of course, not everyone was welcomed home with open arms, but ironically one of the consequences of the epidemic was that more Americans became aware of gay people in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hammonds said she has been shocked at the rapid pace of change she has witnessed over the last 40 years, from attending her first Gay Pride parade to watching the faces of Pride marchers get younger and increasingly diverse to getting married and starting a family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got married the first night you could,\u201d said Hammonds, who arrived at Cambridge City Hall on May 17, 2004, with her partner just after midnight so they could be among the first in the country to be granted a same-sex marriage license. (Cambridge was the first municipality in the country to issue the licenses.) \u201cIt was the most amazing thing to come out of the front door of City Hall and see Massachusetts Avenue just filled with people singing and yelling with joy that gay marriage was now legal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, Hammonds sees difficult times ahead and anticipates \u201cvery serious attempts at retrenchment.\"<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere appears to be a growing\u00a0backlash from people who feel that expanding gay rights and rights for transgender people means that heterosexuals have lost something they can never regain. But fortunately the younger generation sees the world differently now. Many have grown up in a world where there is more equality, more acceptance of sexual and gender difference, and they value it, and they are comfortable with it. So those of us who are older have to do whatever we can to support them in holding onto those rights we marched for a long time ago and that we continue to fight for.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>The epidemic raised the visibility of the gay community further as more and more people were forced to come out to family and friends, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen young men began to get sick, a lot of them had to return to the places where they grew up, because some didn\u2019t have anybody to take care of them in the cities where many gay people had congregated,\u201d said Hammonds. \u201cThey returned to the small towns, or smaller cities and places where many people in their lives didn\u2019t know that they were gay \u2026 of course, not everyone was welcomed home with open arms, but ironically one of the consequences of the epidemic was that more Americans became aware of gay people in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hammonds said she has been shocked at the rapid pace of change she has witnessed over the last 40 years, from attending her first Gay Pride parade to watching the faces of Pride marchers get younger and increasingly diverse to getting married and starting a family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got married the first night you could,\u201d said Hammonds, who arrived at Cambridge City Hall on May 17, 2004, with her partner just after midnight so they could be among the first in the country to be granted a same-sex marriage license. (Cambridge was the first municipality in the country to issue the licenses.) \u201cIt was the most amazing thing to come out of the front door of City Hall and see Massachusetts Avenue just filled with people singing and yelling with joy that gay marriage was now legal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, Hammonds sees difficult times ahead and anticipates \u201cvery serious attempts at retrenchment.\"<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere appears to be a growing\u00a0backlash from people who feel that expanding gay rights and rights for transgender people means that heterosexuals have lost something they can never regain. But fortunately the younger generation sees the world differently now. Many have grown up in a world where there is more equality, more acceptance of sexual and gender difference, and they value it, and they are comfortable with it. So those of us who are older have to do whatever we can to support them in holding onto those rights we marched for a long time ago and that we continue to fight for.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"tagName":"figure","align":"wide","className":"wp-block-table","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/columns","attrs":{"verticalAlignment":"center","isStackedOnMobile":true,"templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"align":"","className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/column","attrs":{"verticalAlignment":"center","width":"","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"none","id":279772,"blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/10_Stonewall-Inn_Raid_lg.jpg","alt":"The \"raided premises\" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn.","caption":null,"lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/10_Stonewall-Inn_Raid_lg.jpg\" alt=\"The "raided premises" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn.\" class=\"wp-image-279772\"><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/10_Stonewall-Inn_Raid_lg.jpg\" alt=\"The "raided premises" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn.\" class=\"wp-image-279772\"><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/10_Stonewall-Inn_Raid_lg.jpg\" alt=\"The "raided premises" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn.\" class=\"wp-image-279772\"><\/figure>\n\t"}],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t","innerContent":["\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center\">\n\t\t\t\t","\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"],"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/10_Stonewall-Inn_Raid_lg.jpg\" alt=\"The "raided premises" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn.\" class=\"wp-image-279772\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"},{"blockName":"core\/column","attrs":{"verticalAlignment":"center","width":"","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"none","id":279769,"blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg","alt":"The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 2011","caption":null,"lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 2011\" class=\"wp-image-279769\"><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 2011\" class=\"wp-image-279769\"><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 2011\" class=\"wp-image-279769\"><\/figure>\n\t"}],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t","innerContent":["\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center\">\n\t\t\t\t","\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"],"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 2011\" class=\"wp-image-279769\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-center media-cluster\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-center media-cluster\">\n\t\t\t\t","\n\t\t\t\t\t","\n\t\t<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-center media-cluster is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/10_Stonewall-Inn_Raid_lg.jpg\" alt=\"The "raided premises" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn.\" class=\"wp-image-279772\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 2011\" class=\"wp-image-279769\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"tagName":"figcaption","className":"wp-element-caption","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"align":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"className":"wp-element-caption--caption","align":"","content":"The \"raided premises\" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn. Stonewall in 2011, during a pride march.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The \"raided premises\" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn. Stonewall in 2011, during a pride march.<\/p>","innerContent":["<p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The \"raided premises\" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn. Stonewall in 2011, during a pride march.<\/p>"],"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The \"raided premises\" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn. Stonewall in 2011, during a pride march.<\/p>"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"className":"wp-element-caption--credit","align":"","content":"Credit: Wikimedia Commons; Rhododendrites\/Creative Commons","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Credit: Wikimedia Commons; Rhododendrites\/Creative Commons<\/p>","innerContent":["<p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Credit: Wikimedia Commons; Rhododendrites\/Creative Commons<\/p>"],"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Credit: Wikimedia Commons; Rhododendrites\/Creative Commons<\/p>"}],"innerHTML":"<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption\"><\/figcaption>","innerContent":["<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption\">","<\/figcaption>"],"rendered":"<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The \"raided premises\" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn. Stonewall in 2011, during a pride march.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Credit: Wikimedia Commons; Rhododendrites\/Creative Commons<\/p><\/figcaption>"}],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide\">\n<\/figure>","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide\">","\n","<\/figure>"],"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-center media-cluster is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/10_Stonewall-Inn_Raid_lg.jpg\" alt=\"The "raided premises" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn.\" class=\"wp-image-279772\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 2011\" class=\"wp-image-279769\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The \"raided premises\" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn. Stonewall in 2011, during a pride march.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Credit: Wikimedia Commons; Rhododendrites\/Creative Commons<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>McCarthy\u2019s concern about the future echoes the struggles the Mattachine Society and the Gay Liberation Front grappled with years ago. He wonders how best to work within the system while still being considered radical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMuch of what we have seen in policy in the modern era is an impulse to assimilation \u2014 we can get married, serve in military, be just like you. There\u2019s been a real push to become part of these mainstream institutions, part of the system of laws and politics in the country. But the most important questions are these: Who does this leave out and what kinds of bargains have to be made to prove that we are just like straight people?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With his students, he says he has \u201carrived at a fairly broad consensus that we need a both\/and politics. We need a politics that is at once pragmatic <em>and<\/em> radical. We need different kinds of change agents, working in different locations with different tactics, to achieve these larger aspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bronski is both hopeful and worried about the transgender rights movement that he likens to Stonewall in terms of the excitement and change it has helped inspire. \u201cThere is this enormous cultural change around the intersections of gender and sexuality and gender and identity and gender and, to a large degree, class and economics and money,\u201d said Bronski. \u201cBut it\u2019s also getting the most blowback from the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bronski said he could envision an effort by conservative groups to repeal the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled the Constitution protects same-sex marriage, but added that the potential outcome of such an attempt is less clear. \u201cYou do actually have hundreds of thousands of people probably who are now married. So if you repealed the law do you repeal their marriage? Do you grandfather them in? It gets complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like Hammonds and McCarthy, Bronski, whose latest book is titled<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beacon.org\/A-Queer-History-of-the-United-States-for-Young-People-P1488.aspx\"> \u201cA Queer History of the United States for Young People,\u201d<\/a> also sees hope in the nation\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday my gay students are incredible, and they have been for 10 years. They are more progressive and radical and on the edge than most people I know,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s totally changed.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>McCarthy\u2019s concern about the future echoes the struggles the Mattachine Society and the Gay Liberation Front grappled with years ago. He wonders how best to work within the system while still being considered radical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMuch of what we have seen in policy in the modern era is an impulse to assimilation \u2014 we can get married, serve in military, be just like you. There\u2019s been a real push to become part of these mainstream institutions, part of the system of laws and politics in the country. But the most important questions are these: Who does this leave out and what kinds of bargains have to be made to prove that we are just like straight people?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With his students, he says he has \u201carrived at a fairly broad consensus that we need a both\/and politics. We need a politics that is at once pragmatic <em>and<\/em> radical. We need different kinds of change agents, working in different locations with different tactics, to achieve these larger aspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bronski is both hopeful and worried about the transgender rights movement that he likens to Stonewall in terms of the excitement and change it has helped inspire. \u201cThere is this enormous cultural change around the intersections of gender and sexuality and gender and identity and gender and, to a large degree, class and economics and money,\u201d said Bronski. \u201cBut it\u2019s also getting the most blowback from the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bronski said he could envision an effort by conservative groups to repeal the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled the Constitution protects same-sex marriage, but added that the potential outcome of such an attempt is less clear. \u201cYou do actually have hundreds of thousands of people probably who are now married. So if you repealed the law do you repeal their marriage? Do you grandfather them in? It gets complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like Hammonds and McCarthy, Bronski, whose latest book is titled<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beacon.org\/A-Queer-History-of-the-United-States-for-Young-People-P1488.aspx\"> \u201cA Queer History of the United States for Young People,\u201d<\/a> also sees hope in the nation\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday my gay students are incredible, and they have been for 10 years. They are more progressive and radical and on the edge than most people I know,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s totally changed.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>McCarthy\u2019s concern about the future echoes the struggles the Mattachine Society and the Gay Liberation Front grappled with years ago. He wonders how best to work within the system while still being considered radical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMuch of what we have seen in policy in the modern era is an impulse to assimilation \u2014 we can get married, serve in military, be just like you. There\u2019s been a real push to become part of these mainstream institutions, part of the system of laws and politics in the country. But the most important questions are these: Who does this leave out and what kinds of bargains have to be made to prove that we are just like straight people?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With his students, he says he has \u201carrived at a fairly broad consensus that we need a both\/and politics. We need a politics that is at once pragmatic <em>and<\/em> radical. We need different kinds of change agents, working in different locations with different tactics, to achieve these larger aspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bronski is both hopeful and worried about the transgender rights movement that he likens to Stonewall in terms of the excitement and change it has helped inspire. \u201cThere is this enormous cultural change around the intersections of gender and sexuality and gender and identity and gender and, to a large degree, class and economics and money,\u201d said Bronski. \u201cBut it\u2019s also getting the most blowback from the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bronski said he could envision an effort by conservative groups to repeal the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled the Constitution protects same-sex marriage, but added that the potential outcome of such an attempt is less clear. \u201cYou do actually have hundreds of thousands of people probably who are now married. So if you repealed the law do you repeal their marriage? Do you grandfather them in? It gets complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like Hammonds and McCarthy, Bronski, whose latest book is titled<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beacon.org\/A-Queer-History-of-the-United-States-for-Young-People-P1488.aspx\"> \u201cA Queer History of the United States for Young People,\u201d<\/a> also sees hope in the nation\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday my gay students are incredible, and they have been for 10 years. They are more progressive and radical and on the edge than most people I know,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s totally changed.\u201d<\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\r\n","\r\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\r\n","\r\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-12dd3699 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p class=\"add-drop-cap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wgs.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/michael-bronski\">Michael Bronski<\/a> wasn\u2019t at Stonewall and doesn\u2019t mind admitting it, unlike many members of the gay and lesbian community of a certain age who, he says, insist they were. The joke is that if everyone who claims they took part in the famous 1969 uprising in lower Manhattan that catalyzed America\u2019s gay-rights movement actually had been there, the crowd, Bronski says with a laugh, \u201cwould have filled Yankee Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In truth, the crowd that day numbered about 200, at least at first. And they weren\u2019t protesters but mostly patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a popular Greenwich Village gay bar. The trouble started when the police arrived in the wee hours of June 28 to raid the Mafia-run tavern on a trumped-up liquor-license charge. Officers started pushing customers and workers into police vehicles. But instead of dispersing as they had during past routine raids, those who hadn\u2019t been grabbed began cheering those who had. The crowd of onlookers swelled as tourists and neighborhood residents stopped to investigate. Then, according to multiple accounts, a lesbian who was fighting attempts to haul her into a squad car cried out, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you guys do something!\u201d The air grew thick with chants \u2014 along with bottles and bricks. The officers barricaded themselves in the bar and radioed for back-up as a riot flared. More violent demonstrations shook the neighborhood in the following days.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Bronski, a Harvard professor of the practice in media and activism in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, understands why so many claim to have been present at such a pivotal moment in the history of the gay rights movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt really is like the shot heard around the world, or the hairpin drop heard round the world,\u201d he said, a cheeky parody coined in Stonewall\u2019s aftermath of the stanza from \u201cConcord Hymn.\u201d There had been previous riots in the U.S. involving gays and lesbians fed up with routine harassment, but Stonewall, erupting when it did amid protests over the Vietnam War and civil rights and gender equality, marked a decisive break from the more passive sexual-orientation politics of the day, said Bronski, who has written extensively on LGBTQ culture and history.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_2500.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279767\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">On the window of the Stonewall Inn, "We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village \u2014 Mattachine\u201c Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>\u201cIt was really like direct action. It was like the radical feminists invading the Miss America contest, or the Black Panthers standing in front of Oakland City Hall with rifles,\u201d he said, and it ran completely counter to the approach of groups such as the Mattachine Society, one of the nation\u2019s earliest gay-rights organizations, that preferred to press for change through legal and political channels. Not long after the Stonewall raid, a message appeared on the boarded-up window of the bar, pleading for the return of \u201cpeaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the village.\u201d It was signed \u201cMattachine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s so amazing is that they would never have thought of doing anything public like that before,\u201d said Bronski. \u201cSo literally overnight, Mattachine is forced into making a public announcement with essentially graffiti.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Bronski, Stonewall represented a \u201cshocking change of consciousness for the world.\u201d And in its wake rose the Gay Liberation Front, a more radical version of the Mattachine Society unafraid to use confrontation to push reform.<\/p>\n<p>But there were other organizations helping drive change. Harvard\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/histsci.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/evelynn-hammonds\">Evelynn Hammonds<\/a>, chair of the <a href=\"https:\/\/histsci.fas.harvard.edu\/\">Department of the History of Science<\/a>, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, and professor of African and African American Studies, said that in the years after Stonewall the story of greater visibility for gay people in America was often seen through the lens of gay men. That perspective, she said, overlooks a key connection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time of what we now call the Stonewall Rebellion, what was also happening was the second wave of the women\u2019s movement. And while there were lots of tensions in some women\u2019s organizations between lesbians and straight women, there was also a great deal of unity, and people were coming together around a shared desire for greater equality for women and gay people,\u201d said Hammonds.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A look at the history<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Though their methods may not have been as radical, early so-called homophile organizations \u2014 including the Mattachine Society, Janus Society, and Daughters of Bilitis \u2014 set the stage for what followed, says <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\/people\/timothy-patrick-mccarthy\">Timothy Patrick McCarthy<\/a>, a lecturer in public policy and core faculty at the <a href=\"https:\/\/carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu\/\">Carr Center for Human Rights Policy<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hks.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard Kennedy School<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe foundation for the movement that emerges in fuller form in the wake of Stonewall was laid in the decades before in public and private battles, in different organizations, and through the work of many people,\u201d said McCarthy, whose book, \u201cStonewall\u2019s Children: Living Queer History in an Age of Liberation, Loss, and Love,\u201d will be published by The New Press next year.<\/p>\n<p>Many such groups materialized during World War II and the post-war era in response to the military\u2019s anti-homosexual policies and the paranoid frenzy of the Red Scare. McCarthy points to the \u201cLavender Scare,\u201d a fear campaign that paralleled Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy\u2019s investigations into what he considered widespread subversive forces at work in the federal government in the 1950s. While simultaneously trying to expose suspected communists, the Wisconsin senator also targeted suspected homosexuals, arguing that \u201cdeviant sexual behavior, like deviant political ideology, were things that made people more vulnerable to blackmailing,\u201d said the Harvard scholar, who recently edited a special issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/admin-taxonomy\/reclaiming-stonewall\/\">The Nation<\/a> examining Stonewall\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n<p>McCarthy\u2019s tactics initially garnered widespread support. President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued an executive order in 1953 banning homosexuals from working for the federal government, citing security risk. Thousands lost their jobs because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. Among them was the man many have called the \u201cFather of the Gay Rights Movement,\u201d Frank Kameny, who received his master\u2019s and doctorate degrees in astronomy from Harvard in 1949 and 1956, respectively. After the Army Map Service fired him as an astronomer in 1957, Kameny unsuccessfully sued the federal government and later devoted his life to fighting for gay rights. Among his many achievements, Kameny, who died at the age of 86 in 2011, was known for founding the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., picketing the White House, contesting the American Psychiatric Association\u2019s categorization of homosexuality as a mental defect, and coining the term \u201cGay is good.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-center media-cluster is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/New_York_Gay_Pride_2011.jpg\" alt=\"The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year.\" class=\"wp-image-279770\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall-Gay-liberation.jpg\" alt=\"A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969.\" class=\"wp-image-279771\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The 2011 New York City Pride March honored the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York that year. A Gay Liberation Front march in Times Square in the fall of 1969. Jackie Hormone, among the first to fight the police at Stonewall, is on the right.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Sasha Kargaltsev\/Creative Commons; photo by Diana Davies \u00a9 New York Public Library<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stonewall\u2019s legacy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hammonds wasn\u2019t at Stonewall either, but the image looms large in her mind thanks in part to the actions of those eager to keep its spirit alive. During the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations in 1969, a young activist called for nationwide demonstrations each June in honor of Stonewall.\u00a0New York\u2019s first pride parade, named the Christopher Street Liberation Day, was held in June of 1970,\u00a0just a year after the riots.\u00a0The march began on Christopher Street where the\u00a0bar\u00a0\u2014 now a historic landmark \u2014\u00a0was\u00a0located, and it ended in Central Park. The event attracted thousands and signaled another important milestone. In the years that followed more cities and towns organized parades in support of gay rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe marches were among the first highly visible public events for people to express their gay sexuality and for allies to have an opportunity to support the gay people in their lives,\u201d said Hammonds, who was a graduate student in Boston in 1976 when she attended the city\u2019s Pride parade and first heard of Stonewall. \u201cThe marches also became vehicles for political expression as well, which you could see by the signs that people held up, which made the marches political moments as well as scenes of gay pride. Even local politicians recognized this and slowly, over time, more politicians would join the marches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One march in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1987 left another lasting impact on Hammonds. The event coincided with the first showing of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a massive patchwork blanket adorned with the names of those who had died. The colorful fabric covered an area on the National Mall larger than a football field and contained 1,920 panels \u201cthat captured the beautiful range and diversity of the gay experience with a kind of poignancy and sadness, but also affirmation of gay life that I had never seen before,\u201d said Hammonds.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Aids_Quilt_2500.jpg\" alt=\"he AIDS quilt in front of the Washington Monument\" class=\"wp-image-279765\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display at the Washington Monument. The massive patchwork blanket was adorned with the names of those who had died.\t\t\t<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Credit: National Institutes of Health<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n<p>The epidemic raised the visibility of the gay community further as more and more people were forced to come out to family and friends, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen young men began to get sick, a lot of them had to return to the places where they grew up, because some didn\u2019t have anybody to take care of them in the cities where many gay people had congregated,\u201d said Hammonds. \u201cThey returned to the small towns, or smaller cities and places where many people in their lives didn\u2019t know that they were gay \u2026 of course, not everyone was welcomed home with open arms, but ironically one of the consequences of the epidemic was that more Americans became aware of gay people in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hammonds said she has been shocked at the rapid pace of change she has witnessed over the last 40 years, from attending her first Gay Pride parade to watching the faces of Pride marchers get younger and increasingly diverse to getting married and starting a family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got married the first night you could,\u201d said Hammonds, who arrived at Cambridge City Hall on May 17, 2004, with her partner just after midnight so they could be among the first in the country to be granted a same-sex marriage license. (Cambridge was the first municipality in the country to issue the licenses.) \u201cIt was the most amazing thing to come out of the front door of City Hall and see Massachusetts Avenue just filled with people singing and yelling with joy that gay marriage was now legal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, Hammonds sees difficult times ahead and anticipates \u201cvery serious attempts at retrenchment.\"<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere appears to be a growing\u00a0backlash from people who feel that expanding gay rights and rights for transgender people means that heterosexuals have lost something they can never regain. But fortunately the younger generation sees the world differently now. Many have grown up in a world where there is more equality, more acceptance of sexual and gender difference, and they value it, and they are comfortable with it. So those of us who are older have to do whatever we can to support them in holding onto those rights we marched for a long time ago and that we continue to fight for.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-center media-cluster is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/10_Stonewall-Inn_Raid_lg.jpg\" alt=\"The "raided premises" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn.\" class=\"wp-image-279772\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Stonewall_Inn_5_pride_weekend_2016.jpg\" alt=\"The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 2011\" class=\"wp-image-279769\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">The \"raided premises\" sign just inside the door at the Stonewall Inn. Stonewall in 2011, during a pride march.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Credit: Wikimedia Commons; Rhododendrites\/Creative Commons<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\n<p>McCarthy\u2019s concern about the future echoes the struggles the Mattachine Society and the Gay Liberation Front grappled with years ago. He wonders how best to work within the system while still being considered radical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMuch of what we have seen in policy in the modern era is an impulse to assimilation \u2014 we can get married, serve in military, be just like you. There\u2019s been a real push to become part of these mainstream institutions, part of the system of laws and politics in the country. But the most important questions are these: Who does this leave out and what kinds of bargains have to be made to prove that we are just like straight people?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With his students, he says he has \u201carrived at a fairly broad consensus that we need a both\/and politics. We need a politics that is at once pragmatic <em>and<\/em> radical. We need different kinds of change agents, working in different locations with different tactics, to achieve these larger aspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bronski is both hopeful and worried about the transgender rights movement that he likens to Stonewall in terms of the excitement and change it has helped inspire. \u201cThere is this enormous cultural change around the intersections of gender and sexuality and gender and identity and gender and, to a large degree, class and economics and money,\u201d said Bronski. \u201cBut it\u2019s also getting the most blowback from the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bronski said he could envision an effort by conservative groups to repeal the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled the Constitution protects same-sex marriage, but added that the potential outcome of such an attempt is less clear. \u201cYou do actually have hundreds of thousands of people probably who are now married. So if you repealed the law do you repeal their marriage? Do you grandfather them in? It gets complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like Hammonds and McCarthy, Bronski, whose latest book is titled<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beacon.org\/A-Queer-History-of-the-United-States-for-Young-People-P1488.aspx\"> \u201cA Queer History of the United States for Young People,\u201d<\/a> also sees hope in the nation\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday my gay students are incredible, and they have been for 10 years. They are more progressive and radical and on the edge than most people I know,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s totally changed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":207500,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2005\/09\/harvard-to-host-lbgt-film-series\/","url_meta":{"origin":279763,"position":0},"title":"Harvard to host LBGT film series","author":"gazetteimport","date":"September 22, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"This fall, Harvard will host its first Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender (LBGT) Film Series. This inaugural event seeks to examine and celebrate representations of lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender life and culture in cinema during the four decades since the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion in New York Citys Greenwich Village\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69468,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2001\/11\/hammers-film-premieres-at-brattle\/","url_meta":{"origin":279763,"position":1},"title":"Hammer’s film premieres at Brattle","author":"gazetteimport","date":"November 15, 2001","format":false,"excerpt":"Two films produced and directed by independent filmmaker Barbara Hammer, a 2001-02 fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will be shown at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square Nov. 16 - 18. The film series, which will mark the Boston premiere of History Lessons, is co-sponsored by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":411048,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2025\/06\/from-joyous-to-erotically-engaged-to-white-hot-angry\/","url_meta":{"origin":279763,"position":2},"title":"From \u2018joyous\u2019 to \u2018erotically engaged\u2019 to \u2018white-hot angry\u2019","author":"Eileen O'Grady","date":"June 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephanie Burt\u2019s new anthology rounds up 51 works by queer and trans poets spanning generations","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Stephanie Burt.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/082724_Advice_Stephanie_Burt_0165-1920.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/082724_Advice_Stephanie_Burt_0165-1920.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/082724_Advice_Stephanie_Burt_0165-1920.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/082724_Advice_Stephanie_Burt_0165-1920.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":171872,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/06\/one-for-the-ages\/","url_meta":{"origin":279763,"position":3},"title":"\u2018One for the ages\u2019","author":"harvardgazette","date":"June 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding gay marriage nationally is \u201cone for the ages,\u201d a Harvard legal analyst said, a judgment echoed by others.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/supremecourt605istock_.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/supremecourt605istock_.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/supremecourt605istock_.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":181732,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/04\/president-and-vice-chair-of-harvard-overseers-named\/","url_meta":{"origin":279763,"position":4},"title":"President and vice chair of Harvard Overseers named","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Kenji Yoshino \u201991, the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law, has been elected president of Harvard\u2019s Board of Overseers for the academic year 2016-17. Nicole Parent Haughey \u201993 has been elected vice chair of the Overseers executive committee for 2016-17.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/overseers_diptyck_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/overseers_diptyck_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/overseers_diptyck_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":285545,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/09\/two-receive-roslyn-abramson-award-for-excellence-in-teaching-undergrads\/","url_meta":{"origin":279763,"position":5},"title":"Two receive Roslyn Abramson Award","author":"harvardgazette","date":"September 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Ya-Chieh Hsu and Durba Mitra receive Roslyn Abramson Award for excellence in teaching undergraduates.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Harvard professors Ya-Chieh Hsu and Durba Mitra","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Abramson_Winners_2019_DIPTYCH_2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Abramson_Winners_2019_DIPTYCH_2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Abramson_Winners_2019_DIPTYCH_2500.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Abramson_Winners_2019_DIPTYCH_2500.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279763"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331368,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279763\/revisions\/331368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279763"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=279763"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=279763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}