A Look Back at the Uprising that Started a Gay Rights Movement

by Michael Jones · 2009-06-26 07:15:00 UTC
Topics:

Stonewall

Media Matters for America took the MSM to task yesterday for not doing an adequate enough job of covering the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which are set to be commemorated this weekend (and on Monday).  While their criticism was a little warranted up until yesterday, today the Web is exploding with Stonewall coverage (even in Germany!).

One of the best pieces we've seen comes from Democracy Now (hardly a bastion of the MSM, but still influential in their own right).  It's a hybrid interview with David Carter (author of "Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution”), and a rebroadcast of a radio drama called "Remembering Stonewall," which was produced in 1989 to commemorate the 20th anniversary.

One interesting statistic, according to Democracy Now?  At the time of Stonewall there were only 50 to 60 gay groups in the country.  In the immediate aftermath of Stonewall?  Well, one year later there were 1,500 groups.  Two years later, there were 2,500 groups.

Kind of easy to draw some parallels there between Stonewall, and the resurgence of LGBT rights activism in the wake of Proposition 8, eh?

If you've got a half hour today, or over the weekend, or next week even, check out the Democracy Now piece.  It's a great historical lesson, and a piece that gives historical weight to the anniversary we're about to celebrate this weekend.  Video is below.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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