How significant were the Stonewall Riots in improving the rights of the LGBT community?

By Michael Fung Description: Within our context, we live in a time of great social change, one being the perceptions and rights of the LGBT community, both domestically and internationally. The Stonewall Riots is thought to be the starting point for the gay liberation movement, and battle for gay and lesbian rights in our modern age. Taking place in 1969, the Stonewall Riots took place alongside the African American Civil Rights Movement, and antiwar demonstrations against Vietnam. What resulted were violent protest and heightened tension between police and the gay community. But how significant were the Stonewall riots to improving the rights of the LGBT community as it stands today? Many argue that the Stonewall riots, regardless of the unification it brought, of homosexual and transgendered individuals, was not necessarily beneficial to their cause, as historian Martin Duberman describes the decades preceding Stonewall continue to be regarded by most gays and lesbians as some vast Neolithic wasteland. However, as it occurred in a period where social norms were challenged, the stonewall riots are often compared by the acts of Rosa Park refusing to give her seat to a Caucasian man. As written by historian Nicholas Edsall, a more contemporary analogy is with Rosa Parks which sparked the modern civil rights movement after Stonewall radical gay liberation groups and newsletters sprang up across America and all of Northern Europe. The international scale in response to the riots provide an insight of the significance it has had on LGBT rights. Yet there are still factors that are debated, such as the implication of the Stonewall riots within the LGBT community as a whole, or exclusive to the more commonly scrutinised gay and lesbian people. It also becomes a question of the value of even starting the riots, thus why was it started in the first place? Inquiry Questions: What is the LGBT community, and what was their social justifications which initiated the riots? Were the riots necessary to evoke change in social attitude? What was the treatment of gay and lesbian individuals prior to the riots which caused such an outbreak to begin with? Were there previous developments in terms of LGBT rights which forced the riots to happen? Furthermore, were their reasons justifiable, or were they a spontaneous development following on from other prominent human right movements such as the Civil Rights movement, or the antiwar movements in response to Vietnam? Was the LGBT community represented in the Stonewall riots? Originally representing purely gay and lesbian individuals, the Stonewall riots took place prior to the representation of the LGBT community was defined. Because of this, was the LGBT community, as we know of it as today, represented during the Stonewall riots? Or, parallel to society against the gay community, was there further division even within the LGBT community, excluding bisexuals, transgendered, drag-queens, or other sexually discriminated people. What was the result of the Stonewall riots? Did the Stonewall riots create further division in society, or result in a wider acceptance of people different sexual orientations?

How significant were the Stonewall Riots in improving the rights of the LGBT community? Therefore, in consideration of these factors, Methodology: My intentions, in terms of methodology, is to gather as much information regarding the Stonewall riots, through mediums such as articles, essays, and books, to formulate my own conclusion, whilst in consideration with differing opinions regarding the significance of the riots on LGBT rights.

Preliminary Research: Primarily, most preliminary research was done through researching on the web. A general outline of the topic was provided through websites such as Wikipedia. Primary resources provided by pbs.org which provide news articles published shortly after the incident. Other databases such as Jstor, and the UNSW Library, have provided both historic opinion and historical information regarding the Stonewall Riots, which I have been able to collate several books, and articles relating to this topic. Such resources include: Armstrong, Elizabeth A., Crage, Suzanna M. Movement and Memory: The Making of the Stonewall Myth American Sociological Review. October 2006 <http://www.personal.umich.edu/~elarmstr/publications/Movements%20and%20Memory%20Arms trong%20and%20Crage.pdf> Lisker, Jerry. Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees are Stinging Mad The New York Daily News. July 6, 1969 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/stonewall-queenbees/> Interest and Feasibility: In discussion with several other people, the Stonewall Riots remains a relatively unknown topic, which is interesting. The topic is rather feasible, having numerous articles discussing the occurrences and aftermath of the riots. Resources: Articles: Movement and Memory: the Making of the Stonewall Myth by Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Suzanna M. Crage Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees are Stinging Mad, published by the New York Daily News, by Jerry Lisker Books: Stonewall by David Carter

Stonewall by Martin Dubermann Toward Stonewall: Homosexuality and Society in the Modern Wester WorldToward Stonewall: Homosexuality and Society in the Modern Wester World by Nicholas Edsall Other: Workforce Diversity: The Stonewall Inn, National Historic Landmark by Kathleen LaFrank