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I’m thinking about Minneapolis today, and, by extension, the Stonewall Uprising.
(Btw, this thread will NOT equate the struggle LGBTQ civil rights with the struggle for African-American civil rights. There are similarities, but it’s the differences that interest me today.)
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(Btw, this thread will NOT equate the struggle LGBTQ civil rights with the struggle for African-American civil rights. There are similarities, but it’s the differences that interest me today.)
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On June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn. This happened regularly, about once a month.
During raids, patrons were lined up by police. Anyone without ID, or men who looked too “queeny,” or women not wearing enough “feminine” clothing, would be arrested.
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During raids, patrons were lined up by police. Anyone without ID, or men who looked too “queeny,” or women not wearing enough “feminine” clothing, would be arrested.
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The patrons of the Stonewall were assembling peaceably in one of the few gay bars in New York.
That was their crime.
(Yes. Shady things went on there, but I’ve lived in NYC. Shady things go on everywhere. The Stonewall was targeted because it was a gay space.)
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That was their crime.
(Yes. Shady things went on there, but I’ve lived in NYC. Shady things go on everywhere. The Stonewall was targeted because it was a gay space.)
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But on June 29, things went differently. Drag queens and trans women refused to be dragged to the bathroom to have their gender inspected. Patrons began chanting “Gay Power!” and singing “We Shall Overcome.”
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When a butch lesbian complained she’d been cuffed too tightly, she was hit over the head with a police baton. She called out, “Why don’t you guys do something?” as she was thrown into a police vehicle.
So they did. The crowd erupted.
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So they did. The crowd erupted.
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The details of the uprising itself aren’t super-important here, but for the next few hours, hundreds of civilians gathered and resisted. They overturned cop cars and slashed the tires. They shouted insults. They threw rocks and liquor bottles.
And it worked.
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And it worked.
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The Stonewall Uprising is often considered the beginning of the American gay civil rights movement. 46 years later, almost to the day, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage* was legal.
That’s less than one lifetime, y’all.
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That’s less than one lifetime, y’all.
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*Same-sex marriage is not the be-all and end-all of LGBTQ civil rights, but it is important. Patrons of the Stonewall could be arrested for dancing. Today, they can marry.
Oh, and so it gets said: same-sex marriage is not about co-opting a straight institution…
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Oh, and so it gets said: same-sex marriage is not about co-opting a straight institution…
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During the AIDS crisis, men who’d been with their partners for decades were denied hospital visits. Parents who’d disowned their children could legally forbid their found families from saying good-bye to them.
“Roommates” and “friends” have no legal rights. Spouses do.
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“Roommates” and “friends” have no legal rights. Spouses do.
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The point is, in 1969, there was a riot. People were not civil and polite. They were angry, disrespectful, and violent. 46 years later, they’d been granted civil rights that would have been unimaginable at the time.
One last point about Stonewall:
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One last point about Stonewall:
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It’s been whitewashed. Yes, there was a diverse crowd that night, including cis white men.
But a Black trans woman (Marsha P. Johnson) broke the windshield of a cop car. A Latinx trans woman (Sylvia Rivera) was one of the first to throw a bottle.
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But a Black trans woman (Marsha P. Johnson) broke the windshield of a cop car. A Latinx trans woman (Sylvia Rivera) was one of the first to throw a bottle.
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But this was a cause white people—including cis white men with economic and social privilege—could get behind. All LGBTQ people suffered oppression, and there were lawyers and bankers and bureaucrats who felt PERSONAL investment in Johnson’s and Rivera’s cause.
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And maybe that’s why LGBTQ civil rights have come so far so quickly.
People with power cared.
And over time, powerful straight people realized that their children and siblings and neighbors were among those with a personal investment.
They got on board. Slowly. Sometimes.
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People with power cared.
And over time, powerful straight people realized that their children and siblings and neighbors were among those with a personal investment.
They got on board. Slowly. Sometimes.
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And maybe that’s why African-American civil rights have progressed so slowly.
Powerful people seldom have Black children. Powerful people seldom have Black neighbors. They don’t eat or worship with Black people. Too often, they aren’t educated alongside Black people.
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Powerful people seldom have Black children. Powerful people seldom have Black neighbors. They don’t eat or worship with Black people. Too often, they aren’t educated alongside Black people.
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(I didn’t forget the word “white.” I left it out deliberately. Most powerful people are white.)
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Anyway, they see no reason to take Black civil rights personally. So they don’t.
They may like Black people fine. But they don’t understand why they just don’t get an education, or stop mouthing off to cops.
They don’t listen to Black people.
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They may like Black people fine. But they don’t understand why they just don’t get an education, or stop mouthing off to cops.
They don’t listen to Black people.
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I hate riots. I hate violence. I am, as they say, “soft.”
(Lucky me. My whiteness allows that.)
I wish Minneapolis were unburned.
But I am a direct beneficiary of the Stonewall uprising.
I get it.
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(Lucky me. My whiteness allows that.)
I wish Minneapolis were unburned.
But I am a direct beneficiary of the Stonewall uprising.
I get it.
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White people, we have to start taking Black lives seriously. Personally.
We have to imagine it’s our 12-year-old son who was shot in a public playground for playing with a toy gun.
Or our sister who was shot eight times in a narcotics raid in which no drugs were found.
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We have to imagine it’s our 12-year-old son who was shot in a public playground for playing with a toy gun.
Or our sister who was shot eight times in a narcotics raid in which no drugs were found.
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Imagine yourself lying on asphalt while a man kneels on your throat for four minutes, ignoring your pleas that you can’t breathe.
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We cannot take rioting personally while considering police violence against Black bodies academically. That’s shitty. It’s inhumane. It’s inhuman.
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I hate riots. I love peace.
But we can’t condemn riots after also condemning peacefully kneeling, or peacefully blocking streets. We can’t dismiss the thousands of Black people who have spoken out about their lived experience.
They’ve tried to get our attention.
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But we can’t condemn riots after also condemning peacefully kneeling, or peacefully blocking streets. We can’t dismiss the thousands of Black people who have spoken out about their lived experience.
They’ve tried to get our attention.
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White people, people with power, need to take racism personally.
Powerful people need to recognize #BlackLivesMatter
as much as our own.
Powerful people need to realize Black grief and fear and rage feels like our own.
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Powerful people need to recognize #BlackLivesMatter
as much as our own.Powerful people need to realize Black grief and fear and rage feels like our own.
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And powerful people need to empower Black people. We need to listen to Black voices, care about Black students, hire and promote Black employees, and vote for Black candidates.
We need to allow Black people into our spaces and (respectfully) request entry into theirs.
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We need to allow Black people into our spaces and (respectfully) request entry into theirs.
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We need to trust them when they tell us their American experience doesn’t feel like ours.
We need to understand their skepticism of the American dream is fair and earned.
And we need to share power with them.
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We need to understand their skepticism of the American dream is fair and earned.
And we need to share power with them.
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“I’m not racist,” isn’t enough.
“I have Black friends,” isn’t enough.
“I voted for Obama,” isn’t enough.
TAKE BLACK VOICES SERIOUSLY.
TAKE VIOLENCE AGAINST BLACK BODIES SERIOUSLY.
Because #BlackLivesMatter.
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“I have Black friends,” isn’t enough.
“I voted for Obama,” isn’t enough.
TAKE BLACK VOICES SERIOUSLY.
TAKE VIOLENCE AGAINST BLACK BODIES SERIOUSLY.
Because #BlackLivesMatter
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