Stonewall Breaking Out In The Fight For Gay Rights

"A dramatic retelling of the Stonewall riots of 1969, introducing teen readers to the decades-long struggle for gay rights"--

That’s the Stonewall. The Stonewall Inn. Pay attention. History walks through that door. In 1969 being gay in the United States was a criminal offense. It meant living a closeted life or surviving on the fringes of society. People went to jail, lost jobs, and were disowned by their families for being gay. Most doctors considered homosexuality a mental illness. There were few safe havens. The Stonewall Inn, a Mafia-run, filthy, overpriced bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village, was one of them. Police raids on gay bars happened regularly in this era. But one hot June night, when cops pounded on the door of the Stonewall, almost nothing went as planned. Tensions were high. The crowd refused to go away. Anger and frustration boiled over. The raid became a riot. The riot became a catalyst. The catalyst triggered an explosive demand for gay rights. Ann Bausum’s riveting exploration of the Stonewall Riots and the national Gay Rights movement that followed is eye-opening, unflinching, and inspiring.

The definitive account of the Stonewall Riots, the first gay rights march, and the LGBTQ activists at the center of the movement. “Martin Duberman is a national treasure.”—Masha Gessen, The New Yorker On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, was raided by police. But instead of responding with the typical compliance the NYPD expected, patrons and a growing crowd decided to fight back. The five days of rioting that ensued changed forever the face of gay and lesbian life. In Stonewall, renowned historian and activist Martin Duberman tells the full story of this pivotal moment in history. With riveting narrative skill, he re-creates those revolutionary, sweltering nights in vivid detail through the lives of six people who were drawn into the struggle for LGBTQ rights. Their stories combine to form an unforgettable portrait of the repression that led up to the riots, which culminates when they triumphantly participate in the first gay rights march of 1970, the roots of today's pride marches. Fifty years after the riots, Stonewall remains a rare work that evokes with a human touch an event in history that still profoundly affects life today.

For the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, an anthology chronicling the tumultuous fight for LGBTQ rights in the 1960s and the activists who spearheaded it, with a foreword by Edmund White. Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction, presented by The Publishing Triangle Tor.com, Best Books of 2019 (So Far) Harper’s Bazaar, The 20 Best LGBTQ Books of 2019 The Advocate, The Best Queer(ish) Non-Fiction Tomes We Read in 2019 June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which is considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement, and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library's archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots. Most importantly the anthology spotlights both iconic activists who were pivotal in the movement, such as Sylvia Rivera, co-founder of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), as well as forgotten figures like Ernestine Eckstein, one of the few out, African American, lesbian activists in the 1960s. The anthology focuses on the events of 1969, the five years before, and the five years after. Jason Baumann, the NYPL coordinator of humanities and LGBTQ collections, has edited and introduced the volume to coincide with the NYPL exhibition he has curated on the Stonewall uprising and gay liberation movement of 1969.

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the riots by protesters and police *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "The Stonewall riots were a key moment for gay people. Throughout modern history, gays had thought of themselves as something like a mental illness or maybe a sin or a crime. Gay liberation allowed us to make the leap to being a 'minority group, ' which made life much easier." - Edmund White In 1969, America was still undergoing plenty of social turmoil, much of it the result of sweeping changes made via the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, which helped spark the counterculture. Protests were prominent across the country, and one of the movements galvanized during this time was on behalf of the LGBT community, who were often subjected to discrimination in all facets of life. However, LGBT rights were naturally on the backburner for most Americans at the time, and it's safe to say few considered them until hearing about the Stonewall riots that took place at the end of June 1969 in New York City. Given the discrimination, gay people tried to meet in secret gay bars, and it was common for police to try to bust up such gatherings, but on the night of June 28, the patrons at the Stonewall Inn had enough. As the police tried to line everybody in the bar up and identify them, the crowd hanging around the place began to swell, and tensions began to rise as there were increasing calls to challenge the propriety of the police action. As people sang "We Shall Overcome" and there were chants of "Gay Power," a scuffle eventually broke out, and the police resorted to anti-riot tactics to break up the crowd, injuring an untold number with bats and other objects. The next day, there were further riots, and in the coming days, as news of what happened spread, a gay rights movement began to sprout, consisting of more peaceful protest and pickets. Eventually, the Stonewall riots became a rallying cry across the country for gay rights, and gay rights groups popped up in every state. There would be gay pride marches on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots to commemorate the event, and gay rights entered the mainstream and truly became part of the national debate. As historian Lillian Faderman put it, "The Stonewall Rebellion was crucial because it sounded the rally for that movement. It became an emblem of gay and lesbian power. By calling on the dramatic tactic of violent protest that was being used by other oppressed groups, the events at the Stonewall implied that homosexuals had as much reason to be disaffected as they." The Stonewall Riots: The History and Legacy of the Protests that Helped Spark the Modern Gay Rights Movement chronicles the fateful chain of events that brought about the raid and the uprising that many consider the first step in the fight for gay rights. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Stonewall riots like never before, in no time at all.

Celebrate Pride every day with the very first picture book to tell of its historic and inspiring role in the gay civil rights movement, from the author of the acclaimed Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag. A powerful and timeless true story that will allow young readers to discover the rich and dynamic history of the Stonewall Inn and its role in the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement--a movement that continues to this very day. In the early-morning hours of June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn was raided by police in New York City. Though the inn had been raided before, that night would be different. It would be the night when empowered members of the LGBTQ+ community--in and around the Stonewall Inn--began to protest and demand their equal rights as citizens of the United States. Movingly narrated by the Stonewall Inn itself, and featuring stirring and dynamic illustrations, Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution is an essential and empowering civil rights story that every child deserves to hear.

Traces the history of the gay rights movement in America, from the Stonewall riots to the legal and societal status of gay rights at the turn of the century.

The Stonewall Riots discusses how in 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people stood up for their rights against a society that criminalized their natural feelings, launching a movement whose legacy continues to this day. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.