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| Socialist
Party USA: Statements |
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Statement on the 40th Anniversary of the
Stonewall Rebellion
Queer Commission of
the Socialist Party of the U.S.A
Written by Queer Commission Convener Amber R. Clifford-Napoleone
Remember Stonewall?
Do we even know what
Stonewall meant?
The Stonewall Inn, a gay and lesbian neighborhood bar with a large
number of African American and Latino patrons, was also well-known as a
safe space for those who did not conform to gender norms: butch
lesbians, effeminate gay men, and transsexual and transgendered persons
before the terms were in popular use. All of these factors brought the
police to Stonewall in 1969 for the purpose of illegally raiding the
bar, and arresting its occupants -- an action not unknown in New York
in the 1960s. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the New York
City police raided The Stonewall Inn. On that fateful day, however, the
Stonewall’s patrons had enough. Nobody knows who threw the first bottle
that day. It may have been Sylvia Rivera, a transgendered activist and
later a founding mother of political movements on behalf of
transgendered and transsexual Americans. It may have been a still
unidentified butch lesbian arrested in the bar. Over 2000 GLBTQ
Americans clashed with 400 police officers on June 28. Arrests and
beatings were concentrated among Stonewall’s African American, Latino,
butch and trans patrons. What ensued was known in the New York press
and among the police as the Stonewall riots. For gay, lesbian,
bisexual, transgendered, transsexual and queer Americans, and later the
world, that fateful day marked the beginning of the Stonewall
Rebellion. With shouts of “Gay Power,” the rebellion that lasted five
days in New York began to spread across the country. Gay, lesbian,
trans and other queer Americans took to the streets to protest their
continued oppression, objectification, and criminalization. This
singular event, the Stonewall Rebellion, marked the beginning of the
modern GLBTQ liberation movement, and brought GLBTQ political and
social struggles out of the closets on onto American streets. Using
this date as the flashpoint, cities across America and around the world
continue to celebrate the last week of June as Pride Weekend, a weekend
where we remember the Rebellion, organize to continue the fight for
queer liberation, and celebrate our culture, community, families and
history.
Stonewall never meant fundraising at black-tie galas. It never
meant focusing on marriage as the sole agenda. It always meant,
it still means, freedom and pride. The fight for marriage is just
one piece of a worldwide fight about
rights. In American states GLBTQ people can still be fired,
evicted, violated, attacked, and murdered for being anything
except a heterosexual. There are 1,100 federal and state rights
that are guaranteed only to “legally
married” couples in America in 2009. Among these are
rights to government and veteran’s pensions, judicial rights, and the
right to be considered one’s next-of-kin in an emergency. Hate
crimes against GLBTQ individuals are up 6% from 2008 already, with only
half of the year behind us. Americans serving in the military are
denied these 1,100 rights, and must remain silent for fear of being
harmed and discharged under the repressive “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
doctrine. Everyday GLBTQ Americans are attacked, harassed, and
forced to live in fear, but Americans are not the only ones. In
Brazil, a GLBTQ person is killed every two days. In Iraq,
homosexuality is still legally punishable by death.
Stonewall was about refusing to submit to fear, tyranny, and
violence. Stonewall was, and is, about a community that
repudiated the very idea that being GLBTQ made you anything less than
human. On this 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion,
remember that.
Remember Stonewall.
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