Stonewall!

Today is the 37th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the 1969 event that marked a major turning point in the gay and lesbian civil rights movement. A year later, the first pride march was held in New York, and pride events quickly spread to other cities.

When I came out in 1987, one of my first forays into the community was attending a weekly coming out group at Stanford. I remember one of the other newly out men complaining that too often the media chose to portray drag queens and other out-of-the-mainstream gays and lesbians whenever they covered gay issues. My response: it was those drag queens, those "freaks" that he spoke of, who were the first to stand up to police harassment and fight back. For the millions of gays and lesbians around the world who now enjoy the freedom to be out and proud, it's important to remember that we stand on the sequined shoulders of those at Stonewall... the gay men, lesbians, and transgendered people who had had enough that night 37 years ago.