Fifty years after iconic protests, threats to LGBT community remain.
Fifty years after iconic protests in New York, threats to the LGBT community remain.
In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender patrons at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village fought back against police harassment, leading to skirmishes and vigils that lasted six days.
The spontaneous uprising catalyzed the gay rights movement, paving the way for many of the strides made by the LGBT community over the past 50 years.
The watershed moment was commemorated during this year’s Houston Pride Parade and Festival on Saturday, where the theme was Summer of ‘69, a nod to a year of seismic cultural shifts. That’s only fitting.
We should all celebrate how far this country has come since Stonewall. In those days, being gay was a crime in every state except Illinois. In California, the punishment for sex between men ranged from shock therapy to castration. In New York City, police could arrest someone for wearing “fewer than three articles of clothing appropriate to their sex” generally seen as a way to target gender-nonconforming people.
In the half-century since, we have seen the repeal of anti-gay laws, landmark Supreme Court decisions decriminalizing gay sex and legalizing same-sex marriage, and greater societal acceptance of LGBT people. A gay man is running for president, and the 2018 midterms ushered in a “rainbow wave” -- with more openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people elected than in any previous election.
The swiftness of the changes may have caught some people by surprise, but dismantling barriers for LGBT people has benefited us all. After all, they are an integral part of our community. They are PTA parents and business owners, family members and fellow churchgoers.
Amid the festivities, though, we must be mindful that the anniversary comes at a perilous time. Since Donald Trump took office, his administration has systematically chipped away at protections for LGBT people.
The Department of Health and Human Services last month announced the expansion of the “conscience rule,” which many fear will allow health care providers to refuse to treat LGBT people on religious grounds. There are reportedly plans to lift an Obama administration policy that forbids federally funded adoption and foster care agencies from discriminating against samesex couples.
The Trump administration has sought to bar transgender people from serving in the military and reversed the Obama-era guidance requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that fits their gender identity. The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it plans rule changes that would let homeless shelters reject transgender people.
Another HHS proposal would roll back a rule that defined discrimination “on the basis of sex” to include gender identity.
The slew of policies targeting transgender people only serves to push an already vulnerable population, which suffers from high rates of violence and suicide, deeper into the margins. In the past few months, there have been several brutal attacks against black trans women across the country, including Houston, Dallas and Washington D.C..
Overall, about 63 percent of LGBT Americans say they have experienced discrimination in daily life. Of those, almost half say they were discriminated against in the workplace, 14 percent in housing and 8 percent in the education system.
That makes events like this year’s Pride Houston even more important—and more poignant.
Four trans women activists of color — Atlantis Narcisse, Dee Dee Watters, Ana Andrea Molina and Monica Roberts — are serving as honorary grand marshals, a tribute to the women at the front lines of Stonewall: Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Storme DeLarverie.
“I just want to live my life without fear,” said Judge Shannon Baldwin, this year’s female-identifying grand marshal, who was not yet born when Stonewall erupted. “I want to be able to — if no more than for one day, for one parade — walk down the street and hold my partner’s hand without fear.”
“As I look at where we are now, versus where we began, we’ve made light years in terms of advancement,” said Baldwin, who as the first out lesbian African-American judge i n Harris County is evidence of that journey forward. “But we are still so far behind where we should be.”
Indeed, much work still needs to be done. We must all stand up against those who harass or discriminate against someone because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
But that is not enough. We also need strong legal protections for LGBT people. Twenty-nine states, including Texas, do not have laws that prohibit discrimination in the workplace, housing and public accommodations on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity.
One way to rectify that is through the Equality Act, which would fill in that gap.
The bill passed 236-173 in the Democratic-controlled House and has the support of the majority of Americans. The protections offered by the Equality Act are basic civil rights, due to every human being. The right to be free from discrimination. The right to live a life without fear of persecution.
“We, the people,” Barack Obama noted in his second inaugural speech, “declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal — is the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall.”
On this golden anniversary of Stonewall, it’s time to live up to those ideals and pass the Equality Act.