Let this anniversary of Stonewall riots be a new starting point
Can we manage to come together as we approach the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots? Can we put aside our diff erences and hostilities and recognise our eff orts as a community and move towards a more equal society? Can we learn to forgive each other for mistakes and learn from each other, educate ourselves and understand how even we, the oppressed, can be prejudiced?
Prior to Stonewall, our mixed- up, disparate, rejected tribe was beaten, abused and killed. In the years since, the beatings, abuse and killings haven’t stopped. Sometimes there was less violence, sometimes my tribe suff ered more than yours. Trauma suff ered by those before us leaves scars on today’s communities, shaped by struggle. The survivors sometimes aren’t ready to give up their new security.
It’s taken 50 years to get to where we are today, where we don’t have to hide. It seems absurd that we once had to cower behind blacked- out windows. Those who were there barely remember it happened at all.
It’s taken 50 years for us to have advanced conversations where we accept gender is less about what’s between your legs and more about what’s inside your head. Not everyone can keep up, so isn’t it time to show patience? Isn’t it time for those who have suff ered to put aside egos and stand beside those who are now fi nding their voice and the strength to say “no more.” Isn’t it time to think about what community really is? What it means to be linked to strangers based on whom we choose to have sex with, or love, and how we have been rejected by a heteronormative binary.
Is it now time to give thanks that we couldn’t have done it on our own? That the riots in June 1969 were the result of the many voices and fi sts of those who suff ered: trans and cis- gendered people, of all races, who had had enough of the abuse. It wasn’t just about the people in that bar at that moment but about the people all across the world who started to say to their families, “Mum, dad, I’m gay.” Or: “I’m lesbian,” or “I’ve been born in the wrong body. I don’t know how I feel but it’s not like you.”
People who then walked down the street tall and proud, sometimes more courageous than others, often just brave enough to simply stay alive.
Now is the time to give thanks to the heroes who came before us, to our community who stand alongside us and not resent diff erences but celebrate them — not resent each other but learn from those who trod the road before and those who blaze the trail ahead because this isn’t one person’s or one group’s story. It’s all of ours.
But it’s not just all of ours — it is ours, ours alone.
It’s a history that belongs to us and it’s a brutal, powerful, inspiring, terrifying, joyous, silly and profound story that we are still part of every day.
It cannot be taken away from us and should never be forgotten.
“The riots weren’t just about the people in that bar at that moment”