Stonewall - 40 Years After

[MarieDelta]

Well folks as June comes to an end its almost time to cellebrate the 40 year anniversarry of The Stonewall Riots(aka "Stonewall Rebelion".)

What has changed?

Homosexuality is no longer considered an offense against the law. In fact in many states it is protected (in the US.)

Sodomy laws have been repealed.

transvestism isnt considered a crime, in most jurisdictions.

You can no longer be fired for being homosexual in many places, or thrown out of your house.

http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_real_stonewall_legacy

[12voltman59]

Marie--for some reason--the link worked--but I only got a banner at the top of the page---but no story---

What you said is right though--things are better for anyone who is not purely straight these days compared to the past and much progress has been attained----and I think its only a matter of time until even more progress is made on this front.

We do sometimes tend to forget that and need to be reminded such is the case---and to also not take that progress for granted---many people did pay a high price for the way things are now---across the board from civil rights for minorities of all sorts, treatment of women, to "GLBT" rights--while there are many things from the past we can lament their passing and wished they had not changed---in the bargain of losing those things---we have thankfully advanced in other ways that make life now much better for many.

Thanks Marie

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Whoo Hoo Stonewall! Long may you stand and grow!
Cat

[Bi-Zarro]

I'll be marching in NYC on Sunday. Hope to see some of you. :flag3:

[Doggiestyle]

WOW Bi-Zarro, say you will be in the stonewall / parade huh? COOL. This weekend is when they have (or it seems like used to have) the Gay Pride Week in Atlanta. Last year they moved the Pride week to the July 4th weekend, and it was held at the Atlanta Civic Center instead of the usual, Piedmont Park. This year they have it planned for Halloween weekend, (bad move I think). Last year, attendance wasn't half of what it was in 2007. If I remember correctly, they said it was about 300,000 that attended! 2008 was a flop, they moved the festival from Piedmont Park to the Atl Civic Center, changed the date to the July 4th weekend, and like I said that attendance wise it was a flop. I don't really know why it flopped but last year was the high gas & travel prices. Also the festival was moved to a less sutiable place, and moved to a major holiday weekend. I guess that all these reasons is what killed the Pride Festival last year. This year may be even worse, but that remains to be seen. I still plain to attend this years event anyway as I have attended ever year since 96. Seems like I read somewhere that the first Atlanta Gay Pride / Stonewall Remberance event was held in 1971, on a sunday afternoon, in the form of a march, attended by a estimated 125 people.

The reason that they canceled & moved the Atlanta Gay Pride out of Piedmont Park last year was because Atlanta (& the rest of the south) was in a severe drought. Their water supply was almost dried up and the Atlanta City Fathers were afraid that such a large crowd would trample & kill the grass in the park. Atlanta did cancel all it's events that were scheduled for the park last year. This year is different cause the south had a lot of rain this winter & spring and Piedmont Park is the green-est that I have ever seen it.

Even though the Pride Festival is scheduled for the Halloween weekend. There is a rumor going around in Atl that all the Gay folks are planning to just show up at the park this weekend. And if most of the gay folks in Atl. do show up then it will be a big crowd. And so the un-scheduled stonewall / gay pride festival will be on and this weekend, I am going Saturday and Sunday to see how big a crowd does show up.

One thing that puzzles me is that this year they moved the Gay Pride Event back to the park, but in the fall of the year, which is usually the driest time of the year in the south. My question is that if the Atlanta city Fathers are so worried about their grass, why did they move the festival to the driest time of the year? Doesn't make any sense to me. If anyone from this site shows up, look for me. I should be easy to find as I will all un-dressed up in shorts and pink.

Your friend, Doggie.......:doggie:.........:bipride:

[MissyMissy]

things have changed a lot but still pray for people in areas who are still tortured for being thmesleves. i have seen a few from my area driven away because of harassment and threats and it is recent. slowly it is changing here but it can be still scary at times.
missymissy

[littlerayofsunshine]

I found a small pictorial. I have never heard about it before this post. But it was real interesting to learn about it


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31572548/ns/news-picture_stories/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1&beginChapter=1&beginTab=1