A group of teens and 20-somethings were recently asked what they knew about Stonewall. The answers ranged from it having been a battle in either the Revolutionary War or the Civil War to it being a band from the ‘70s.
One person guessed that it had something to do with gay rights.
Sadly, even an adult who was asked seemed a little murky on the true significance of the Stonewall Riots.
Emergency [ih-mur-juhn-see]: A sudden, urgent, usually unexpected occurrence or occasion requiring immediate action; a state, especially of need for help or relief, created by some unexpected event.
An emergency is 30 million Americans without healthcare.
An emergency is the more than 1 million people in the United States living with HIV. And many are dying of AIDS right here because of a lack of resources and the scant availability to some populations of preventative and life-saving drugs.
In the last several weeks, LGBTQ people and issues have been spotlighted in many veins. Very often negatively as with the Trump Administration’s ban on transgender personnel in the military and the U.S. Supreme Court’s failure to immediately put a stop to it.
These last few weeks are not particularly special. But, even just in this week’s issue of PGN, articles and columns tell stories of all types of LGBTQ people being out, being proud and doing amazing things.
News came out last week that a record number of pro-LGBTQ bills were introduced in 2018, and that the prospects of many more states passing similar legislation in 2019 seems likely.
At a time when the LGBTQ community is under attack from many sides, we must remember this is not a new story. History must NOT be allowed to repeat itself in any way when it comes to entire groups of people being persecuted.
