Category: Thing of the Day

On 28 June 1969, police raided a gay club in Greenwich Village, New York. Not an unsurprising event – it was still illegal for men to dance together in a nightclub, let alone have consensual sexual relationships, and “masquerading” as the opposite sex, for example, as a drag queen, was also a crime. A club such as Stonewall, which was attended mostly by Black and Latinx men and drag queens, was somewhere the police expected to close down without incident. Instead, the anger of the racially and sexually oppressed erupted into a riot, in turn spawning further riots and protests across the city. The riots focused national attention on the social injustice faced by homosexuals in America and sparked the conversation about tolerance and equality that has seen so much change until today.

What’s in a name? Often, a name focuses the mind and tells us what is important to a movement.

Until the nineteenth century, there was no word for being gay. Once the feelings people had for one another could be described separately from the physical act of making love, progress started to come slowly. At least for gay men. History has shown us that even within a community, and within a movement, different groups are privileged far above others.

Trans people have doubtless existed for all of human history, and the surgical advances needed for people to transition came about in the mid-twentieth century, so it might seem strange to some that trans people are still feared and vilified today. Yet, trans lives are threatened on a daily basis by rising levels of violence and hostility and failing healthcare.