Ann Bausum’s book, Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights, covers the events of the Stonewall Riots and other important topics brought up by gay rights. The book goes through events going a bit farther back than 1969, when Stonewall occurred, until 2013 in modern times. Bausum recounts the events leading up to the Stonewall Riots, the riots themselves, what it was like to be gay at the time, the aids epidemic, and where we are now in modern day with gay rights. Besides the events occurring at each of these times, Bausum goes through different accounts from people who actually witnessed and lived through the events. The Stonewall Riots, named after a gay bar in New York, was an event in which the bar was raided by police for the umpteenth, but this time the patrons fought back and rioted. This event on the summer of June 1969 would end up pushing the Gay Rights Movement to new heights, as presented in the book. The book, Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights, was written for young people wanting to learn about the history of gay writes, because no one else was giving out this information. Bausum wasn’t planning on writing this book until a stranger pleaded for her to write a book about the history of gay rights. She wasn’t sure if she would actually write it but then she finally felt compelled to write it after hearing about the death of a gay college student named Tyler Clementi who was close to her own children’s age. This book clearly supports the viewpoint if supporting gay rights, progressing it forward, and acknowledging the struggles that gay people went through and go through still today. Bausum writes many other books on social justice issues, like women’s suffrage and the civil rights movements, because she wants people to learn about these very important issues
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It was a very informational read, but also very entertaining and thought provoking. As a huge activist for social issues, this book was a perfect read for me. I really like learning about the history of gay rights because that really isn’t something we get to learn about in school, and I think it’s a very important part of history just like any other equality movement. On page four and five, it says, “Meanwhile, the medical community condemned homosexuals as mentally ill. To overcome thoughts and behaviors judged to be deviant, doctors advised intensive talk therapy, even electroshock treatment.” It’s pretty terrifying to think that not to long ago things like that were happening to people because of the way they were born. Although that has changed drastically today, a lot of the things from the past are not lost. People can still lose their jobs for being gay or they can even be disowned by their families. It’s important to note the differences between the past and present but it’s also important to see what has stayed the same. Bausum’s thesis for the book Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights, was you have to actually fight for what you believe in if you want things to change and without the fighting that the people of stonewall did, there would not have been such a progression in the fight for gay rights. Stonewall led to the beginning of changes for
It was a very informational read, but also very entertaining and thought provoking. As a huge activist for social issues, this book was a perfect read for me. I really like learning about the history of gay rights because that really isn’t something we get to learn about in school, and I think it’s a very important part of history just like any other equality movement. On page four and five, it says, “Meanwhile, the medical community condemned homosexuals as mentally ill. To overcome thoughts and behaviors judged to be deviant, doctors advised intensive talk therapy, even electroshock treatment.” It’s pretty terrifying to think that not to long ago things like that were happening to people because of the way they were born. Although that has changed drastically today, a lot of the things from the past are not lost. People can still lose their jobs for being gay or they can even be disowned by their families. It’s important to note the differences between the past and present but it’s also important to see what has stayed the same. Bausum’s thesis for the book Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights, was you have to actually fight for what you believe in if you want things to change and without the fighting that the people of stonewall did, there would not have been such a progression in the fight for gay rights. Stonewall led to the beginning of changes for