Homosexuals In America

Great Essays
America was founded on powerful words written in documents. This country would have to face turmoil within itself, to make those words come true. The declaration of independence, states that all men are created equal and endowed by three key principles which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. During the time, in which the founding fathers declared this, America found itself trying to escape from religious and government pressures in Great Britain. Unfortunately, America has gone down its own history of oppression, starting with the persecution of Native Americans, slavery, women, and what has gone unnoticed for some time, homosexuality. Those who pushed for the advancement of gay/lesbian rights were both successful and unsuccessful …show more content…
Homosexuals were jailed for displaying affection, they were seen as epidemics that would ruin children’s lives. But, what most Americans failed to realize is that they were doing more harm (conservatives/ anti-proponents). One night, would be start of change. According to Lucian Truscott IV, the author of, Gay Power Comes To Sheridan Square, “The forces of faggotry, spurred by a Friday night raid on one of the city 's largest, most popular, and longest lived gay bars, the Stonewall Inn, rallied Saturday night in an unprecedented protest against the raid and continued Sunday night to assert presence, possibility, and pride until the early hours of Monday morning.” I’m a faggot, and I 'm proud of it! ““Gay power!" "I like boys!" -- These and many other slogans were heard all three nights as the show of force by the city 's finery met the force of the city 's finest. The result was a kind of liberation, as the gay brigade emerged from the bars, back rooms, and bedrooms of the Village and became street people (Truscott IV).” The Stonewall uprising was the first step to the LGBT movement. That night June 27, 1969, the tables had finally turned when homosexuals decide to resist arrest. The turning point was when the queen was hit and everyone joined forces outnumbering the officers. It was normal for gay bars to be raided but it wasn’t normal or expected from the police that one day they would be running from the people they victimized. This incident evokes the question, as to why did the police raid the bar? Well, according to Shirley a neighbor to the stonewall bar, "Up until the night of the police raid there was never any trouble there," she said. "The homosexuals minded their own business and never bothered a soul. There were never any fights or hollering, or anything like that. They just wanted to be left alone. I don 't know what they did inside, but that 's their

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